VOA标准英语2010年-Iranian Officials Rule Out Talks With

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani speaks during a press conference held at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, 01 Jun 2010

Top Iranian leaders and officials say they have no intention of conducting negotiations² with the United States.  Meanwhile, a strike by merchants appears to be continuing in several Iranian cities.

Although top Iranian leaders say they will not negotiate with the United States, that did not prevent foreign visits with Western officials by Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Muttaqi.  Larijani met with Western parliamentary leaders in Geneva, while Muttaqi addressed an international conference on Afghanistan in Kabul.

In Tehran, Iran's Deputy Parliament Speaker said the United States "humiliated³ and opposed the Islamic Republic," precluding⁴ any "reason for negotiation¹."

Foreign Ministry⁵ spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast presented a similar line of reasoning at his weekly press briefing.  Mehmanparast says Washington's pursuit of economic sanctions against Iran, in addition to what he claims is U.S. maltreatment of Iranians, mean there is no real reason to negotiate.

As Iranian media continued to focus on international issues, the economic crisis inside the country appeared to worsen, according to many analysts⁷.

Iranian television showed officials inaugurating new electricity plants and saying more gasoline is available, contrary to scattered⁸ reports from inside the country that gas stations are running low on fuel and that electricity brownouts are causing major disruptions.

Former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani Sadr, who lives in exile in France, says an intermittent⁹ general strike in Tehran's bazaar¹⁰ reportedly began about 10 days ago.  He says the strike began in response to a new 70-percent tax on merchants by the government, and the strike has continued despite major government concessions¹¹.

Bani Sadr says the strike is continuing because the country's economic crisis has been exacerbated¹² by the government's bad policies.  The former president says that merchants see a bleak¹³ economic future for Iran because of rising prices, lack of investment, lower oil revenues and the elimination¹⁴ of price controls.  All of this, he says, also has been compounded by new economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the U.S.

Analyst⁶ Houchang Hassan-Yari of Canada's Royal Military College says Iran's economic situation is compounded by a growing religious opposition¹⁵ to the government.  Pious¹⁶ bazaris, he says, are angry that religious figures they admire are being insulted and marginalized by the government.

"Through the association that the bazaris have with different religious leaders, they see clearly that those leaders are maltreated by the Islamic Republic, and the Islamic Republic is taking distance from the original ideas of the [1979 Islamic] Revolution, and the kind of society that it promised to create," said Hassan-Yari.

Iran's merchants were an important part of the opposition movement that swept Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi from power in 1979.  Abolhassan Bani Sadr, who was Iran's first president after the Islamic Revolution, says the power of the bazaar has diminished since that time, but that that it still carries considerable weight.
 

1 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

2 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。

3 humiliated   

感到羞愧的

参考例句：

• Parents are humiliated if their children behave badly when guests are present. 子女在客人面前举止失当，父母也失体面。
• He was ashamed and bitterly humiliated. 他感到羞耻，丢尽了面子。

4 precluding   

v.阻止( preclude的现在分词 )；排除；妨碍；使…行不通

参考例句：

5 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

8 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

9 intermittent   

adj.间歇的，断断续续的

参考例句：

• Did you hear the intermittent sound outside?你听见外面时断时续的声音了吗？
• In the daytime intermittent rains freshened all the earth.白天里，时断时续地下着雨，使整个大地都生气勃勃了。

10 bazaar   

n.集市，商店集中区

参考例句：

• Chickens,goats and rabbits were offered for barter at the bazaar.在集市上，鸡、山羊和兔子被摆出来作物物交换之用。
• We bargained for a beautiful rug in the bazaar.我们在集市通过讨价还价买到了一条很漂亮的地毯。

11 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

12 exacerbated   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
• The drugs they gave her only exacerbated the pain. 他们给她吃的药只是加重了她的痛楚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

14 elimination   

n.排除，消除，消灭

参考例句：

• Their elimination from the competition was a great surprise.他们在比赛中遭到淘汰是个很大的意外。
• I was eliminated from the 400 metres in the semi-finals.我在400米半决赛中被淘汰。

15 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。

16 pious   

adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的

参考例句：

• Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。
• Her mother was a pious Christian.她母亲是一个虔诚的基督教徒。