25 February 2016

By Salman Aldosary

''I thought that the writer is the foreign minister of a Scandinavian country,'' the UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed commented about his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif's article that was published in ''The New York Times'' two days ago.

Perhaps this ironic commentary summarizes the Iranian situation that has intensified to an extent that contradicts logic on every occasion and deceives the world by showing white as black and vice versa.

Zarif tried to present himself as a liberal minister from Denmark as he talked about human rights and the barbarism of severing heads with swords; however, he ignored his government's suppression of the Green Revolution's symbols and the Ahwazi, Azeri and Baluchi's minorities.

The Iranian Foreign Minister accused Saudi Arabia of promoting anti-Islamic messages of hatred and sectarianism, forgetting, of course, what Hezbollah, the Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Fadel al-Abbas, and dozens of other militias do from repression and harassment, all based on sectarianism.

Zarif accused Riyadh of sponsoring terrorist activities, yet facts tell that Iran, not Saudi Arabia, is the country facing many judicial cases affiliated to terrorism in world courts; from Argentine to Bulgaria and from Thailand to India. Not to mention that Iran, once again, not Saudi Arabia, has militias, globally classified as terrorist organizations, such as the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.

The whole world knows the country that attempted to assassinate the former Saudi ambassador to Washington, and certainly ''New York Times'' and its readers are the first to be aware of this fact.

This was probably part of the contradictions delivered by Minister Zarif, but we have not talked yet about the lies he presented in his article, and I couldn't find any other appropriate word to describe the forgery of the Iranian minister.
He aimed to deceive the West by accusing the Grand Mosque preacher in Mecca, saying: ''our disagreement with Shiites will not be removed, nor our suicide to fight them as long as Shiites remained on the earth.'' This is a big lie that does not suit a minor official, let alone he being the Foreign Minister. All the Grand Mosque preaches are all documented on ''YouTube'' and anyone can watch them and discover Zarif's lies.

Meanwhile, the other lie is in him accusing Saudi Arabia with targeting (directly) the Iranian diplomatic establishments in all of Yemen, Lebanon, and Pakistan, which is a completely new piece of information Zarif drove into the arena, as if one would not ask when and how the targeting was accomplished, which only manifests in the Iranian world of superstition.

As for the Iranian minister endeavoring with all his efforts to show the Western world that his country is an exemplary country that fosters peace and stability, I would like to remind him of the Iranian deeds that, unlike the accusations that he is pointing towards Saudi Arabia, are proven. Since signing the nuclear agreement on July 2015, just like United States Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations had pointed out, Iran sentenced detained ''Washington Post'' journalist Jason Rezaian to prison, and also imprisoned another ''Iranian-American'' citizen.

Moreover, it has defied sanctions established by the United Nations on weapon trafficking, by sending out arms to both Yemen and Syria, and dispatching Major General Qasem Soleimani commander of its ''Quds'' Iranian Force division, alongside other officials whom had UN sanctions imposed on, to Iraq, Syria and several other places, besides launching ballistic missiles twice.

Furthermore, Iran has refused to fully cooperate with the IAEA's investigations on their ongoing nuclear weapon research, two terrorist cells caught on Bahrain were affiliated to both Iran and its Army of the Guardians, and Kuwait arrested a similar Iranian-militia associated cell on its grounds. All the aforementioned happened in six months only.

So, does Mr. Zarif still wish to convince the West that his country has no desire of escalating tension in the region?

The Iranian game, away from all Zarif's attempts to polish his country's government's image has been revealed. It no longer fools anyone except those laying in the white house and those shutting their eyes so that they do not perceive ''the Iranian support for terrorism'' which happens to be Iran's official stance.

With all that being said, it explains why Saudi Arabia alongside the remaining countries that are harmed by Iran's roistering are left with no choice but to do what needs to be done; putting an end to the Iranian scheme. As for the world, it has to wait for next year's new US administration, which will not be held back by the nuclear agreement and stakes all it has just to sustain it, regardless if it meant that it was at the cost of peace, stability, and the ignition of extremism.

Salman Aldosary is the editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. 

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