People's Democracy

 Targeting Iran

Yohannan Chemarapally

THE chorus in the US led by right wing politicians and Congressmen having strong ties with Israel to bomb Iran is increasing by the day. Now top officials of the Obama administration, including the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have joined the bandwagon. They were quick to take to the airwaves condemning the government in Teheran, after a joint operation by the FBI and the DEA allegedly unearthed an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington. President Barack Obama too joined in later to threaten Iran with dire consequences. Iran bashing has become a popular pastime as the presidential polls approach.  Many of the Republican candidates vying for the presidency want the US to declare war against Iran immediately.

The war lobby has got more ammunition now with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board passing yet another resolution censuring Iran. The latest IAEA resolution has regurgitated so called evidence provided by American and Israeli secret agencies and concluded that Iran is working to produce a nuclear device. Only Cuba and Ecuador voted against the resolution passed in the third week of November. Indonesia abstained while India voted in favour of the resolution. The resolution however did not propose any additional sanctions on Iran but that has not stopped the Obama administration from announcing more draconian unilateral sanctions.

In the same week the IAEA resolution was passed, another resolution indirectly targeting Iran was passed in the UN General Assembly. This time India had the good sense to abstain. The resolution condemned the attempt on the life of Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington. The Obama administration has blamed Teheran for the alleged murder plot. When an assassination of a high profile diplomat actually happened on American soil, the US authorities opted for a cover up. In 1976, Orlando Lettelier, Chile’s foreign minister under Salvador Allende, was assassinated by a hit squad despatched by Gen Augusto Pinochet’s secret service on a busy street during daytime in Washington. Though the CIA had evidence that the assassination was carried out by agents of the Chilean secret service – DINA, the facts were suppressed and the pro- American Chilean government was given a clean chit. The CIA director at the time was George Bush, Senior, who later went on to become president.  

ORCHESTRATED

CONTROVERSY

The main player in the alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador is a dubious character of Iranian origin, Mansour Arbabsiar. According to the American charge sheet, he was financed by sections of the Iranian security establishment. If the version of events put out in Washington is to be believed, Arbabsiar was given the task of hiring members of a Mexican drug cartel to carry out a hit on Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi envoy and then blow up the Saudi embassies in Washington and Buenos Aires. The story reads more like pulp fiction. The Iranian government has accused Washington of running “a comedy show”. Intelligence analysts in the US and retired CIA veterans have questioned the sensational announcement made in Washington in early October. The Saudi envoy in Washington is a minor player in Kingdom’s politics and is not even a member of the ruling al Saud family.

Bruce Reidel a CIA veteran and a former adviser to the US president, described the charges against Iran as “fishy” and echoed the sceptical views of most analysts who found it extremely difficult to believe that the government in Iran would go to extent of assassinating a foreign diplomat on American territory and that too by taking the help of a notorious Mexican drug cartel. The activities of the drug cartels are closely monitored by the US and Mexican authorities. The Obama administration’s most serious charge is that the Quds Force, the intelligence wing of the Iran Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) was involved in the plot. It is being alleged that $100,000 was wired by the Iranians as an advance payment. Iranian banks are prohibited by US laws from dealing directly with Americans. The money was wired from a third country. The US authorities have refused to divulge the name of the country or the manner in which the funds were routed to the US.

Though the US attorney general, Eric Holder was quick to blame the Iranian government alleging that the “conspiracy was conceived, sponsored and directed from Iran” the formal complaint only stated that the operation was “directed by factions of the Iranian government”.  Even within the American political establishment, there are very few takers for the story. Robert Baer, a former CIA officer who specialised on West Asia told the Washington Post that the Quds Force “has never been this sloppy, using untested proxies, contracting Mexican drug lords, sending money through New York bank accounts and putting its agents on US soil where they risk being caught –the Quds Force is simply better than that”.   

Arbabsiar, a failed used car salesman with a history of financial and personal problems, according to reports, was a victim of a “sting operation” by the FBI. Counter terrorism experts also point out that US intelligence operatives are swarming all over Mexico and have extremely close links with the Mexican security agencies. All the recent terror suspects arrested in the US have all been trapped by “sting operations” by US authorities. The Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi has described the US accusations as “immature” and predicted that the US will be ultimately forced to apologise. President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad said that the allegations were similar to the WMD allegations in 2003 that formed the basis for the invasion of Iraq.

Iranian officials have been accusing the Mossad (the Israeli secret agency) and the exiled Iranian rebel group, the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MeK) for orchestrating the latest controversy. According to Iranian officials, the second Iranian named as a suspect, Gholam Shakouri is a MeK member. He is also a cousin of Arbabsiar. Iranian authorities have said that he has travelled to the US on a forged Iranian passport and documents provided by Mossad. The MeK which was designated as a “terror group” when it was enjoying the hospitality of the government of Iran during the days of Saddam Hussein, has now become very close to the US security services. Iranian officials allege that MeK members have been used by the Israelis and the Americans to target their scientists and diplomats.  

Kenneth Katzmann, an expert on Iran at the US Congressional Research Service and an author of a book on the IRGC told the IPS news service that “Iran does not blow up buildings in Washington that invites retaliation against the Iranian homeland”. The so called terror pot unearthed by the US authorities involved the blowing up of the Saudi envoy in a crowded Washington restaurant. The alleged plot was revealed at a time when Iran is facing increasing pressure from the West on issues related to human rights and its nuclear program. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, submitted a report critical of Iran’s human rights record in the third week of October. A Special Rapporteur for Iran was appointed for the first time by the UN. Teheran has said that his appointment was done under pressure from the West. In early November, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is all set to submit a report criticising Iran’s nuclear program, alleging that the country is preparing a nuclear warhead.

DEFLECTING

ATTENTION

President Obama in the third week of October called on the international community to institute “the toughest sanctions” on Iran. He went on to add that Iran would be made “to pay a price” for the alleged terrorist plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador. While accusing Iran of “reckless behaviour” no mention was, of course, made of his administration authorising the killing of American and foreign nationals in other countries like Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Mitt Romney, who is likely to be Obama’s Republican challenger for the presidency in 2012 said that he wants two aircraft carrier forces to be permanently deployed in the Persian Gulf region to act as a deterrent to Iran. It is obvious that the two leading contenders for the presidency next year are lending credence to the flimsy charges against Iran for petty electoral gains. A right wing group, United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI), which includes two members of president Obama’s foreign policy advisers, demanded that the US should “make it clear that Iran will face consequences for its actions, including military retaliation for attacks on Americans”. A recent opinion poll showed that a majority of Americans think that Iran is their country’s main enemy.

The focus on Iran also helps to deflect the attention away from the pro-democracy movements in neighbouring countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi authorities have been blaming the Iranian authorities, without providing any evidence, for fomenting the democratic upsurge in Bahrain and for the stirrings in their own kingdom. Wikileaks documents had quoted Saudi King Abdullah urging the US to lead a military attack on Iran “to cut of the head of the snake” and halt Iran’s nuclear program. Senior American military officials have accused the Quds Force of interference in Iraq and Afghanistan as the US military prepares for withdrawal from both the countries. Washington is of course not happy with the open support Iran extends to the resistance forces like Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran’s strong ties with Syria are another irritant for Washington and its allies in the region. In the last decade, Washington had unwittingly lent a helping hand to Teheran by overthrowing the Sunni fundamentalist Taliban in Afghanistan and the secular Ba’ath government in Iraq. The present Shia dominated government in Baghdad has very warm relations with Teheran.  

Some of the Obama administration’s recent actions and pronouncements seem to indicate that Washington has decided to stoke the brewing Sunni-Shia strife in the region. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadenijad has made a public appeal to the Saudi authorities asking them not to fall prey to the “heinous conspiracy” hatched in Washington. “The US administration is not interested in Iran or Saudi Arabia. They see their interests in having a dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia – they want to dominate our region”, Ahmadenijad told the Al Jazeera network. The Iranian president at the same time offered to investigate the American accusations. “We are prepared to examine any issue, even if fabricated, seriously and patiently, and we have called on America to submit to us any information in regard to this scenario”, he said.