Iranian grievances

Personally (and this is a personal post), I am extremely concerned at the Iranian nuclear problem - I am entirely convinced, beyond any doubt, reasonable or not, that they are seeking to construct nuclear weapons, and I consider it axiomatic that we cannot accept life in a world with an Iranian nuclear bomb.

Europe is failing, once again - and not just on this grave issue - to address the threat with any realism in terms of the danger that it poses, and in any case, the options for dealing with this problem are all bad or worse.

Nevertheless, I post this piece regarding Iranian grievances, as in a sense it also reflects what other senior Iranian interlocutors tell NCF privately.

Though the sense of grievance that arises from the article is no doubt real, justified or not, it is the following quote that is the crux of the matter:

'In many ways [Besharati] is the model of an Iranian official... ...and speaks the language of what might be called peaceful-defiance, placing all blame for U.S.-Iranian problems on the White House while insisting Tehran wants nothing more than to live in peaceful harmony with the world. He does not answer when asked why for nearly two decades Iran kept its nuclear program a secret, in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.'

I would argue that the outrageous stance President Ahmadinejad has taken on a number of core matters pertaining to Jewry, can be taken in the same vein as the antisemitism at the core of the Jihadi ideology. Namely, in the words of Germany's former FM Fischer: When the (rhetorical) Synagogues are burning, pretty soon everything else will be on fire.

That is to say, even if you do not care about Israel, nor are particulalry troubled by Holocaust denial, surely you care about you're own values and way of life. It may not be perfect, but most ordinary Iranians would risk their life to have it.

Tony Blair's 'arch of moderation' speech was history in-the-making. And according to the mind readers that are the British commentariat, the man is very concerned with history and his place in it. This concept will guarantee that place.

Let us make sure that it is not as a lone prophet in a doomed West, but as the beginning of the tide that defeats this grave - interconnected but extremely complex - threat that faces us.

Iran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.

FULL ARTICLE HERE