Diplomacy With Iran

The Israel Lobby neocons have always opposed diplomacy with Iran or for that matter with anyone on their hit list. This is why they specialize in demanding preconditions designed to ensure that talks never take place. They dismiss such talks as "appeasement" and had been hoping that the election turmoil in Iran would cause President Obama to abandon diplomacy.

Fareed Zakaria writes in Newsweek (7/13/09) that "it is worth remembering that the United States still funds guerrilla outfits and opposition groups that are trying to topple the Islamic Republic." Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker (7/7/08) that $400 million was approved by Congress for this purpose of covert anti-Iranian regime activity. The idea has been to work "with opposition groups and pass money." All this must be taken into account when evaluating the significance of the current Iranian protests. We would no doubt object if a foreign country was passing out millions to disrupt our elections, especially to use as an excuse to ditch diplomacy.

US funding of Iranian dissident groups, including terrorists, occurs alongside of "Israel's Secret War With Iran," the title of a book and also a Wall Street Journal op-ed (5/16/09) by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman. Bergman describes actions of the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, in sabotaging Iran's uranium enrichment program with "a series of apparent accidents: the disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist, the crash of two planes carrying cargo relating to the project, and two labs that burst into flames."

Newsweek (9/21/09) informs us that UN officials are worrying that the proliferation of misinformation which led to the invasion of Iraq is happening again with regard to Iran. Israel has been accused of exaggerating Iran's nuclear progress. Tariq Rauf, a senior official with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has written that the mainstream media are repeating the mistakes of 2003 by hyping unsubstantiated stories about the IAEA and Iran.

An example of this media hype is a recent headline (The Boston Globe 9/18/09): "UN document says Iran has the ability to make nuclear bomb." Yet when one reads the fine print one discovers the IAEA statement that the IAEA "has no concrete proof that there is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran."

Indeed, The Wall Street Journal (9/15/09) reports that "it could take years for Iran to make a nuclear warhead and develop the ability to use it on a missile." The Washington Post (9/15/09) reported that although Iran may have enough low-enriched uranium to make one bomb, "such a move would require additional enrichment and overcoming numerous other technical hurdles." The Wall Street Journal (4/10/09) pointed out that American and UN officials emphasize that "they believe Iran has yet to master the technology to convert lower-enriched uranium into weapons grade material." And of course we recently shelved the anti-long-range nuclear-missile shield in Europe since Iran is nowhere near producing a long-range missile. It is no longer believed that Iran could produce one by 2015. Furthermore, "miniaturizing nuclear weapons for use on long-range missiles is one of the most difficult technological hurdles." (The Wall Street Journal 9/17/09)

Besides misrepresenting the Iranian nuclear program, the warmongering Israel Lobby neocons try to persuade us that an attack on Iran would help Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia. However, as reported in The New York Times (3/27/09), Syria's vice minister of foreign affairs Faisal Mekdad said that "our brothers in Saudi Arabia understand that the threat is not Iran, it is the Israeli nuclear capability. This policy of double standards is making all Arabs angry."

Meanwhile, Israel continues to threaten to bomb Iran. Newsweek (9/21/09) reports "Israel has signaled an end-of-year deadline for military action." The Wall Street Journal's Bret Stephens writes that such an Israeli strike could provoke retaliatory Iranian strikes against US targets in Iraq and the Persian Gulf in addition to $300 a barrel oil. (The Wall Street Journal 9/15/09) It's interesting that a recent collision between two US Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf spiked a sudden rise in oil prices. (The Wall Street Journal 3/21/09)

As the Israel Lobby neocons push for war with Iran, it is noteworthy that the 5-page talks proposal issued by Iran, "Cooperation for Peace, Justice, and Progress," called for "Tackling the root causes of terrorism" and stated that there should be joint efforts and interactions to draw a comprehensive equitable plan to help the people of Palestine achieve all-embracing peace, lasting security, and fundamental rights. This is the root of the problem.