{"id":141839,"date":"2019-09-02T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=141839"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:42:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:42:16","slug":"irans-foreign-minister-speaks-at-sipri-and-the-media-dont-get-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/09\/irans-foreign-minister-speaks-at-sipri-and-the-media-dont-get-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Speaks at SIPRI \u2013 And the Media Don\u2019t Get It"},"content":{"rendered":"

27 Aug 2019 – <\/em>On August 21, 2019, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Dr. Javad Zarif<\/a>, gave a speech at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Zarif spoke at length without a manuscript, in details and with references to facts and history of the region and the conflict\u2019s history \u2013 based on a cohesive framework of theories, concepts and interpretation \u2013 which, taken together, places him in a category of his own among the world\u2019s foreign ministers.<\/p>\n

Lecture and discussion at SIPRI – Jan Eliasson to the left, Zarif to the right:<\/strong><\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=E_xEHZQ6Dfg<\/p>\n

The UN Security Council Resolution \u2013 598 of 1987 \u2013 that Zarif refers to can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One should indeed be grateful to SIPRI for having invited him.<\/p>\n

Politically Correct, Tired Routine Coverage by the Leading Swedish Media<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally speaking, leading Swedish mainstream media have been promoting a negative view of Iran as well as Javad Zarif himself. The largest coverage has been about human rights in Iran, Iran as a threat and backer of terrorism, the death penalty, and the protests by a group of exile-Iranians who protested outside SIPRI\u2019s building \u2013 about Iran being pressed economically and Mr. Zarif himself being in a weakened position. And about an Iranian journalist who defected during the delegation\u2019s visit to Stockholm.<\/p>\n

Media have also emphasized that Zarif is conducting a \u201ctour of charming\u201d and is himself a \u201cvery charming\u201d and experienced diplomat \u2013 the subtle implication being that he can\u2019t be trusted.<\/p>\n

The Swedish Television\u2019s point of departure is that he is a man under pressure trying to save the JCPOA<\/em> \u2013 implying that he\/Iran is negotiating from an underdog position \u2013 instead of saying that the US is the only one to have withdrawn from the deal, stepped up suffocating sanctions and that the EU has been unable to mobilize de facto support for the deal and stand up to its commitments \u2013 namely to step up its co-operation with Iran.<\/p>\n

In this short podcast you can also hear the Swedish Radio\u2019s Middle Eastern correspondent, Cecilia Udd\u00e9n<\/a><\/em>, say that Zarif is in Europe to collect support for Iran\u2019s case and that, charming as he is, he even \u201cdoes not at all look like the other aytollahs\u201d\u2026 and that he never wears a tie or a turban\u2026 (!)<\/p>\n

Here is Dagens Nyheter<\/a>, Svenska Dagbladet<\/a> \u2013 both emphasizing in the headlines that he criticized president Trump \u2013 the Swedish Broadcasting (Sveriges Radio)<\/a> \u2013 for readers here who happen to read Swedish.<\/p>\n

None that I have seen have had the intellectual capacity to convey the detailed, elaborated and well-presented points that the foreign minister delivered at SIPRI.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Dr. Javad Zarif<\/p><\/div>\n

None have looked into the wider framework of the conflict between Iran and the US\/West since 1953.<\/p>\n

None have pointed out that the withdrawal from the nuclear deal, JCPOA, by the US is a violation of international law because the deal is embedded in UN Security Council Resolution 2231.<\/p>\n

Neither has it been mentioned that Iran has accepted the most comprehensive and strict inspection regime ever and that numerous reports \u2013 also American \u2013 document that Iran has fulfilled its obligations according to the deal.<\/p>\n

None have questioned whether it is acceptable that the Iranian people \u2013 some 80+ million \u2013 shall suffer the consequences of hard, suffocating sanctions.<\/p>\n

None has taken up that the US applies extraterritorial sanctions on allies \u2013 i.e. that it insist on US laws being applied by others, or they will be punished.<\/p>\n

And of course, none have mentioned that Israel \u2013 as the only country in the Middle East \u2013 is a nuclear weapons power with a comparatively much larger military budget than Iran, is not a member of the NPT (Non-Proliferation treaty) and accepts no inspections on its territory.<\/p>\n

In summary, the media coverage of Mr. Zarif\u2019s visit to Sweden was yet another illustration that free Western media today basically defines their freedom as a freedom to be as ignorant, selective and biased as they please \u2013 and that omission<\/em>, at least as much as fake<\/em>, is a huge problem for media consumers\u2019 chances to understand international affairs.<\/p>\n

The public were certainly not serviced in terms of relevant<\/em>, fair<\/em> and diverse<\/em> information. Instead, other interests \u2013 such as those connected with Western dominating values and governments and, thereby, Sweden\u2019s own pro-US foreign policy orientation \u2013 were.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

TFF Director Prof. Jan Oberg is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 transnational.live<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 21 Aug 2019, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Dr. Javad Zarif, gave a speech at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI. The media coverage of his visit to Sweden was yet another illustration of the \u2018free\u2019 Western media\u2019s freedom to be ignorant, selective and biased \u2013 and that \u2018omission,\u2019 at least as much as \u2018fake,\u2019 is a huge problem for media consumers\u2019 chances to understand international affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":141840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[267,504,742,767,444,1360,450,119,109,380,172,75],"class_list":["post-141839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-geopolitics","tag-international-relations","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-nonviolence","tag-nuclear-energy","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-peace","tag-politics","tag-solutions","tag-west","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275228,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141839\/revisions\/275228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}