Results of a recent opinion poll show that 78 percent of American people consider Iran the winner in the nuclear stalemate, and believe the Islamic state will soon meet its objectives in developing nuclear technology.
Based on the survey, 49 percent of those polled do not want the US to help Israel in any kind of aerial attack against Iran’s nuclear sites. This view is more prevalent among Republicans than Democrats, the Persian daily ’Iran’ reported in its Tuesday edition quoting the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan.
Furthermore, according to the survey 47 percent of Americans believe that the US cannot hinder Iran from meeting its declared targets in acquiring nuclear technology. Meanwhile, 45 percent of Americans support Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama’s idea of holding talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In a major about-face, the US sent its third most senior diplomat, William Burns, to a nuclear meeting between Iran and the G5+1 in Geneva last week. It was the first time Washington had direct contact with Iran over the nuclear issue.
Washington demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment but Tehran has affirmed its right to go ahead with the program under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Iran recalls that it previously suspended uranium enrichment, from October 2003 to August 2005, to allow negotiations with the Europeans to proceed, but that gesture was fruitless.

European Stance
It is possible this time Iran will make a concession of its own. The Europeans have offered to refrain from adding any new sanctions, for a defined period, if Tehran agrees not to expand its enrichment program during an agreed time frame. (The hope is that this could be a first step toward a wider agreement.) And the US is dangling what it calls a “generous“ new incentives package and the prospect of opening an “interest section“ in Tehran that would function as a kind of lesser embassy. The US has had no diplomatic relations with Tehran since the seizure of its embassy in 1979.
Condoleezza Rice says if the Iranians don’t come to terms in two weeks, the US will try to get a fourth round of penalties adopted at the UN. “If they do not decide to suspend then we will be in a situation where we have to return to the Security Council,“ she said Monday. But the first three rounds of UN sanctions have proven ineffective so far, and with oil at $130 a barrel, the government in Tehran has a comfortable economic buffer.
More importantly, the past two years have seen the US rather than Tehran forced to bend its position, and Obama has said he’ll enter unconditional negotiations with Iran if elected president. Iran’s leaders may well believe that more concessions will come -- even if they make none of their own.

The distance between Radovan Karadzic when he was at the peak of his power (l) with Karadzic at the height of his misery (r). Karadzic is disgracefully reminiscent of the greatest genocide in Europe after WWII. He lived in hiding for 13 years but was finally arrested on Monday. Although putting him on trial as a war criminal cannot compensate his vicious crimes, but at least it could partially heal the wounds of the family members of those he murdered.

(See Page World)

France’s Total has told Iran it wants to continue work in the country and Russia and Japan want to expand investments, the oil minister said on Tuesday.
Total Chief Executive Officer Christophe de Margerie said this month his firm would not be investing in an Iranian gas project for now due to political tensions, comments initially interpreted by western media as suggesting Total was pulling out, Reuters reported.
However, the French company retreated from its stance immediately.
“This is a western media fabrication. We received an official letter from them asking that they continue their presence in Iran’s oil industry,“ Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said when asked about reports Total was quitting.
Iranian officials often insist sanctions are not hurting and point to Iran’s petrodollar cash cushion to help it cope.
Nozari said other firms were eying investments, including Japan’s INPEX Holdings Inc which he said wanted to expand its stake in the huge Azadegan oilfield after its holding was cut to 10 percent.
“We have received enquiries from INPEX regarding the restoration of their original share in the Azadegan oil field,“ Nozari said on the sidelines of a conference in Tehran. “We are considering the request.“
INPEX, which was due to develop the field, cited spiraling investment when talks fell through in 2006.
The minister also pointed to Russian gas firm Gazprom as another interested party. Gazprom’s chief executive Alexei Miller met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad this month to discuss new business “We signed very important agreements with Gazprom last week,“ the minister said.

The wife of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri congratulated the resistance and her nation’s victory in the recent prisoner swap. She wrote this in a letter to Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
“Nasrallah is the best person who can realize the meaning of sacrifice, because he lost his son, Hadi, for the country, and the Lebanese can truly depend on him“ Nazok Rafiq Hariri wrote as reported by the An-Nahar daily.
“On behalf of the late Rafiq Hariri’s family, it is a pleasure to congratulate you on the return of prisoners and the bodies of martyrs back hom..
Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in Beirut in 2005.
Nazok Hariri added that the historical occasion was a new victory for the Lebanese people and their resistance against arrogance and oppression.
“We also can believe in the wisdom of all the Lebanese until our dreams come true. We can embrace unity, peace, solidarity and development,“ she pointed out.
Among those released in the prisoner swap named by Hezbollah as the “Rezwan Operation“ on July 16, were Samir Qantaar, who was released after 30 years from Israeli dungeons. He was freed along with four other Lebanese resistance fighters. In the swap 200 bodies of Lebanese martyrs were handed over to the Hezbollah.

Negotiators from Zimbabwe’s opposition and ruling party were due to hold a first round of talks in South Africa on Tuesday aimed at putting an end to the country’s months-long political crisis.
But as representatives of the ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) prepared to sit down at talks in Pretoria, the European Union sought to tighten the screw on veteran President Robert Mugabe’s government by stepping up sanctions, AFP reported.
South African leader Thabo Mbeki, who has previously warned that further sanctions could damage the delicate process, was expected to oversee the mediation which has the potential to salvage his tarnished reputation.