August 4 Photo Brief: Iranian president sworn in, sahur on the road, the Zeppelin NT
Iranian president sworn in, sahur on the road around Jakarta, the Zeppelin NT in Paris and more in today’s daily brief.
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- Venezuela’s Andreina Pinto prepares to compete in the final of the women’s 800-meter freestyle swimming event in the FINA World Championships at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona on August 3, 2013. (Joseph Lago/AFP/Getty Images)
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- In this photograph taken August 3, 2013, Indonesians ride motorcycles in a festive motorcade called “sahur on the road” around central Jakarta. As the Islamic holy month of Ramadan enters its final week before the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, residents hold a weekend dawn vigil in motorcades taking packed meals to distribute to street beggars, then conclude their ride with a pilgrimage to a mosque to perform dawn prayers. (Romero Gacad/AFP/Getty Images)
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- Supporters of the Islamist Ennahda movement light flares and wave flags during a rally at Kasbah Square in Tunis August 3, 2013. Tens of thousands of Tunisians came out in a show of force for the country’s Islamist-led government on Saturday, in one of the largest demonstrations since the 2011 revolution. (Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters)
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- A World War II American plane flies in front of a wall of fire as it takes part in a re-enactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor during an afternoon air show at the EAA AirVenture at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin August 3, 2013. (Darren Hauck/Reuters)
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- People, holding placards of a bleeding eye, take part in a demonstration in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei August 3, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday to mourn for soldier Hung Chung-chiu, who died of severe heatstroke after being ordered to do strenuous exercises in a barracks on July 4, according to event organizers. (Steven Chen/Reuters)
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- The shadow of a semi-rigid and helium-filled airship, the Zeppelin NT, is cast on a harvested wheat field as it approaches an airport outside Cergy-Pointoise, near Paris, August 4, 2013. The Zeppelin NT is powered by three pivoting motors and measures 246 ft long, 57 feet high, and 64 feet wide. It also has a cabin that fits 12 passengers and will fly tourists at an altitude of 984 feet over the countryside. Airship Paris, which runs the Zeppelin NT, will propose three different flights for tourists in the Paris region. (John Schults/Reuters)
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- Iran’s President Hasan Rowhani (L) delivers a speech after being sworn in before parliament in Tehran on August 4, 2013. Rowhani revealed a cabinet lineup of experienced technocrats, aiming to deliver on his promise of saving the economy and engaging the world. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)
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- A Congolese boy displaced by recent fighting in North Kivu, juggles a ball near his makeshift shelter at the Mugunga III camp for internally displaced people near Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, August 4, 2013. A 17,000-strong U.N. force, known as MONUSCO, and Congo troops have struggled over the past decade to stem a conflict involving dozens of armed groups and complicated by national and ethnic rivalries. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)
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- Supporters of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) attend a rally at Kokrajhar in the northeastern Indian state of Assam August 4, 2013. Thousands on Sunday held a rally to protest against the Indian government in their demand for a separate Bodoland state carved out of Assam, BPF supporters said. (Stringer/Reuters)
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- Samantha Peyke performs in the 2013 German Pole Dancing Championships on August 3, 2013 in Frankfurt, Germany. Thirty-four candidates, including six men and three children, competed in the event. (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)
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- A H-2B rocket carrying cargo for the International Space Station blasts off from the launching pad at Tanegashima Space Center on the Japanese southwestern island of Tanegashima, about 621 miles southwest of Tokyo, in this photo taken August 4, 2013. The rocket, also known as “Kounotori,” is carrying a small robot that will help Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata conduct experiments in space. Wakata will join the Space Station later this year. (Kyodo via Reuters)
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- Archeology students and workers clean the tomb of a priestess of the Moche culture recently excavated and found at San Jose de Moro Archaeological site in Trujillo August 2, 2013. Researchers and students from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru found the tomb that is some 1,200 years old. The tomb contains the body of the priestess covered in copper plates with seven companions and ceramic vessels pottery. (Mariana Bazo/Reuters)
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- A donkey walks along a street in Huatla village, Heliodoro Castillo municipality, Guerrero State, Mexico, on August 3, 2013. Huatla is one of thirteen villages from where residents have left due to murders, threats and kidnappings by drug cartels’ members. (Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images)
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- An Afghan man washes his horse in Kabul August 4, 2013. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)
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- Atlantic grey seals bask in hot weather on a sunny day on the south beach of Duene Island on August 4, 2013 near Helgoland, Germany. Duene Island was once an extension of neighboring Heligoland Island until a storm in 1721 severed the connection. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
RELATED
Iran, U.S. signal will to engage as new president sworn in
Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George, Reuters
12:26 p.m. EDT, August 4, 2013
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran and the United States signaled a fresh will on Sunday to seek to end the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program after Hassan Rouhani was sworn in as president and called for dialogue to reduce “antagonism and aggression”.
Hopes for a diplomatic resolution increased with Rouhani’s win over conservative rivals in June, when voters replaced hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a cleric whose watchword is “moderation” but who is still very much an Islamic Republic insider.
“The only way for interaction with Iran is dialogue on an equal footing, confidence-building and mutual respect as well as reducing antagonism and aggression,” Rouhani told parliament after taking his oath of office.
“If you want the right response, don’t speak with Iran in the language of sanctions, speak in the language of respect,” he said.
Within hours, the United States said it was ready to work with Rouhani’s government if it were serious about engagement.
“The inauguration of President Rouhani presents an opportunity for Iran to act quickly to resolve the international community’s deep concerns over Iran’s nuclear program,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
“Should this new government choose to engage substantively and seriously to meet its international obligations and find a peaceful solution to this issue, it will find a willing partner in the United States.”
Iran’s critics say it has used previous nuclear negotiations as a delaying tactic while continuing to develop nuclear weapons-related technology – something Tehran denies.
Signaling both his wish to get straight down to work and a likely willingness to engage with the United States, Rouhani immediately presented a list of cabinet nominees to the parliament speaker that included Iran’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Javad Zarif, as foreign minister.
Parliament must approve the proposed ministers before they can take office and the speaker said the assembly would review the nominees in the next week.
Zarif is a respected diplomat involved in negotiations with the United States since the 1980s and well known to top U.S. officials including Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
“GULF OF MISPERCEPTIONS”
Western envoys familiar with Zarif have said his appointment may be a sign of Rouhani’s interest in breaking the deadlock with the United States.
Ali Vaez, Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Zarif had unique skills that “allow him to bridge the great gulf of misperceptions between Iran and the West.”
“No one else is better suited to take on the grim but grand task of ending Iran’s isolation at this time of national peril,” he told Reuters.
Any new overtures to the West would have to be approved by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has maintained a staunchly anti-Western stance since becoming Iran’s supreme leader in 1989.
After eight years of Ahmadinejad’s confrontational government, under which the West tightened sanctions making daily life tougher for normal Iranians, Khamenei is likely to give Rouhani a chance to resolve the issue, but has publicly expressed more skepticism of the chances of a solution.
Though less hard line than his predecessor, Rouhani has held important military and security posts since the Islamic revolution of 1979. He was head of the Supreme National Security Council for 16 years and one of two personal representatives of Khamenei on the same body for another eight years.
Rouhani did not name a candidate to head the Supreme National Security Council. The person occupying that position is usually also Iran’s chief negotiator in its talks with world powers over its nuclear program.
Iranian news agencies last month said Rouhani would nominate Mohammad Forouzandeh, a former Revolutionary Guard, defense minister and member of Iran’s Security Council, for the post.
(Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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