By
Reza Ghorashi
Early morning on Thursday
September 24th Leaders of the US, England and France held a dramatic
news conference to "expose" yet another deception by the Islamic Republic of
Iran (IRP) regarding its nuclear policy. Thursday was supposed to be the day of
G-20 and all the spot light meant to be on Pittsburg and the meeting. Needless
to say the news conference stole the thunder. Was it by plan? Or was it
incidental?
The three leaders "revealed"
existence of the second uranium enrichment by the IRI. The suspiciously
harmonious chorus of "free" media has been repeating the same story again and
again. Not mentioned is the fact that IRI had informed International
atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday, three days prior to the news
conference. The leaders' response was that they knew about the plant for
sometime and IRI sensing that has revealed its existence. The question is if
they knew this for sometime, and if IRI revealed this on Monday, why the
dramatic news conference on Thursday? Have in mind that Wednesday was the
"nuclear non-proliferation" day. In an unusual show president Obama presided
over the Security Council's meeting. The Council unanimously approved a
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons resolution. Would not it make more sense to
bring Iran's second uranium enrichment up in that meeting, or at least on that
day? Did the three administrations drop the ball and not realized revelation by
the IRI for three days? Or was there a more cynical reason behind the dramatic
news conference.
What adds to the mystery is the
fact that it seems IRI has played by the book! Building such facility takes
years. IAEA's by-laws require that member states notify the agency of a new
uranium enrichment facility six months prior to start of its operation.
IRI is 12-18 months away from start of operation. So they are informing IAEA
months in advance. Besides, in further media occasions (on NPR and Larry King
Live) Mr. Ahmadinejad welcomed visitation of IAEA inspectors. He pointed out
that the purpose of informing IAEA is to let them send such inspectors! The
mainstream media unscrupulously repeats the "violation" story. No one questions
inconsistencies of the "violation" story.
As a member of democratic
opposition to the Islamic regime one can not help but feel sorry that such
one-sided treatments are gift from heaven for Mr. Ahmadinejad and his supporters
who have hung to the 'Western conspiracy" theory about IRI. But Obama
administration and the media know of these consequences. Why do they continue to
pay such a high price? There are two plausible explanations for this. One is to
put pressure on the Islamic regime and force it to make further concessions in
the soon to begin 5+1 negotiations with the IRI in Geneva. Announcing new test
of long-range missiles by the Revolutionary Guards on Saturday was IREI's
response to such pressure!
A second, more serious explanation
could be a change of policy by the Obama administration. It is no secret that a
faction of the US rulings class ('Neo-cons" to name one) and Israeli right-wing
(Netanyahu and his coalition) would prefer a hostile Islamic regime. This would
justify US's military presence in the region and pushes despotic Arab regimes
further under the US "security" umbrella. Also, it dilutes attention to
Israelis' atrocities against Palestinian people. Under Bush administration
policy of "regime change pretence" was dominant. Under it there was a lot of
harsh rhetoric and "lines drawn" and threats made. Islamic regime too would
benefit from it by rallying troops behind its ranks. But neither side wanted to
lose its excuse. We all saw how Israeli right wing was sweating when it seemed
Mussavi and the "Greens" are winning Iran's presidential elections. Obama
administration, on the other hand, seemed more comfortable with such a victory.
It seemed to have abandoned the hostile rhetoric and is looking to work with the
new IRI president. Well, it did not happen. Besides, President Obama has noticed
that confronting Israeli lobby, with its huge influence in media and other
aspect of US politics is not so simple. Israeli government has ignored every
"line drawn" by Obama administration regarding the West Bank settlements or
other violations of Palestinian human rights. Has he given up and settled for
return to "pretence of regime change" hostile policy against IRI in return for
some (minor?) concisions by Mr. Netanyahu on Palestinian issue? We should know
the answer after Thursday's Geneva meeting.
... Payvand News - 09/28/09 ... --
