Here is the full transcript of the discussion on “Iran urges US to withdraw from Iraq” in The World Today (Thursday, 14 September, 2006)
Reporter: Kim Landers
ELEANOR HALL: Iran and Iraq have wrapped up two days of talks aimed at developing closer ties.
The United States has frequently accused the Iranian regime of interfering in Iraqi politics and of fostering violence by allowing insurgents to cross the border.
But Iran says it’s the presence of US troops in Iraq that’s causing the instability, and there are plenty of voices in America that agree.
As Washington Correspondent Kim Landers reports.
KIM LANDERS: Iran is making it clear to Iraq that it wants to see US troops withdrawn from its neighbour.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has told the visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that the way to end instability in Iraq is for US forces to withdraw.
It’s a message that’s also been relayed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. He’s just returned from a visit to Tehran and says he was told by the leadership there that Iran would help the US leave Iraq.
Asked by reporters what that means, Kofi Annan says he hadn’t gone into details.
It’s not just leaders in the Middle East who accuse the US of causing problems in Iraq.
Former president Jimmy Carter says the presence of American forces is a key cause of the instability.
JIMMY CARTER: I respectfully disagree with what President Bush had to say. I don’t think that the safety of America depends at all on the extended presence of US troops in Iraq.
I think a lot of the disturbance on the streets of Iraq, particularly around Baghdad, is caused by the continued presence of the United States and the lack of a commitment by Washington to remove US troops at any time in the foreseeable future.
KIM LANDERS: White House spokesman Tony Snow has made it clear the US isn’t going to be pushed into a premature withdrawal.
TONY SNOW: You still have people who are determined to have this Iraqi government fail and we’re not going to let it.
KIM LANDERS: And he’s also made it clear the US doesn’t accept Kofi Annan’s message from Middle Eastern leaders that the American invasion and its aftermath have been a “real disaster”.
The rhetorical battle over Iraq shows no signs of waning.
Former US secretary of state in the Clinton administration, Madeleine Albright.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: The war in Iraq is going to go down in our history as the greatest disaster in American foreign policy because of the reverberations that it has in the Middle East.
We have sent the wrong message out of the war in Iraq, which is, if you don’t have nuclear weapons you get invaded. If you do have nuclear weapons, you don’t get invaded.
KIM LANDERS: Zbigniew Brzezinski who was president Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser is adamant the US must withdraw.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Upon our departure, the Iraqis invite all of their neighbours to a conference on stabilising Iraq.
And every single one of Iraq’s neighbours plus other Muslim countries, such as Pakistan, and Morocco, have a stake in stability in Iraq.
But they’ll not go to such a conference long as America’s occupying Iraq.
KIM LANDERS: And he says the US must accept that Iraq will try to strike up its own relations with neighbours like Iran.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Note where the government of Iraq at the highest level is today. It’s in Teheran visiting and negotiating with its Iranian neighbours.
That reality we have to accept, and as we’re prepared to occupy Iraq or much of the Middle East as the conflict expands for many years to come, and essentially assume the role of the colonial powers that left the region only a few decades ago.
KIM LANDERS: In the latest sign of the increasing cooperation Iran and Iraq have reached a deal to jointly develop oil fields straddling their border.
This is Kim Landers in Washington for The World Today.
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.