Iran, the world’s apparent resident evil, according to the axis theme brigade at least, is at it again: ‘Iran test-fires long-range missile capable of hitting Israel’ was the headlines in the British Daily Telegraph (Wednesday, July 9 th 2008) but no mention of Israel’s estimated 150-200 nuclear warheads in the text; no mention of Israel being the nuclear power in the middle-eastern region; no mention either of superior British or US nuclear capability. Images of nine medium and long-range missiles without nuclear capability were screened globally courtesy of Iranian television … oh dear the secret is out! The headline capture for most media was a deliberately placed quote from Hossein Salami the Air Force Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard: ‘Our hands are always on the trigger and our missiles are ready for launch’ ... chill winds are apparently blowing across the middle-eastern sands, as if they weren’t already.

Whatever we may think about the US and European approach to Iran, particularly the British and French wing of Europe at least, it’s always worth bearing in mind that the incumbent Iranian leadership use Israel and the US as justification for its continuation in power not so different, tactically at least, from the way Mugabe uses the British as justification for his repugnant reign to continue also. It’s often the case that many on the Left jump to the wrong conclusions once Israel and the US are mentioned in the same sentence, often forgetting that the Iranian leadership, and Hizbollah whom they support, aren’t what we would call enthusiastic advocates of democracy even in a socialist sense. However, despite the fact that Iran has a pretty deplorable human rights record and is continuing to harass women activists fighting to defend the rights of women detailed by Amnesty International (see link below), nevertheless it’s not entirely unreasonable for Iran to indicate to the world, as it is so obviously and publicly doing currently, that it has a right to defend itself from both Israel and the US, who both have far superior weaponry power.

An Associate Press (AP) report (Thursday, July 10 th , 2008) created their own version of events quoting ‘official analysts’ who claimed that the show of strength wasn’t just about ‘retaliation’, as the Iranian’s have constantly claimed, but also about going on the ‘offensive’, which the Iranian’s have claimed would be nothing short of a farce, not to mention suicidal. AP wheeled out Suzanne Maloney from the so-called ‘independent’ Brookings Institution based in Washington D.C., who spoke of the danger posed to Israel by Iran. But it’s always worth remembering that one Haim Saban donates generously to the Brookings Institution, funding the Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Saban and Director of the Center Martyn Indyk, described by ABC News ‘On the Issues’ as a ‘Brookings Expert’ are fervent pro-Israeli supporters, with Saban also a major financial backer of the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign, who spent many hours of the campaign lecturing on pro-Israeli issues. Maloney is also a Senior Fellow on Foreign Policy at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy… it’s making a lot more sense now! And the right wing in the US are also at it again; yes it is time to think about how fear can be generated amongst the public once again. Here’s a clip from an interview with Ivo Daalder conducted by Diane Rehm that demonstrates this point clearly (Thursday July 10 th 2008):

Rehm: Ivo, if I could start with you, talk about these missile tests. What’s going on, are there new capabilities about which you believe the U.S. needs to be concerned?

Daalder: Well anytime someone shoots a missile off we have to be concerned. These are systems that, if deployed with weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical or biological), could do a lot of damage — and they could do a lot of damage over significant ranges.

Ah yes, it’s the old ‘weapons of mass destruction’ routine happening all over again. If at once you don’t succeed, try and try again!

But perhaps the real player who may just have most to lose is Russia, because for all the blustering of Iran many in the US are using the Iranian ‘threat’ as justification for the missile defence system they wish to strategically place in Europe. According to Seymour Hersh on BBC’s Newsnight (Wednesday, July 9 th 2008, 10.30pm) whilst power shifts between Cheney and Rice on a casual basis, he believes that Cheney has the upper hand recently. Russia will therefore only be too aware that Iran, whom they support, may have handed Cheney and Co., the ideal excuse they were so desperately looking for. And perhaps we now know why Russia refused to back the US and Britain on new sanctions against the Mugabe led regime in Zimbabwe.

But perhaps the ‘show of strength’ has been exaggerated as Mark Fitzpatrick of the Institute of Strategic Studies has claimed in an interview with the BBC: ‘It very much does appear that Iran doctored the photo to cover up what apparently was a misfiring of one of the missiles’ claims Fitzpatrick … but will anybody be listening?

Links

The Daily Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/2273986/Iran-tests-fires-long-...

Amnesty International Report Women act against repression and intimidation in Iran
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/women-act-against-repr…

ABC News ‘On The Issues’ Martha Raddatz interview with Martin Indyk
http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia/video/2008/0506_issues_indyk.aspx

SourceWatch on Haim Saban
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Haim_Saban

Rehm-Daalder Interview under ‘Iran and U.S. Missile Defense’
http://www.brookings.edu/interviews/2008/0710_iran_daalder.aspx

Mark Fitzpatrick interview on the BBC under ‘Iran faked missile test image’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7500917.stm