Category Archives: Iran

Arab Revolutions, Iran, Syria, US Foreign Policy

Ten Years of Syria? Ten Years of Lebanon? Ten Years of Iran? a War in Europe?………….

      

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“The United States faces “a 10-year issue” in Syria as it weighs how deeply it wants to get involved the country’s civil war, the top U.S. military officer warned in an interview that aired Sunday. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told CNN’s State of the Union that the conflict is entwined in a regional issue that is now spilling over into both Lebanon and Iraq, and those underlying causes “will persist for 10 years.” “It is related — not exclusively — but related to a competition at best and a conflict at worse between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam………………”

Ten years of Syria, ten years of Lebanon. Does that mean Syria and Lebanon will replace Iraq and Afghanistan as the battlefields of the coming generation? The next mandatory acceptable war in Muslim lands? What about the war on Iran? Will it come after Lebanon and Syria or will it be waged during the same ten years?
Can you please please find some other region to devastate for a change? How about Europe? Europeans are responsible for all this mess, from way back during their empire days. Until the end of WW II. Start anew war in Europe for a change.

Cheers
mhg

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Education, Iran

Ahamadinejad at Sarah Lawrence: Misses NYC and Netanyahu and Missipppi Mud Pie……

      

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“Building on a decades-long career serving government and academic institutions in his home country, outgoing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad officially accepted a position at Sarah Lawrence College as the next Dean of Students, officials for the private New York liberal arts school announced today. “It is both an honor and a privilege to welcome Professor Ahmadinejad to the administrative team at Sarah Lawrence, to which he brings a wealth of leadership experience and a deep passion for our undergraduate program,” college president Karen Lawrence said of the right-wing Islamic leader and former engineering professor, who will teach two introductory courses in government as well as oversee the Office of Residence life, the Center for Health and Wellness, and the First Year Experience program. “From his first visit to campus in April, it was clear to everyone that Professor Ahmadinejad is a passionate and student-centered leader who understands our commitment to a highly individualized course of study………….” L’oignon

Dr. Ahamadinejad as overseer of a bunch of freshmen girls. He will miss all the ayatollahs, all the sparring and jousting and thwarting. He will also miss the Big Apple: already waxing nostalgic about his fun-filled annual September visits to New York City. Ahmadinejad would even miss Netantyahu, something even Israelis will not do after he leaves office, if he ever does. Ahmadinejad will miss Netanyahu and his knee-jerk evoking of Hitler every time Ahmadinejads was mentioned. As for Netanyhau, he will miss Ahmadinejad as the premier evil enemy of Israel and America and Western values and humanity and motherhood and Mississippi Mud Pie (one of my favorites). until the reliable US media does its work on demonizing Rouahani.
Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Iran Elections, Israel, U.S. Congress

Iran: Mr. Rouhani’s Illusory Western Honeymoon……….

      

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“The stunning landslide election of Hassan Rowhani as Iran’s next president highlighted a deep frustration among many Iranians about the direction of their country, especially an economy marred by skyrocketing prices, stagnant salaries and dwindling job opportunities. In explaining their vote for Rowhani, many spoke of change. They alluded not to hot-button international issues such as Iran’s contentious nuclear program or its die-hard support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but to the slumping economy…………………”

Iranian elections have shown over the years that they are often unpredictable. The moderate Hassan Rouhani is the newly elected president of Iran. The people of Iran have shown they are eager to reform and engage. But probably not to surrender. There is suddenly so much talk of goodwill in Western media, especially in American media. For now.
We should remember the last reformist president of Iran. Mohammed Khatami was even more reformist, more engaging. Iran’s nuclear program was not deemed as contentious, mainly because Israel had a different government and the U.S. Congress did not act as a branch of the Likud coalition. Khatami even showed sympathy and turned a blind eye to the American invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Yet in January of 2002, Mr. Bush delivered a bad speech in which he added Mr. Khatami’s country to North Korea and Baathist Iraq in a stupidly-named Axis of Evil.
So, give it some time. Mr. Netanyahu and his omnipotent lobbyists and the U.S. Knesset Congress have not started their work on Mr. Rouhani yet. And they will.

Cheers
mhg

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Blockade of Iran, Iran, US Foreign Policy

An Iranian Mystery: Edging toward Victory on the Long Road to Anticipated Collapse?………

      

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“While the Iranian economy struggles to adjust to periodic US sanctions “upgrades,” a significantly devalued currency and restrictions in global financial transactions have suddenly challenged even Iran’s famed adaptability to these kinds of externally-imposed pressures. But something is awry. There is no implosion in Iran. How is that possible with off-the-chart hikes in the price of basic goods, unaffordable housing in congested urban areas, increased youth unemployment? Instead, Iranians who love nothing better than to complain about government and economy, have grumpily rallied against these foreign efforts to pit population against state. According to results of a Gallup poll in February, 85 percent of Iranians claim sanctions have hurt their livelihood……….. But the fact is that sanctions simply don’t work: Iran is not going to stop its nuclear enrichment. Iranians aren’t going to eject their government.……….”

The source article of this above quote (from S. Narwani) is more to the point: the sanctions are NOT working as presumably intended. Iranians, or most of them, having allowed Western plotting and money to overthrow an earlier independent elected government (Mossadeq: Operation Ajax in 1953), are unlikely to cooperate again, even under duress.
An intriguing question, or is it a case study, about Iran. It implicitly poses important questions that may explain this continuous monthly ratcheting-up of the Western blockade. So how is it that besieged Iran, with so-called alleged claimed screamed daily bull-horned on-the-verge-of-collapse under the tightest blockade in modern history, how is it that it can defy the Israeli-manipulated Western blockade? Not only that: how is it that it can defeat the combined worldwide efforts of the United States, the European Union, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the sectarian tribal despots of Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the UAE? How can a country, a society, allegedly on the verge of collapse and capitulation and crying uncle to the U.S. Congress and AIPAC and an expectantly triumphant Western mainstream media, how can it defy these odds?
How is it that a society under the tightest economic and technological blockade can bring down sophisticated foreign drones, send out its own domestic drones, advance in space and nuclear research and bio-sciences, counter-hack computer systems, run elections (albeit not ideal completely free elections) and wage proxy wars even as it prepares for a massive foreign attack against it that is threatened almost daily by Mr. Netanyahu, the US Congress, Britain’s Cameron, even France’s Hollande, not to mention the funny shaikhs of Bahrain?
Is there something we can’t see? Is there a degree of internal decay and deterioration that we can’t see that points to the imminent Iranian collapse that Mr. Obama’s advisers have been promising him in private? Ich Weiss nicht, aber I think not. Are they, under political pressure, foolishly underestimating the foe? It won’t be the first time.

Cheers
mhg

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Donkeys and Asses, Iran, Iraq, Jackasses

Iraq Anniversary and Iran and the Jackasses of America……………

         

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Music: The Wonky Donkey Song

Since I seem to be covering donkeys and asses and jackasses extensively these days:
Some anchorwoman on CNN asked this morning: “What did we learn from the Iraq war?” My tweeted response was “To get ready to try and do the same in Iran”.
I was not referring just to the jackasses (and plain asses) in the United States Senate and Congress, nor only to those American officials repeating the discredited but self-serving stupid political mantra that “all options are on the table”. The U.S. media is being played beautifully by the Neo-Warmongers, so that it is almost at the same position it was ten years ago.
Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Iran Elections

Iran Elections: a Spring in the Air, Will Ahmadinejad go Rogue against the Ayatollahs?…………

         

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“March 20, marking the spring equinox, is the start of the Persian new year – Nowruz – a 13-day ancient Zoroastrian festival celebrated as the most important holiday of the Iranian calendar. The presidential elections, scheduled for 14 June, are taking place in the final days of the season. Ahmadinejad’s critics believe the president, who is prevented under Iranian law from running for a third term, is pursuing a Putin/Medvedev-style reshuffle by grooming his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, as his possible successor. Mashaei, a confidant of Ahmadinejad and his relative, is accused of advocating nationalism, greater cultural openness and attempting to undermine clerical rule, especially the supremacy of Khamenei. Opponents say that Mashaei is the head of a “deviant current” within the president’s inner circle and he has little respect for the supreme leader, although he denies it. If Mashaei does put his name forward for the presidential vote, the powerful pro-Khamenei Guardian Council will have to vet his candidacy. Many believe he will not be allowed to run, while others say Ahmadinejad will threaten to go out with all guns firing if that happens. Last week, in a ceremony held before Nowruz, Ahmadinejad awarded Mashaei the country’s highest cultural medal. Both men were recorded as using spring in their speeches. Keyhan, an ultra-conservative newspaper with a director appointed by Khamenei, has attacked the men for repeated references to spring, which it said could have un-Islamic connotations…………….”

The clerics can see now that the post of president may continue to be problematic for them. It has been so at least twice in the past, when the elected presidents clashed with the selected Supreme Leader. The very first president of Iran, Abolhassan BaniSadr disagreed with Ayatollah Khomeinei and had to flee the country to exile in Paris. Mr. Ahmadinejad has been engaged in a power struggle and is continuously clashing with the conservative clerics in Parliament who are allies of the leader. Even Khatami who was a reformist cleric clashed with the conservatives.
All this means the clerics will probably try to disqualify some of the reformist candidates, try to remove them from the list. Their main target will likely be Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, an ally of Mr. Ahmadinejad whom the current president supports. If he decides to run.
If the clerics disqualify Mashaei, Mr. Ahmadinejad may go rogue, more so than he has done so far. He might start to publicly question the separation of powers between the elected president and the unelected Supreme Leader. This will probably resonate among many young Iranians, even among some who are not so young. This should make the elections more exciting than seems likely right now; it might even invigorate some of the demoralized reformists even possibly some of the many closet secularists.
Cheers
mhg

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Ali Khamenei, Blockade of Iran, Iran, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Iranian Official: Could Have U.S. Relations before Judgment Day and Rapture and Mahdi, Feasible Options on the Table…………

         

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“The Supreme Leader will give permission for bilateral talks with the United States if he deems it necessary, the director of the Strategic Research Center of Iran’s Expediency Council said on Wednesday. The relationship with the United States is different than the relationship with other countries because the United States has always been hostile toward the Islamic Republic of Iran after the Islamic Revolution, which can be established through coordination by the Supreme Leader in the proper circumstances and if it meets national interests,” said Hassan Rohani, the Supreme Leader’s representative at Supreme National Security Council, whose secretary is Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator. It is not the Supreme Leader’s view that Iran and the United States should not have negotiations and relations until the Day of Judgment………………….”

What he is saying is that we will not necessarily have to wait for the return of our Mahdi, or the Rapture if you prefer, before Iran and the United States can sit down and negotiate bilaterally. It looks like there is some softening in the Iranian position, most likely a reaction to some softening in the Western position. Possibly a result of the Western realization that although the blockade is hurting the Iranians, they can survive it.
Possibly a result of the realization that all the political talk of “all options are on the table” rings hollow: all options are NOT really on the table, only FEASIBLE options are. Only last month Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed the idea of direct bilateral negotiations with the USA (which probably means indirect negotiations with Israel as well on this nuclear case). But then the Iranians are diverse, there are various opinions expressed on each issue through their media. And this is an election year: not every opinion expressed represents a consensus. Maybe they ought to get a negotiator like William Shatner to mediate.
Cheers
mhg

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Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, US Foreign Policy, War on Iran

Obama Goes Nuclear in Israel: Pushes Iran Threshold Beyond 1995 and 2001 and 2007 and 2013 and……………

         

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“President Barack Obama says it would currently “take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon.” In a Thursday interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TV ahead of his upcoming visit to the country, Obama says he doesn’t want to “cut it too close” and therefore all options remain on the table in countering the Iranian nuclear program. The issue has been one of the most fraught between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has repeatedly threatened to act militarily should Iran appear to be on the verge of obtaining a bomb, while the U.S. has pushed for more time to allow diplomacy and economic sanctions to run their course. In the interview, aired Thursday, Obama says he still favors diplomacy over force…………”

  • Of course he favors diplomacy over force, because there will be no use of force. There can’t be a unilateral Western use of force, mainly because it will become a long war of attrition and it can achieve nothing beyond more destruction in the Middle East. Now that the 2012 elections are over, the price of the Israeli bride can be reduced, she is not as desirable as she was last years. But she may become desirable again in future cycles, in 2014 and in 2016. 
  • All this “all options are on the table” talk is pure political nonsense. Mr. Obama speaks like he is on the campaign trail, which he is of course since he is heading to Israel. The United States will not go to war just to keep Iran from having the “capacity” to develop a nuclear bomb. Mainly because nobody knows how to destroy the capacity or ability to develop a bomb. Mainly because a military attack will fail and just make the mullahs go nuclear: decide to militarize. The Iranians have been saying loudly, including issuing a fatwa, that a nuclear bomb is haram, meaning not kosher (in Likud-ese language). 
  • Anyone who knows anything about nuclear physics probably knows that the Iranians cannot keep it a secret (even I know it, and I have forgotten most of my physics beyond how to enrich Uranium to more U-235 isotope content).
  • So, Mr. Netanyahu keeps talking about the nuclear danger of Iran, although he doesn’t claim that Iran will have the bomb by 1995 anymore, nor by 2001 anymore, nor by 2007 anymore, nor by 2014 anymore, nor by…………..
  • No more nuclear “slam dunk” is possible. People are smarter than that now, although most of the Western media seems to be as dumb as in 2003.
  • The Saudi princes still claim not so secretly that they suspect Iran plans to develop the bomb soon. How do they know that? They read Israeli media, well mainly the Jerusalem Post, or maybe their Mufti told them so.

Cheers
mhg

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Blockade of Iran, Economics, Iran, Pakistan, US Foreign Policy

Iran and Pakistan and Clinton: Controversial Pipeline? What Controversial Pipeline?…….

         

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“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched the project with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at a ceremony on the border, hailing a blow to US-led sanctions targeting his country’s oil and gas sector. The two leaders unveiled a plaque before shaking hands and offering prayers for the successful conclusion of the project, which involves the laying of a 485 mile section of the pipeline on the Pakistani side, expected to cost some $1.5 billion. “The completion of the pipeline is in the interests of peace, security and progress of the two countries … It will also consolidate the economic, political and security ties of the two nations,” they said in a joint statement……………….”

This agreement on the gas pipeline was one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest foreign policy failures. She and her State Department worked hard to derail it. It did not threaten the security of the United States; it did not even threaten the more important security of Israel. Yet she tried all kinds of extremely expensive alternatives that would bypass Iranian gas fields. Every alternative was very uneconomical: Iran probably sits on the world’s second largest reserves of natural gas (possibly the largest). No doubt the Iranians also paid a price for the pleasure of thumbing their noses at the West.
Controversial? Only in the United States media since it is not against any United Nations sanctions.

Cheers
mhg

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Cinema, Iran

Iran Suing Hollywood: Carlos the Jackal, the Ayatollah Speech………

         

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“Organisers of the Hoax of Hollywood conference in Tehran said they had recruited, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, who has also acted for the Venezuelan-born terrorist, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal, to file a legal complaint against the film’s producers and financial backers for “spreading fear of Iran”. “Argo is made by three film-producing companies in Hollywood [and] the Islamic Republic of Iran is going to sue all those who have been active in the anti-Iran domain, including directors and producers,” said the conference’s general secretary, Mohammad Lesani, according to the news agency Mehr. “Isabelle Coutant-Peyre is among the few international lawyers who accept cases which are somehow anti-Zionist.” He said several meetings had been held with Ms Coutant-Peyre and that a portion of her legal fee had already been paid in advance. Ms Coutant-Peyre told the conference in Tehran’s Palestine Cinema, that she had accepted the case “for the sake of defending Iran”………………”

The Iranians are becoming annoying about this Argo business. Even I am getting annoyed by them. I usually tend to give the Iranians the benefit of the doubt in my posts (mainly because they are the underdog, facing the might of the whole Western world and its institutions). They must have other more weighty issues to worry about, like the economy and free elections and freedom of expression, than a crusade against a film. Cinema is supposed to be entertaining, hence it is supposed to rely on fictional depictions of life and history. Just get real: who would pay for a ticket in order to watch some Ayatollah make a speech for two hours?
There is no way any sane judge anywhere outside the Muslim world would rule for them, nor would I. (I suspect that our Muslim judges are not always sane). It is a waste of time, and there are no principles involved. Just give it up, will you?

Cheers
mhg

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