Divorced of legitimacy, devoid of common sense, bereft of ingenuity and totally biased and partial is how one can sum up US stance on Iran’s nuclear issue. It completely ignores other UN resolutions on related issues on Israel and completely focuses with tunnel vision on Iran and blow hot and cold to play at innocent and just even in the midst of utterly false, unjustified and groundless claims.

Whereas the whole world knows that Mr. Bush is making a big play for punishing Iran on behalf of Israel for Iran’s stand on Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The US, on a mega plan to establish Israeli suzerainty in the Middle East, does not want any dissenting voice in the region to be left unattended. Iran has all along been very vocal in criticizing and censoring Israel on its illegitimate occupation of Palestine and Lebanon and has been calling for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Golan Heights and Palestinian areas.

Rather Iran, along with many other nations of the world, has not yet
reconciled with the existence of Israel and considers it unprincipled,
illegitimate and incoherent with the basic realities of the region.
But then this does not justify US attack on Iran. The US, therefore, must carve out a cause for such action. There are two areas the US is focusing on to win International support for future adventurism against Iran. The first is to blame Iran for its alleged support for terrorism and the second is to develop a consensus among the nations that Iran is pursuing militarized nuclear programme.

In a BBC interview on Feb 6 Condoleezza Rice said Iran was “the Chief funder of terrorism.” In the same programme, Breakfast with Frost, she said Iran was the key supporter of Palestinian “rejectionist groups” and the Hezbollah movement, which she said were “one of the most important barriers’ to Middle East peace.” She further said, “Iran is a destabilising force in the international system.

Completely ignoring all other UN resolutions on Middle East issue the US is orchestrating support for UN resolution 1559 because it entailsimmediate gains for Israel and the US in the region. The resolutiondemands Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon as well as disbanding of Hezbollah which is the prime wish of Israel.

Once out of Lebanon Syria will lose all leverage on Israel to reach any settlement on Golan Heights which resultantly will remain under Israeli occupation until time unknown. The US is not doing anything anew. In 1983 it tried to bypass Syria and attempted to broker a peace deal between Lebanon and Israel which backfired.

Now cashing on sympathy wave on the unjustified murder of Rafiq Hariri, it has tried to do the same: to neutralize Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. To realize its own petty gains the US may thrust Lebanon and the whole region into a quagmire of mutual distrust, incrimination and infighting. Lebanon, however, have come of age. Disregarding all outside interventions it has chosen its Prime Minister afresh and the gigantic processions in the streets of Lebanon in support of Syria, thanked it for the invaluable sacrifices and contribution in bringing peace, security and stability to Lebanon.

Hezbollah is a legitimate force in Lebanon with 16 members of parliament and Iran’s support to such organization cannot be branded as support to terrorism whereas, Israel has been involved in targeted killings abroad and the US itself is its chief supporter.

All groups in Palestine are fighting for the liberation of their country.
Different groups have different approaches. Some groups have resorted to military action against Israel. Under no law they can be called as terrorists. There, however, is a discrepancy on suicidal bomb blasts which are not allowed in Islam.

Through diplomacy the US is not pursuing Iran to call off its ‘so-called nuclear ambitions’ rather it is wooing its European partners to fall in line with it on an action oriented plan against Iran. The US has finally been successful to hoodwink European countries to drag them on board.

According to the Newyork Times report on Friday 11-3-2005, “Europe and the United States have agreed on a joint approach to negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme after months of dispute, with the Bushm administration agreeing to offer modest economic incentives and the Europeans agreeing to take the issue to the United Nations Security Council if negotiations fail, senior American officials said Thursday.”

The report says, “The American incentives would go into effect only if Iran agreed to halt the enrichment of uranium permanently.” Apparently it looks like a major shift in US stance on Iran’s nuclear programme which had refused for years to offer Iran any incentives to give up its nuclear programme whereas Europe had been reluctant to discuss penalties in the absence of any tangible incentives to Iran to compromise its national interests on nuclear issue, but in reality it has not made any difference on the ground. Iran will never agree to permanent halt on nuclear enrichment. Iran is signatory to NPT and no other signatory is banned from fuel enriching activity.

Iran’s senior negotiator on Nuclear Issue, Hassan Rowhani, told a
conference in Tehran the other day that the country would never agree to a permanent cessation of enrichment. Presently Iran is maintaining a temporary cessation on fuel enrichment as confidence building measure, whereas , it has not made any difference with the US so far as its hawkish tone against Iran has not scaled down to any extent. It is quite obvious that Iran will never agree to give up enrichment, no matter what incentives Mr Bush may offer.

The US decision to dangle economic incentives is just another ploy to speed up the negotiating process to quick dead end so that, at that point, fulfilling the wishes of the war hawks in the White House and the Pentagon, the Europeans don’t refuse the US to take the issue to the Security Council. The latest hyperbole of our Information Minister revealing that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had helped Iran get access to centrifuge technology, has only helped The US to create diabolical misconceptions about both intentions and nuclear programme of Iran.

 Information

Whereas the whole world   knows that Mr. Bush is making a big play for punishing Iran on behalf of Israel for Iran’s stand on Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The US, on a mega plan to establish Israeli suzerainty in the Middle East, does not want any  dissenting voice in the region to be left unattended. Iran has all along been very  vocal in criticizing and censoring Israel on its illegitimate occupation of  Palestine and Lebanon and has been calling for Israeli withdrawal from  Lebanon, Golan Heights and Palestinian areas.

 First appeared in Pakistan Observer on March 20, 2005