Jordan’s King Abdullah warned today that the failure of the peace process in the Midle East will increase Iran's influence in the region. Yesterday, Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak was quoted as saying that Iran is a real threat to the region.
The Jordanian monarch made the comment during an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), the Washington-based radio network. He warned of Iran’s growing influence in Gaza and Lebanon.
“The failure of the peace process will get them [Iran] to increase their ambitions in the region,” said Abdullah. “My fear is that the failure of the peace process will increase the aggression of the extremists in our region… It will bring us into a very dark future; all of us, Americans, Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs.”
The Egyptian president made his remarks on Thursday during a meeting in Cairo with the leaders of the American Jewish Committee. Mubarak said Iran was a threat because of its support of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was quoted as saying that Iran is a real threat to the region.
ReplyDelete....The Egyptian president made his remarks on Thursday during a meeting in Cairo with the leaders of the American Jewish Committee. Mubarak said Iran was a threat because of its support of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The United States insisted that the Palestinians hold legal, monitored elections. The Palestinians did, and they elected the Hamas "party" into leadership.
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian errand boy for israel and the United States didn't like the result. Neither did israel and the United States.
Now the Persians are assisting the Arab Palestinians while Mubarak rebuilds the border wall in Gaza to keep them out of Egypt. That's a clear disregard and disrespect toward the Palestinians from an Arab cousin, and it's a signal from Mubarak.
Egypt is casting its lot with israel and the United States.
We can expect more anti-Iran rhetoric from Mubarak and Egypt in the future.
In my opinion, if they stop short of inviting the Americans to take over their country the Iranians will not be able to satisfy the United States today, tomorrow or five years from now. The Iranians realise this themselves. America and israel are obsessesed with Iran. They're beside themselves over the fact that they're not able to force or frighten Iran into submission. Thus I am sceptical that Iranian-American/israeli relations will improve in the near future. Therefore the Iranians should continue to keep their army at full strength, train hard, avoid dramatic confrontations with the United States and continue to live their lives. Eventually the bitter old fossils in the American political system will retire. The atmosphere for improving relations between the two countries will relax then, within the next ten to twenty years, say. Disregarding the Establishment American Media portrayal of the American presence in Iraq as strong and positive, American power and influence is declining in the region and around the world. At some point, not too far off, as America's economic and domestic problems increase the Americans will understand it's in their own best interests to normalise relations with Iran. America may very well be the party to initiate talks with Iran if the Iranians can maintain their strength of will and refuse to be bullied for a few more years.
The United States is not the only game in town anymore. There is virtually nothing that the United States has that the Iranians cannot get elsewhere in world. China will purchase all the petroleum Iran can pump out of the ground, and more, so Iran will have a steady cash flow well into the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, in a more productive development.....
Syria, Iran vow to bolster ties to confront US and Israel
Thu, 06 Mar 2008
DAMASCUS (AFP) - Regional allies Syria and Iran voiced their determination on Thursday to bolster their economic and political ties to overcome their common foes, Israel and the United States.
"We will continue to reinforce strategic cooperation in all sectors with our brothers in Iran because we are in the same trench, confronted to an abject and greedy enemy," Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otri said in reference to Israel and the United States.
"Cooperation between Syria and Iran could serve as an example for relations between Iran and Arab countries," Otri told a news conference with Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davoudi.
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Nader, this is only indirectly related to your post, but I had to bring it up.
ReplyDeleteCourtesy of the Angry Arab blog:
Arab foreign ministers officially ask Israel to keep lying about its nuclear arsenal.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961275.html
Not a big surprise (story below).
ReplyDeleteI think very few people familiar with the logistics involved and the virtual impossibility of completely eliminating Iran's nuclear program via air strikes ever took the idea seriously. Israel was bluffing and blustering and saber rattling in an attempt to intimidate the Iranians but the Iranians knew they were in the position of advantage. I've got to believe the Americans told the Israelis, "Look, by now everybody in the world knows you're not going to do anything so calm down and cool the rhetoric."
Peres says Israel will not act alone on Iran: report
07 March 2008
PARIS (Reuters) - Israel will not consider unilateral action to stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb, President Shimon Peres was quoted as saying on Saturday.
Asked if Israel would act alone to stop Iran getting the bomb, Peres, a former prime minister who currently holds no executive power, replied: "Under no circumstance. We are not so imprudent as to concentrate the Iranian danger on Israel."
"We are not so imprudent as to concentrate the Iranian danger on Israel."
Yeah, whatever. Translated from hebrew into English that means If we can't trick the big dumb Americans into doing our dirty work.
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Mark K,
ReplyDeleteIran needs to have its own pro-active foreign policy. Waiting for a change in Washington might not be a prudent approach. The leaders in the West did not wake up one day and decided that Iran is not a friendly country. Years of missteps in Iran’s foreign policy should be seen as a factor. Iran needs to repair these relations. Good relations with Syria don’t get Iran anywhere. Good relations with China should not come at the expense of Iran’s relations with the West. If Iran wants to play a role in the region proportional to its power and influence, it needs to normalize its relations with the world. It needs to change the mentality that it is in the war with the West.
And Iran needs to think about its own economic development. The economy, with all the oil money, should not be in such shambles. Normalizing the relations with the world is a starter to put the economic house in order.
Mark P,
ReplyDeleteThe Haaretz piece was really interesting and important. It’s the clearest manifestation of the lies and double-standards regarding the nuclear issue in the region. Israel can have the arsenal, albeit without any advertising, but Iran can not even enrich uranium. Pakistan is OK too!
The leaders in the West did not wake up one day and decided that Iran is not a friendly country.
ReplyDeleteI must kindly disagree Nader. I think officials in the United States government and American Establishment Media have made it a point to demonize Iran ever since the 1979 embassy takeover. Many or most politicians along with many or most journalists in the United States are only nominally educated (regardless of what "degrees" they may hold), they're jingoistic and they're unsophisticated in foreign affairs, foreign languages and foreign customs. Many still look back at the events of 1979 and harbor a burning, conscious or subconscious desire to somehow "get back" at Iran for that. I don't really see any flexibility or spirit of compromise amongst USA politicians toward Iran. They are adult children in many cases, still holding a grudge against the country and only willing to speak to Iran from a lofty position of self-awarded superiority.
I think we will frequently disagree on this point: I would like to see Iran become self-sufficient in most things and purchase whatever it cannot produce or engineer itself from nations other than the United States. Also I would like to see Iran only negotiate with the Americans if the Americans are prepared to treat the Iranians with common dignity and respect. If the Americans insist on treating Iran as some contemtible, third world backwater it makes me happy to see the Iranians chuckle and tell the Americans Thanks, but no thanks gentlemen. Maybe we'll talk another time....
American foreign policy toward Iran is a microcosm of disasterous and ill-conceived American foreign policy around the world. This is a cliché but the American government IS arrogant and disrespectful toward many nations and I thoroughly enjoy seeing a smaller, independent country such as Iran stand up for itself against the Americans. That's helpful to America in the long run -- the Americans must learn some sophistication in diplomacy and learn some compromise in foreign affairs. For too many years the Americans have become accustomed to dictating conditions to most of the world and that must stop.
Why do the Americans have to offer that is so important to Iran, Nader my friend?
America is in decline politically and economically. I think Iran's most prudent approach is to simply stand back and watch America become absorbed in its own domestic problems. America will be needing friends then, in say ten years, and Iran will be in a much better position to bargain and insist upon proper recognition and respect. I think America will ultimately need the friendship of Iran more than the reverse, and in the meantime the Iranians can help the Americans understand that good manners and common courtesy between nations is a requirement for normal relations.
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ooops...make that "contemptible"...
ReplyDelete.
Mark K,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the message, as always. We might have a difference of opinion on how Iran’s foreign policy and Iran-US relations. I do understand and respect yours.
Cheers Nader :-)
ReplyDeleteThat's what makes a discussion or a blog interesting, different points of view from various contributors.
Best Regards,
Mark
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