2006年VOA标准英语-Pahlavi Critical of West's Offer to Iran

By Lisa Bryant
Paris
08 June 2006

Reza Pahlavi  
  
The exiled son of Iran's late shah has sharply criticized diplomatic negotiations¹ by the West to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program. Reza Pahlavi held a press conference Wednesday.

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The oldest son of late Iranian shah Mohammed Reza describes diplomatic dialogue with Iran as a lose-lose situation. Pahlavi, 45, says the United States and Europeans will get nowhere in their efforts to coax² Iran to abandon its nuclear program through dialogue. He says these negotiations only strengthen the hand of hard-line conservatives in Iran.

Instead, Pahlavi says the United States and the European Union should support popular opposition³ within Iran as the only way to change the current government. Tehran, he says, has nothing to gain from talking with the West, except to buy time as it builds a nuclear weapon. "It simply puts the regime in an impossible position. If the regime accepts to put the seals back on the centrifuges and halt enrichment of uranium, it will have to take back the mainstay of its propaganda directed to its domestic and global Islamist allies and the ideological⁴ glue of its security forces," he said.

Pahlavi's remarks Wednesday followed reports Western officials are now asking Tehran only to suspend, rather than stop altogether, its nuclear enrichment program while negotiations continue. Those talks include new Western incentives⁵, delivered this week by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, for Iran to end the enrichment.

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but U.S. and other Western governments fear it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Pahlavi, whose father, Iran's last shah, was deposed⁶ in the 1979 Islamic revolution, lives outside Washington, D.C. He is one of a number of Iranian opposition leaders living in exile. Until now, that Iranian opposition has been fragmented.

But Pahlavi describes a sea change in the diverse coalition⁷ of opposition forces, which is now rallying together. "It may have been true that in the past the opposition was more divided between themselves as opposed to being opposed to the current regime. But that has changed."

Pahlavi says the only exiled opposition group that has not joined forces is the prominent, and very controversial, Peoples Mujahedeen of Iran.

1 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

2 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

5 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

6 deposed   

v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证

参考例句：

• The president was deposed in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被废黜。
• The head of state was deposed by the army. 国家元首被军队罢免了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。