The US has finally succeeded in getting Iran referred to the UNSC for possible sanctions due to unsolved row over its Nuclear Programme, however, it has exposed many a weakness of international diplomacy that has always left much to be desired.

The US hegemony in International dealings that has been glaringly aided and supported by the so-called EU-3 nexus in the name of nuclear non- proliferation and world peace, has only exposed dishonesty, duplicity and double standard of these powers. What is more disconcerting, however, is their self-assumed sense of righteousness, which is dogmatic, assertive as well as inflexible and is as lethal and deadly as self-righteous propensities of Osama Bin Laden and his acolytes.

One wonders what moral authority these powers do have over their
compatriots-in-crime-without-state hiding out there in the caves of
Afghanistan or wrecking civilian lives and peace in Iraq, if they cannot  listen to the voice of logic, common sense and reason.

There are five aspects that account for Mr Bush’s escalation of hostilities against Iran at this hour of time, whereas in every credible agency’s assessment Iran is still 10-year away from a nuclear bomb even if it has the intentions to do so. Firstly, with his rating ditched as low as 30 % due to his mishandling of Iraq and Afghanistan Mr. Bush needs Iranian punching bag to look hawkish and mannish.

Bleeding to a real slow death in Iraq and Afghanistan with budgetary war allocations sky-rocketing, it is very difficult, rather impossible for 
warmongers of White House and Pentagon to provide satisfactory
answers to the worrisome Americans questioning the very legitimacy as well as utility of such adventures risking the American’s lives to such a grand levels.

According to media reports this year as the year wound down this
weekend the American military death toll rose to 850; five more than of 2004 when 845 American soldiers had lost their lives. This is despite the so-called political progress and dogged efforts to quash the insurgency. Not all questions do have answers. Mr Bush and his very close compatriots hope to cash on hypersensitive nationalist bearings of average American to bypass the thinking, enlightened and God-fearing elements of American society.

Secondly, close at heel of this policy is “deflection strategy.” By beating drums of war on Iran’s nuclear programme and making it a fixture of all international media reports, Mr Bush and his team is strategically successful in deflecting the public attention away from the US failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In an urge to shroud its efficiency, rather downright criminality, to handle situation in Iraq, Bush’s acolytes not only have forgotten or simply ignored all essentials of international diplomacy. They tend to ignore the fact that they are dealing with a nation of 60 million people with strong cultural, religious, ethnic and political sensitivities and a nation that is united behind their leaders on the question of its nuclear rights.

Thirdly, Iran’s nuclear programme is just a ploy to heat up tension between Iran and other regional powers. On this count, although the US has squarely failed, it has been able to spoil international diplomacy by directly picking up the fight with a third Muslim State of the region consecutively.

Iran simply does not fit into the new Middle East programme which the  US and Israel have conceived for the region. Appearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee last Thursday (09-03-2006) Condoleezza Rice told the committee, “We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran, whose policies are directed at developing a Middle East that would be 180 degrees different than the Middle East we would like to see develop.

” Would the US bother so much about the Middle East if the oil and Israel were not here? Present day Iran, with hyperactive anti-US and anti-Israel emotions, is a sure recipe for early departure of the US and allied forces from the region: nationalism is contagious both in spirit and substance.

Fourthly, the emerging regional power status of Iran, is quite incompatible with the US hegemonic designs on the Gulf region. It already has netted  in almost all the Gulf States having military basis, attachments or military small facilities all across the Gulf region and has been quite well set to oversee the smooth flow of oil from the Gulf.

However, the fifth largest oil producing country in the region is the most hostile to its policies in the area. Further Iran is challenging dollar’s supremacy in the field of oil Futures as it has scheduled to start its own Bourse in March 2006, whereas, it will offer oil Futures in Euro. If Iran is successful in this, it will seriously compromise with the supreme power status of the US in the long run; therefore, the US needs to stop Iran from doing this. Hence, early economic sanctions that should seriously dent Iran’s potential as an effective player of the oil game.

Finally, the US policies towards Iran are misguided, erroneous and ill- timed. Last Thursday urging Congress to adopt a package aimed at ‘promoting democracy in the Islamic republic’ or in other words to
destabilise the present Government, Rice said Iran “is a country that isdetermined, it seems, to develop a nuclear weapon in defiance of the international community which is determined that they should not get one.” She claimed something that had never been proved at any forum so  far, nor substantiated by any evidence remotely hinting at a trail of militarization of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Ahmed Chellabis of Iran have been feeding false reports to gullible policy- makers of the State Department and Pentagon to instigate an aggressive action against Iran. However, unlike their colleagues in Iraq, they have been very unlucky so far as already bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US war office has little appetite to indulge in similar adventure in yet another country in the region.

On the other hand sheer logic of Iran’s winsome argument is good
enough to disarm the US on the question of Iran’s legitimate right to
pursue peaceful nuclear programme and enrich uranium at home under IAEA safeguards. However, winsome arguments do not bring laurels all the times; at time, they invite aggression from blockheads.

Information

There are five aspects that account for Mr Bush’s escalation of hostilities  against Iran at this hour of time, whereas in every credible agency’s  assessment Iran is still 10-year away from a nuclear bomb even if it has the intentions to do so. Firstly, with his rating ditched as low as 30 % due to his mishandling of Iraq and Afghanistan Mr. Bush needs Iranian  punching bag to look hawkish and mannish.

First appeared in Pakistan Observer, Islamabad on 1 April, 2006