Iran accuses US of trying to change the map of the Mideast

[sabra]

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1183606.php/Iran_accuses_US_of_trying_to_change_the_map_of_the_Mideast

Iran accuses US of trying to change the map of the Mideast

Tehran - Iran's top national security official accused the United States Monday of trying to change the map of the Middle East for its own interests, the news agency ISNA reported.

'The issue is no longer fighting terrorism but what the US really aims is to change regional borders, start a war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, and get domination over the region's oil resources,' the Secretary of the National Security Council Ali Larijani was quoted by ISNA as saying.

Larijani further said Israel was using the abduction of several of its soldiers by Hezbollah militants as just a pretext to start a war whose aim was purely political.

'The West wanted to eliminate the thought of Jihad (holy war) among Muslim states but they could not predict the fierce resistance by the (Lebanese) Hezbollah (group),' Larijani said.

[whistle]

1. I think that is pretty close to an accurate assessment of U.S.

...middle east policy.

[wakeme2008]

2. Right Iraq the 51st State Iran the 52nd State....

:grr:

[burythehatchet]

3. duh

[shadowknows69]

4. Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner!!! The human race is the loser.

[wake.up.america]

5. Great quote. "The human race is the loser".

[stillcool]

6. how long did it take....

for the colonists to de-posess the native Americans of their land?

[stop the bleeding]

7. if the shoe fits .............. n/t

[dougkeenan]

8. Towards something like this perhaps?

[Copperred]

9. Great

This would, in fact, be a much freeer Middle East and South Asia.

No question about it.

[Igel]

10. I actually rather liked Peters'

map. Didn't agree with all of it, to say the least, and the borders as he has them would necessitate a bit of ethnic readjustment to mixed areas.

It neatly resolves the Azeri problem--the independent country is split in two, with a majority across the border in Iran that would, if united with Azerbaijan, make it a single chunk of ground.

But if I were playing Ultimate Dictator, I'd have some things different. I'm not sure about the Kurdish area; he's looking at an old map of where Kurds *used* to have a majority; they've been pushed back from Georgia and the Black Sea in a wave of quasi-genocides and forced assimilations, IIRC.

I don't see a big reason for Kuwait's being separate; perhaps it's mostly Sunni?

I don't know what I think of Sunni Iraq or how Jordan's borders are drawn; one could argue that Sunni Iraq could simply be merged with Jordan and Syria, they share sufficient culture, and I'm not sure an independent Sunni Iraq would really be viable. At least an independent Hijaz is resurrected, it was a nice idea at the time, if they're not there on this map. But the Sa'udis would never give up their prised possession, the Kaaba. (And no, "prised" is not misspelled, it's a pun; it's theirs because they pried it away from the Hashemite rulers.) And I'm not sure the Sunnis in Iraq have decided to let their prized possessions, the Shi'ites and Kurds, go, either.

I also think that Afghanistan's botched; putting the Pashtun in one state is a fine idea, as is peeling out the Baluchis. But put the Tadjiks in Tadjikistan and the Turkmen in Turkmenistan, don't leave them under the Pashtun. I also think the Hazara would go better in Iran.