What Are Iran’s Intentions?

[TomClash]

What Are Iran’s Intentions?
As tensions flare between Iran and the West, 120 nonaligned nations agree: the country has the right to enrich uranium.
BY NOAM CHOMSKY
Concerns about 'the imminent threat' of Iran are often attributed to the "international community"—code language for U.S. allies. The people of the world tend to see matters rather differently.

The January/February issue of Foreign Affairs featured the article “Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option,” by Matthew Kroenig, along with commentary about other ways to contain the Iranian threat.

The media resound with warnings about a likely Israeli attack on Iran while the U.S. hesitates, keeping open the option of aggression—thus again routinely violating the U.N. Charter, the foundation of international law.

As tensions escalate, eerie echoes of the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the air. Feverish U.S. primary campaign rhetoric adds to the drumbeat.

Concerns about “the imminent threat” of Iran are often attributed to the “international community”—code language for U.S. allies. The people of the world, however, tend to see matters rather differently.

. . .

Global opinion agrees with Maoz. Support is overwhelming for a WMDFZ in the Middle East; this zone would include Iran, Israel and preferably the other two nuclear powers that have refused to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: India and Pakistan, who, along with Israel, developed their programs with U.S. aid.

Support for this policy at the NPT Review Conference in May 2010 was so strong that Washington was forced to agree formally, but with conditions: The zone could not take effect until a comprehensive peace settlement between Israel and its Arab neighbors was in place; Israel’s nuclear weapons programs must be exempted from international inspection; and no country (meaning the U.S.) must be obliged to provide information about “Israeli nuclear facilities and activities, including information pertaining to previous nuclear transfers to Israel.”


http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/what_are_irans_intentions/

[grahamhgreen]

1. This is a must read. Especially if you think this is anything more than an excuse to make money from

another pointless war.

[Mosby]

2. Chomsky is a propagandist

and not a particularly good one at that.


The WikiLeaks documents released so far paint a remarkable picture of just how closely the U.S. and Russia have been working on containing Iran. An extremely detailed exchange of views between top U.S. and Russian officials in Washington in February 2010 is described in detail.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/11/30/what-wikileaks-docs-reveal-about-the-iran-threat.html


WikiLeaks: Arabs Agree That Iran Is a Threat

The release of thousands of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks reveals in graphic language just how worried Arab leaders are about Iran's nuclear program and its rising influence in the region. While their fears about Iran have been widely reported and are said to be routinely shared in private, Arab leaders almost never speak in public about their concerns. Yet according to the leaked documents:

-- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, in urging the United States to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, said it must "cut off the head of the snake."

-- The king of Bahrain, Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa, said the Iranian nuclear program "must be stopped."

-- Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak called the Iranians "big, fat liars" in a cable in which he warned of Iran's growing influence in Iraq and the region since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

-- The United Arab Emirates defense chief compared Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler in urging against appeasing Iran.

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/11/29/wikileaks-arabs-agree-with-israel-that-iran-is-a-threat/

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/11/29/wikileaks-key-revelations-focus-on-iran-threats/


Saudi Arabia To 'Immediately' Go Nuclear Should Iran Develop Bomb

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/02/10/saudi-arabia-nuclear-bomb_n_1267571.html