Press TV has conducted an interview with William Beeman, professor at the University of Minnesota, about Iran’s new President Hassan Rohani saying that warmongering lobby groups in the US are blocking constructive talks between Tehran and Washington.
What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Beeman, of course we are speaking here about the future in terms of relations between Iran and the United States. This was an issue that raised a lot during the press conference today by Mr. Hassan Rohani.
Now Mr. Rohani, I am just quoting him, he has said that the US is adopting a dual-track approach towards Iran and he was saying this is because of pressure from lobby groups that are persuading US lawmakers to make decisions that even at times go against American interest.
Now do you see what’s been called the dual-track policy a result of that pressure group?
Beeman: Absolutely. The United States has from the beginning of the Obama administration been on record saying that they want to have peaceful negotiations with Iran to resolve the differences between the two countries. But every single time that the United States appears to becoming closer to reaching some kind of solution with Iran, then interest groups in the United States try to torpedo that effort.
We have seen when from the election of President Rohani who has been assessed as being a moderate in Iran, that Mr. Rohani was under attack from the very first day of his election with actually frankly lies about his past.
People questioned his doctorate degree, they claimed that he was involved in bombings in Argentina, all of which are completely lies. But they were in attempt to try to discredit Mr. Rohani because people who saw the United States might move closer to reaching an agreement with Iran, they did not want that to happen and they wanted to make sure that Mr. Rohani was discredited as an agent.
The fact that Mr. Rohani has steadfastly insisted that Iran is ready and able to negotiate with United States is attributed to his diplomatic skills.
Press TV: But Mr. Beeman, we of course know that the US Congress recently endorsed a new set of sanctions against Iran. Would you see that as a move that’s not favored by President Obama himself and what kind of a message do you think that measure is going to send to Iran?
Beeman: Well of course what is shows is that the United States or at least the United States Congress is still hostile to Iran. But I should point out to you that it was only one house of Congress that approved this measure. This was the House of Representatives which is extremely conservative, much more conservative than the US Senate.
And the Senate will not consider this question of sanctions until after their current August recess, so it will be September before the US Senate even considers this.
So for the time being even though this was voted, it has not been put into effect. And I should point out that many, many representatives in the US House of Representatives opposed these increased sanctions.
For instance foremost was my own House of Representatives member, Keith Ellison from Minnesota and I should point out that Keith Ellison has been one of the more reasonable voices having to do with negotiations with Iran.
Another one is Senator Ron Wyden and so we have people in the US government who are trying to pursue a more reasonable path of negotiations with Iran.
Press TV: But you see Mr. Beeman, sorry for jumping in here, just quickly I want to get this reaction from you as well and that is in the nuclear talks as well we"ve seen this approach by the West basically that’s more like as Mr. Rohani called it a carrot and stick policy, one of diplomacy besides sanctions are talks besides threats.
Why do you think this approach is being used against Iran and do you think this kind of approach is going to pursuit even with the backing of President Obama?
Beeman: Well first of all I should repeat it I have many, many times that there is absolutely no proof anywhere by any intelligence agency or any military organization that Iran actually has a nuclear weapons program.
Nevertheless, the propaganda against Iran has been such that in the United States even President Obama has talked about Iranian nuclear weapons. This is a major falsehood on the part of the American right-wing.
And we have to understand that the internal politics within the United States make it very difficult for even President Obama in the most reasonable circumstances to try to pursue negotiations with Iran, to try to solve these differences in opinion about what Iran is doing.
So on the one hand it"s true that the United States is trying to, the United States executive branch that is President Obama and the State Department, are trying to push for more reasonable talks with Iran and a rapprochement but at the same time the right-wing in United States is still very militant and believes that an attack against Iran or increased sanctions are the only way that Iran is going to somehow capitulate and we don"t expect, President Rohani has said so and I don"t expect either that Iran is going to give up its rights to peaceful use of nuclear energy under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and I frankly don"t think they should.
