Gareth Porter: US must acknowledge that Iran has a broad
influence that no US policy can alter
The national intelligence
estimate of all American intelligence agencies have declared there is no
evidence that Iran has or wants to build a nuclear bomb. The IAEA has stated
that there is no way Iran can build weaponized uranium without breaking the
non-proliferation agreement. Therefore, there is no imminent threat from a
nuclear stand point in Iran.
President-elect Barack Obama
appeared on Meet the Press saying "Their funding of
terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, their threats against Israel
are contrary to everything that we believe in and what the international
community should except." This may provide some insight to a real reason for
the American-Iranian issues. The unintentional outcome of the invasion of Iraq
has been the strengthening of Iran and closer ties between Iran and Iraq.
Gareth Porter, a historian and
investigative journalist "There is no doubt that the nuclear issue is embedded
in a much broader set of issues that do have to do with Iran as a regional power
and whether the United States is going to accept that, whether the United States
is going to continue to try and contain Iran in terms of its power in the
region, to try to continue to be the dominant power, to have a clear hierarchy
between the United States and Iran, in the region or not."
Bio
Gareth Porter is a historian and investigative journalist on US foreign and
military policy analyst. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US
policy towards Iraq and Iran. Author of four books, the latest of which is
Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.
