ALMATY, Kazakhstan, April 21 (UPI) -- Whether Iran succeeds in acquiring a nuclear bomb or yields to worldwide pressure to halt its nuclear ambitions, thanks to Washington, average Iranians have grown more patriotic in recent months.
"Iranians are believed to be very patriotic. But the more (the U.S.) threatens us, the more Iranians would rally under the national flag," Siamak Namazi, a Tehran-based political analyst Friday said at the Fifth Eurasian Media Forum in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's popularity ratings in Iran have sky-rocketed due to his defiant stance against Washington's demand that Tehran give up its nuclear agenda. The Iranian leader has garnered unfailing support from Russia and China, two veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council.
Namazi said the United States should endeavor to make direct contact with the Iranian regime to resolve the issue rather than involving other countries, including China and Russia.
"And for that we first need to clear the mistrust and suspicion between the two sides," Namazi said at the international conference that has attracted over 350 journalists, politicians, diplomats and political analysts to the Kazakh financial capital.
He skewered the alleged misinformation campaign launched by the United States against Iran, saying: "We have been hearing for the last 10-15 years that we are just five years away from acquiring a bomb."
Namazi, not speaking on behalf of Tehran, said that even if Iran acquired a nuclear weapon, it should not be a matter of international worry. Although he did not side with Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel from the map, Namazi said that Tehran would never attack Israel as "any raid on the Jewish state would also kill hundreds of thousands of Palestinians."
He said that Washington's aim of taming Iran was not directed at the nuclear facilities but at changing the regime in Tehran, which many call a hard-line administration.
However, a former assistant secretary of defense, Richard Perle, disputed this assertion, saying that Washington was concerned with a nuclear bomb being acquired by a "reckless" regime in Tehran.
"It is a threat that must be taken seriously," Perle said at the media forum while speaking in a plenary session on Iran.
He said the United States was deeply concerned about Iran's continued support for Islamic terrorist organizations across the world. He also expressed anguish at young Iranians being shown on television signing up as suicide bombers.
Perle, not speaking on behalf of the Bush administration, said however that he hoped force would not be used against Iran and the crisis should be resolved through diplomatic channels.
When a delegate at the forum asked Perle how many more global trouble spots were about to be created by the United States, the former U.S. official said: "I, as an American, am getting tired of telling time and again that we are not going anywhere for foreign territories or the oil. We, the Americans want to stay at home. We don't want to send our men and women abroad to lay down their lives for no reason."
"We went abroad to stop Hitler, to (end the invasion of) Kuwait, to Afghanistan and we shall go anywhere in defense of freedom," an emotionally charged Perle said.
"We (Americans) want to be left alone. We do no not want suicide bombers coming into our country and killing innocent Americans," Perle said.
Although Iran was not officially represented at the Eurasian Media Forum, Tehran's message against Washington's alleged bullying was clearly broadcast.
Namazi was supported by Igor Panarin, a political scientist from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. "Moscow is against any military intervention against Iran and our views should be respected," Panarin said. He noted that even the United States was not united in its stance against Tehran.
Russia on Friday reiterated its opposition to sanctions or the use of force against Iran as a means to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program.
"Sanctions could only be discussed when evidence is provided that Iran is pursuing not only peaceful work in the nuclear field," Foreign Ministry official spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said.
"There are chances of a peaceful solution to the Iranian problem," said Nikolai Spassky, a deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council. "The situation is very complicated, but we are continuing to work," he said, adding that there was no such issue as sanctions for Russia, RIA Novosti reported from Moscow.
Speaking in Moscow Friday, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tehran was prepared to continue cooperating in full with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog and to clarify every aspect of its nuclear file.
"Iran intends to continue cooperating with the IAEA," Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh said. "We are ready to eliminate all the ambiguities with regard to our nuclear file."
The IAEA discovered three years ago that Iran had carried out secret nuclear activities for 18 years in breach of its obligations under the non-proliferation treaty.
Iran says it has the right to enrich nuclear energy for civilian purposes, but the West believes Tehran is using the process to secretly and illegally build nuclear weapons. Iran denies the charge.
Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte Thursday said Iran is still years away from having enough fissile material to make a nuclear weapon.
Negroponte expressed concern both about Iran's claim to have resumed uranium enrichment with a cascade of 164 centrifuges in Natanz and extreme statements made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"The developments in Iran -- clearly they're troublesome," he said in response to questions after a speech at the National Press Club in Washington.
"By the same token, our assessment at the moment is that even though we believe that Iran is determined to acquire or obtain a nuclear weapon, that we believe that it is still a number of years off before they are likely to have enough fissile material to assemble into, or to put into a nuclear weapon, perhaps into the next decade," he said.
In Almaty, Namazi said that the United States believes there are two clocks ticking in Tehran -- democracy and a nuclear bomb. "We do not know what exactly the U.S. wants," Namazi said, urging Washington to read an Iranian proverb that says: "Do not pick up two watermelons with one hand."
