'If Dick Cheney Is Supposed To Continue Intimidating Iran...'

May 28 (LPAC)--In the run-up to the May 28 U.S.-Iran talks in Baghdad, the Financial Times noted that the "cause of greatest concern for Iranians is the military build-up in the Gulf and the bellicose statements of Vice President Dick Cheney, who analysts in Washington say believes confrontation is inevitable."

The Financial Times cited a recent statement by Mohammad Javad Larijani, brother of Iran's top security official Al Larijani: "If Dick Cheney is supposed to continue intimidating Iran on a daily basis, and U.S. officials continue allocating budget, as they claim, to change the Iranian regime and openly show hostility towards Iran, then any clever person will ask why they should talk at all?"

Just four days earlier Xinhua quoted Mohammad Larijani making perhaps a somewhat more optimistic observation: "Talking with the United States over issues related to Iran is not an impossible matter. However, this depends on the subject matter."

Larijani is secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters of Iran's Judiciary.

In mid-May, according to Middle-East-Online , Larijani said that the hullabaloo about Iran wanting to "take Isreal off the map" is "a by-product of the Western media."