8 November 2009By Franklin Lamb
On November 4, 2009, the 30th anniversary of the
student takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran,
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini gave a
speech which is being much discussed in Washington DC.
The source of some of the angst at the While House and
the State Department according to Congressional
sources was that "the speech suggests that the Iranian
government may be doing what it's done many times over
the past seven years. Which is to say that Iran may
appear to agree, then hedge, then disagree, then
appear to agree again somewhat, then pull back again,
then ask for more time to consider details of the
proposal, then finally present a counter-proposal,
then say it wants cooperation but has serious doubts
about the reliability of the other side and then say
it will never give up on its rights, and on and on its
goes."
While omitting Iran's take on recent events, some on
Capitol Hill wondered if Iran's Wali al Fique (supreme
leader) was playing to his base or was using the
speech to communicate directly and seriously with the
Obama administration. Presumably he was doing both.
Aytollalh's Khameni's words were pointed and clear. He
declared that Tehran may reject any talks backed by
Washington because it is not to be trusted. He
acknowledged that the US wanted to negotiate with
Tehran "but its talks were full of threats … Every
time they have a smile on their face, they are hiding
a dagger behind their back. … Iran will not be fooled
by the superficial conciliatory tone of the United
States…This new American president repeatedly sent us
oral and written messages to come and change the page
-- to come and cooperate in solving the problems of
the world. We said we will not pre-judge. We will see
their action and see what they do about the change…But
in the past eight months what we have seen is
contradictory to what they say. They are telling us to
negotiate, but alongside the negotiation there is a
threat that if the negotiation does not bear the
desired results, then we will do this and we will do
that…We do not want any negotiations, the result of
which is pre-determined by the United States," he
said, adding that Tehran will always pursue its
"scientific and technological rights and freedom," and
does not want a "sheep and wolf relation" with those
with "ill-intentions" against Iran.
"Why don't the Iranians trust us on the nuclear
issue?" asked a staff member the House Foreign Affairs
committee, who conceded he had not read the widely
reported speech but he added that "Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on 11/2/09 in
Marrakech that the U.N. nuclear deal could not be
altered so it is unclear what is left to negotiate
about."
Some American analysts have argued that Iran is quite
right to be suspicious of US intensions and have
identified a pattern of recent events that undermine
the credibility of the Obama administration since the
president's June "open hand-clenched fist" speech in
Cairo. A pattern that Iran's leadership no doubt
analyzes as it recalls, and resolves not to continue
the half century of Arab-Muslim gullibility when it
comes to American and Western promises and
inducements.
Some recent examples come to mind:
"Clinton's flip-flop on US demands for an Israeli
settlement freeze and her throwing in the towel on the
Obama administration assertion that Zionist settlement
construction must stop. Her "Israel's has made
unprecedented concessions" statement was an obscenity
to the ears of Palestinians and to much of the world
including Iran. And it led to the 11/05/09
announcement by Mahmoud Abass that he would not seek
reelection as President of the Palestinian Authority.
All the White House could do was send its spokesman,
Robert Gibbs, to the press room to praise Abass as a
"true partner for the United States and Israel."
"The October 21, 2009, "Juniper Cobra 10" launching of
the largest ever joint US-Israel military maneuvers
employing more than 1000 military personnel and 17
U.S. warships clearly aimed at threatening Iran which
is to be targeted by Arrow, Patriot and Aegis missiles
in case of conflict. This was coupled by the obtuse
comment of a US naval commander that the US navy will
defend Israeli occupied Haifa as if it were San Diego.
"The Obama administration has conspicuously refused to
put the "Jundallah" (God's soldiers) group on the US
State Department's list of foreign terrorist
organizations while keeping Lebanon's Waad and Jihad
al Binna constructions companies on the T list
alongside Lebanon's senior Shia cleric, Mohammad
Hussein Fadlallah.
"In May 2009, "Jundallah" claimed responsibility for
the killing of civilians in a mosque in Zahedan, the
provincial capital of Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan
province. Last month, a Jundallah suicide bomber blew
himself up at an Iran-supported gathering which was
meant to foster closer community relations between
Sunnis and Shi'ites in the area. What confidence can
Iran's leaders have in an Obama administration that
continues the Bush-Cheney never-ending war on terror
with its wrongheaded logic of "my enemy's enemy is my
friend?
"What message does this week's House Congressional
Resolution on the Goldstone Report send to Tehran and
the World?
By a margin of 344-36, the US House of Representative
quickly passed HR 867, an Israeli lobby resolution,
crafted by AIPAC and staff members of Republican
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that condemned the
UN Goldstone report which has now been endorsed by the
UN General Assembly with a vote of 114 to 18. The
Goldstone Report now moves to the UN Security Council
and perhaps the International Criminal Court in The
Hague.
But according to the US House of Representatives and
the vicious attack by the Anti-Defamation League hate
group and its Director, Abe Foxman, the Report on wars
crimes committed by Israel and Hamas is "irredeemably
biased and unworthy of further consideration or
legitimacy." Many in Congress, who are strong
advocates of an American Israel-centric foreign
policy, vie with one another to demonstrate obeisance
to Israel, not America. They urged President Obama and
Secretary of State Clinton "to strongly and
unequivocally oppose any discussion of the report or
action on its findings in any international setting",
despite the fact that Judge Goldstone exposed many
errors in Congressional criticism of the UN Report.
Ignoring Goldstone's rebuttal to Israeli lobby attacks
on the UN Report, Democratic House Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer proclaimed:"I think the UN Goldstone
report is unbalanced, and unfair, and inaccurate," yet
he refused to offer any facts to support his broadside
attack while adding that "the UN is totally biased
against Israel, which is as careful a government as
there is in terms of prosecuting its own defense
officials." Hoyer and his colleagues apparently do not
credit the work of B'tselem, who the day before the
rushed passage of HR 867 documented that as of
11/04/09 not one Israeli government investigation has
been opened regarding Israel's policy during "Cast
Lead" with respect to the selection of targets, the
open-fire orders given to soldiers, the legality of
the weapons used, the balance between injury to
civilians and military advantage. Additionally, more
than half of 23 cases of Palestinians being killed
while holding white flags and all the cases where
Gazans were used as human shields were exposed by
B'tselem not the Israeli military, whose position,
like Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen, is that these crimes did
not happen despite overwhelming evidence to the
contrary.
Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen are pillars of the fake US
Congressional Human Rights Caucus, founded in l983
which in its quarter century of self congratulatory
investigations of Human Rights abuses has yet to find
a single human rights abuse by Israel, irrespective of
any murders, slaughtering of innocents, home
demolitions, political incarcerations, religious
bigotry, illegal use of American weapons, illegal
siege of Gaza, and serial invasions of Lebanon, and
the continuing theft of Syria's Golan heights. Over
the past few years the CHRC has become an Iran-bashing
forum for all manner of Zionist zealots and kooks
spreading falsehoods and defamations against Islam and
the Islamic Republic.
According to Ros-Lehtinen, "The Goldstone Report
illustrates the anti-freedom, anti-Israel bias which
deeply pervades the UN system, and it does not deserve
consideration or legitimacy from responsible nations.
Israel took every reasonable measure to minimize the
risk of civilian casualties. It is clear that Israel
had every right and duty to defend its citizens from
the onslaught of rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas
and other militants in Gaza,"
Both Hoyer and Ros-Lehtinen could have been deterred
by the White House from creating this latest
anti-Arab, anti-Islam House Resolution but they were
given a green light by the Obama administration to
push their screed. Obama joined in condemning the
Goldstones Report and not much appears to be left of
his pledge to break from the past and open a new
chapter of civility with Iran.
Human Rights Watch which had urged lawmakers not to
back the resolution, said that "Instead of denouncing
the Goldstone report, the US Congress should urge
Israel and Hamas to break the cycle of abuse and
impunity, which for too long has fueled hatred and
hindered efforts at peace."
One can hardly expect Iran to believe that these US
policy makers should be taken seriously or have any
interest to advance their country's interests rather
than Israel's.Questions of credibility rest more at
the door of Barack Obama's White House that at Iran's
Shura and Majlis.
U.S. Mid-East policy clearly in disarray, from Iran to
Palestine. Time is running out if Obama's claimed
vision of dialogue on the basis of mutual respect and
equality does not collapse into complete derision and
caricature.
Franklin Lamb is Director of the Washington DC-Beirut
Lebanon based Sabra Shatila Foundation. He can be
reached at fplamb@sabrashatila.org
**Courtesy
of My Lamb, this article of his firstly appeared here
on December 4th 2009
©
EsinIslam.Com
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