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As indicated this lack of ideological balance is not unique to Israel, when it comes to Iran the premise that is accepted blindly is that an Iranian WMD program is bound to be detrimental to international security and stability. Yet no credence is ever given to the serious proposition that Iran if it did become a nuclear power could make the region as a whole much safer as it would cancel out at a stroke the superior US and Israeli military capability. Deterrence and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) were key cornerstones of the cold war security system bringing balance to international relations. Asking Iran to give up its nuclear program would have been like the Soviet Union asking West Germany to remove its American nuclear bases, on the pretext that their presence threatened international peace and stability.
Secondly much of the western establishment treat Iran’s obligations under the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a divine set of commandments rather than as an international agreement, which inevitably is always subservient to national interests. Many in Britain, France or the Netherlands don’t want for example Brussels deciding tax policy or foreign policy yet these same nations have no problems dictating security policy to Iran. The NPT is not a sacred document and Iran has every sovereign right to withdraw from it anytime it likes as its Parliament has recently indicated. For example Article 10 of the NPT states ‘Each party shall in exercising its national sovereignty have the right to withdraw from the treaty if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this treaty, have jeopardized the supreme interests of its country.‘ Being constantly threatened by the US and Israel may even persuade right wing hawks that Iran does face such extraordinary events. Like any treaty it can be exited (in the case of the NPT there is a ninety day notice period), the US itself exits treaties it doesn‘t like, such as the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty that it withdrew from in 2001 and refuses to sign others such as Kyoto and the International Criminal Court. And of course don’t mention the Geneva Conventions to the inmates at Guantanomo Bay.
Thirdly if you listen to much of the coverage in the west you would think Iran is the aggressor and western nations are innocent victims. Yet it is Iran that is being threatened and intimidated day by day. President Bush’s Axis of Evil speech in January 2002 was followed up by invading one of the axis members in March 2003. It is clear from the 2002 speech and other comments made by the US Administration that the US seeks regime change in Tehran. Iran is threatened with the presence of 160,000 American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, it faces the US Navy’s fifth fleet which is located in Bahrain, the US air force which has extensive use of the Al Udeid and Prince Sultan airbases in Qatar and Saudi Arabia respectively as well as daily threats from a nuclear Israel. Recently Shimon Perez, the new deputy Israeli prime Minister has reiterated that Israel has the capability of wiping Iran off the map. An Iranian leader who didn’t take steps to defend his nation would be accused of not fulfilling the first duty of any government, which is to protect its citizen’s security.
Fourthly the GWOT is constantly presented as being concerned with the welfare of the millions of ordinary citizens throughout the world yet this narrative is largely rejected in most parts of the world. Democracies contrary to popular myth have a bad record when it comes to the use of state violence and terror. Being ‘democratic’ did not stop the British Empire engaging in imperialism, barbarity and brutal conquest. Liberte, Egalite, et Fraternite the watchwords of the French revolution did not stop France in engaging in a barbaric occupation of Algeria. Nor did the US Bill of Rights and constitution prevent the systematic annihilation of native Indians, the dropping of atomic bombs in Japan, the systematic use of chemical weapons in Vietnam or the US led campaigns of Korea, Panama, Grenada and Iraq. Furthermore, Israel is often cited as the only ‘democratic’ country in the Middle East yet despite this it, not Iran since the Second World War has launched four pre-emptive conflicts in 1948,1956, 1967 and 1982. The first aggression effectively wiped the unitary Palestinian Muslim state that had existed for centuries off the map. It was the West and Britain in particular that historically treated Iran as an imperial gas station. British intelligence effectively removed Mohamed Mossadeq the elected leader of Iran in 1953 after he nationalised the state oil company replacing him with the autocratic leader, Reza Shah Pahelvi (The Shah) who Amnesty International cites as being responsible for killing 10,000 people. The policy was explained by the then British Foreign Secretary as being ‘expected to produce a salutary effect throughout the Middle East and elsewhere as evidence that the United Kingdom interests could not be recklessly molested with impunity.’ No wonder people view western policy with such suspicion.
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