05 November 2012 By Amir Taheri Is Hassan Nasrallah a "Zionist
agent"? Normally, the answer should be: God, forbid! And, yet, this was the charge leveled against him
last week by, Deputy Commander of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Jamaleddin
Abroumand. The general was commenting on reports about the
penetration of an unknown drone into Israel's air
space. Seizing every opportunity to praise his
paymasters in Tehran, Nasrallah had rushed to his TV
studio to claim that the drone had been made in Iran
and sent to Lebanon as part of a strategy to keep
Israel under pressure. The general did not mention Nasrallah by name; but
his remarks included big hints about the intended
target. "Those who link the drone incident to Iran are
carrying out Israel's psychological war against the
Islamic Republic," Abroumand said. Since no one, not even Israel, had linked the drone
to Iran, it was obvious that the general was referring
to Nasrallah. The drone incident had come just days after Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced early
elections in which fear of "a nuclear-armed Iran"
would be the main theme of his campaign. Concern about Israel's safety is also a
consideration with a segment of the Jewish electorate
in the United States. That concern could change enough
votes in some swing states, notably Florida and Ohio,
to threaten President Barack Obama's re-election
hopes. Tehran, however, regards Obama as the lesser of two
evils and is determined to do nothing to sabotage his
re-election. Obama has already given the Islamic Republic four
more years in which to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
When Obama entered the White House Iran had around 400
centrifuges enriching uranium up to 3.5 per cent. Now
it has 12,000 enriching up to 20 per cent. The
consensus in Tehran is that if Obama gets four more
years, Iran would have enough time to develop a full
nuclear cycle and impose it as fait accompli. At the other end of the spectrum, Tehran does not
want Netanyahu to win the next Israeli election. To achieve those two objectives Tehran has been
trying to cool things down on a number of issues. It has agreed to a new round of talks on the
nuclear issue, helping Obama claim that his goal of a
negotiated settlement may still be attainable. "We have every hope of achieving results very
quickly," the European Union's foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton said on Sunday. (She is in charge of
negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue.) Tehran has also toned down its support for Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad, at least verbally. On
Monday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implicitly
rejected al-Assad's boast about beating the opposition
into submission. "The solution to the problem in Syria is not to
allow anyone to impose his views on the nation,"
Ahmadinejad said. "The people of Syria must express
their will in genuinely free elections." An even more telling sign of Tehran's intention to
cool things down to help Obama and hinder Netanyahu
came in a speech by "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei in
Bojnurd, northeast Iran. "What the Zionists say is not significant enough to
merit an answer," Khamenei said, clearly hoping to
cool down talk of Israeli pre-emptive attacks. Hopes of impacting the American and Israeli
elections are not the sole reason for Tehran's change
of hymn sheet. Khamenei and Ahmadinejad have been rattled by the
recent run on the Iranian currency, the rial, which
has pushed the economy to the edge of the precipice.
While the economic crisis has many reasons, including
mismanagement and hastily introduced reforms, there is
no doubt that talk of war has been a factor in
people's rush to buy dollars. Before the recent run on the rial, bellicose talk
had been the flavour of the day in Tehran. Men wearing
military caps or white or black turbans would appear
on TV to promise imminent wars that would wipe Israel
off the map, bring America to its knees and conquer
the world for the "Supreme Guide". General Hossein Salami could claim that the IRGC
was poised to destroy the US military machine in the
Middle East. "We are not impressed by their hardware,"
the general said. "To us, all that is rusty iron." General Hassan Firouzabadi, Chief of Staff of the
Armed Forces, had to appear on TV to call for an end
to "all that talk of war." Historians know that many wars start with loose
talk, often prompted by hyperbolic optimism. It is
when victory appears to be within reach at a low cost
that the signal is given for war. Thus, in referring to "the Zionist psychological
war against the Islamic Republic", General Abroumand
was echoing General Firouzabadi. A master of hyperbole, Nasrallah praised the
wayward drone as if it were a flying miracle of
science, technology and Khomeinism. Perhaps he did not
know that more than 40 countries produce and/or use
drones, according to the Institute for Strategic
Studies. In fact, Nasrallah could buy a simpler and
cheaper version of the drone from the Hamleys toy
store in London and propel it with remote control over
the Shabaa Farms. It is possible that Nasrallah was not aware of the
change of tune in Tehran. His Iranian controllers must
have forgotten to inform him that they now wanted to
cool things down because talk of war could harm Obama
and help Netanyahu. In other words, the puppet was
singing from yesterday's hymn sheet. Amir Taheri was born in Ahvaz, southwest Iran,
and educated in Tehran, London and Paris. He was
Executive Editor-in-Chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran
(1972-79). In 1980-84, he was Middle East Editor for
the Sunday Times. In 1984-92, he served as member of
the Executive Board of the International Press
Institute (IPI). Between 1980 and 2004, he was a
contributor to the International Herald Tribune. He
has written for the Wall Street Journal, the New York
Post, the New York Times, the London Times, the French
magazine Politique Internationale, and the German
weekly Focus. Between 1989 and 2005, he was editorial
writer for the German daily Die Welt. Taheri has
published 11 books, some of which have been translated
into 20 languages. He has been a columnist for Asharq
Alawsat since 1987. Taheri's latest book "The Persian
Night" is published by Encounter Books in London and
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