By Kourosh
Ziabari
In September 2007, Stephen
Zunes fell under the spotlight of the mass media following his meeting with the
controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York during his third
trip to the U.S. to attend the 62nd session of the United Nations General
Assembly.
Dr. Stephen Zunes is a
Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San
Francisco, where he serves as the chairman of Middle Eastern Studies program.
His articles constantly
appear in the major media outlets and news websites including Common Dreams,
Tikkun Magazine, National Catholic Reporter, Foreign Policy In Focus, Huffington
Post, Open Democracy and AlterNet. Zunes also appears on BBC, PBS, NPR and MSNBC
as a Middle Eastern studies expert to present his viewpoints, analyses and
commentaries on the outstanding issues of conflict in Israel, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran.
In accordance with many
independent intellectuals and rhetoricians, Prof. Zunes believes that Iran has
unfairly become a villain for the American corporate media and certain political
lobbies; a "rogue" to be attacked on a regular basis.
In an exclusive interview
with Foreign Policy Journal, Stephen Zunes stressed the scope of this in detail:
"Traditionally, in order to justify U.S. militarism and intervention, certain
countries and leaders have served the role of countries American pundits love to
hate. Often, including the case of Iran, there are certain policies which are
legitimate to criticize," he added. "However, also in the case of Iran, these
policies are not fundamentally worse than those of many U.S. allies."
I asked Zunes about the
reasons for his criticism of what he calls President Ahmadinejad's "reflective
superficiality" on religious matters. "My concern with President Ahmadinejad,"
he responded, "like that of President Bush, is the use of religious principles
which, while in themselves may be legitimate testaments of faith, are used to
justify policies which are contrary to basic moral principles on which the faith
tradition is based."
We continued our discussion
by switching to the long-term tedious nuclear dossier of Iran. "There is no
question there is a serious [American] double-standard, not just in regard to
Israel's nuclear program, but that of Pakistan and India as well," he observed.
"Israel is required, under UNSC resolution 487 to put its unclear program under
the trusteeship of the IAEA and both Pakistan and India are obliged under UNSC
resolution 1172 to eliminate their nuclear weapons and long-range missiles
altogether."
Zunes criticized the G5+1
pressures on Iran to halt its nuclear activities: "the G5+1 has no right to
demand that Iran abide by its obligations to the UN Security Council while
allowing Israel, Pakistan and India to continue their defiance of the UN
Security Council."
The author of "Tinderbox:
U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism" is skeptical about a recent
CIA report that predicted the political annihilation of Israeli regime within
the next 20 years. "I assume Israel will continue to exist as a Jewish state,"
he said. "But unless it is willing to accept a two-state solution along the
lines of the Geneva Declaration of December 2003 or the Arab Peace Plan, it will
become increasingly militarized, repressive, undemocratic, and bankrupt."
The hypocritical approach of
the U.S. and its western allies toward the human rights record of Iran was our
next topic for discussion. "While Iran deserves criticism for its poor human
rights record," affirmed Zunes, "as long as the United States remains the
world's number one military, diplomatic and economic supporter of autocratic
regimes in the greater Middle East, the U.S. government has no moral standing to
unfairly single out Iran."
Stephen Zunes is an
associate editor of the "Peace Review" and has long commented on the Israeli
occupation of Palestine and its habitual aggression on the Palestinian people.
"Arab governments have long given lip service to the Palestinian cause while
doing little to actually support the Palestinian people," he said. "While
Iranian support for extremist groups like Hamas probably does more harm than
good for the Palestinian cause, it should be remembered that it was the Saudis
and other [Persian] Gulf Arabs who were the primary supporters of Hamas for many
years, providing them with far more support than has Iran more recently."
In his spring 2009 article
for the Yes magazine, Stephen Zunes had praised the widespread support of
international human rights activists for the downtrodden Palestinians who were
subject to a 3-week long massacre by Israel during December and January. "In the
United States, which provides Israel with most of its weaponry, an unprecedented
number of peace and human rights groups mobilized their memberships to challenge
the Bush administration and Congress in their support of the war."
Speaking with Mr. Zunes, one
walks away with a more in-depth view of current affairs in the Middle East, and
demonstrates that one may be critical of Iran while also rejecting U.S.
unilateralism and interventionist policies in the tumultuous region, including
its support for Israel.
About the author: Kourosh Ziabari is an 18-year-old freelance blogger and
journalist from Iran. He has published the book "7+1" which is a collection of
his interviews with 7 contemporary Iranian authors. Ziabari is contributing
author of
Opednews.com; he is also the Iran-based correspondent of OhMyNews
international.
Persian Blog:
http://kouroshz.blogfa.com
English Blog:
http://cyberfaith.blogspot.com
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