Who is the threat to Middle East security?

Iran is ruled by a lunatic who used to be a terrorist – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or so the western media would have us believe. Saddam Hussein posed an immediate threat to the USA and its neighbours, because he had Weapons of Mass Destruction which could be deployed within 45 minutes, or so the western media and governments would have had us believe. Mikhail Saakashvili would be a responsible leader with balanced far-sighted policies, or so the western institutions, Soros and Washington claimed.

Photo: Who is the threat to Middle East security?

In the end, what happened in Georgia ? Saakashvili managed to unite the opposition against him in three short years since his so-called Revolution (a Washington and Soros-backed putsch) placed him as the replacement to Shevardnadze.

In the end, what happened in Iraq ? The Americans and their allies managed, in three short years, to destabilize the region, destroy the institutional fabric of Iraq and send the country back three centuries, all because of WMD that never existed, despite the fact that Washington affirmed many times to know exactly where they were hidden.

And in the end, what is the case with Iran ? While Israel sits on its stockpile of nuclear missiles, gained despite and not because of, non-proliferation agreements, Iran is not allowed to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme, which is after all its right under international law, because the Ayatollah deposed the Shah three decades ago and installed a national regime based on the local culture and which did not kowtow to Washington.

In the end what is happening in Iran is that its Ambassador to Ankara , Firouz Dowlatabadi, has declared that the high-tech Great Prophet military exercises last week “prove that Iran does not need nuclear weapons and the Iranian nuclear programme has nothing to do with the military aspect”.

In the end, what is happening in Iran is that the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Mussa, declares that “The peaceful use of nuclear technology is an inalienable right of nations, including Iranians”.

In the end, Iran is cooperating closely with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hamid-Reza Asefi, declares that there is “mutual agreement between Teheran and Mohamed El-Baradei, the IAEA General Secretary, who has in turn not reported any deviation from a peaceful development of nuclear power.

Iran could, and is expected to, perform a goodwill measure to the UN Security Council members, who have issued a joint statement that research must stop and conversations must begin before the international community gives the go-ahead for any peaceful nuclear programme.

Israel never made, nor was expected to make, such concessions, while it built its stockpile of weapons which could turn the entire region into living hell. It is a fitting statement that in today‘s world, the Iranians should be expected to do so. After all, they have brown skin, wear moustaches and speak English with a funny accent.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY