US’ standard of ‘normal nation’

The US, which is notorious for its destructive behaviour all over the world calls the Islamic Republic of Iran a ‘destabilizing’ factor in the region, an accusation which is far from facts and realities, especially when one glances at the bleak, black and bloody record of the dictatorships that Washington supports.

Stay with us for an interesting article that appeared on the ‘Lobelog’ site, titled: “US’ Standard Of Normal Nation”, by Pouya Aali-Maqaam, who teaches modern history of the West Asia-North Africa region at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On June 2, 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the United States would be willing to engage with Iran as long as “the Iranians…behave like a normal nation.”

Aside from the condescension of talking to Iranians as if they are children who need to “behave,” Pompeo’s remark begs the question as to what it means to act like a “normal nation.” A brief look at US-Iran relations before the Islamic Revolution and a short survey of America’s long-time allies in the West Asia-North Africa region today help shed light on how Washington’s foreign policy establishment defines “normal” behaviour.

Let us take a look at Iran under the Shah. Before the revolution in 1979, Iran was ruled by Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi—an autocrat installed by Britain and the United States after they orchestrated the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected government in 1953. Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq had defied imperial Britain by nationalizing the country’s oil resources for the benefit of the underdeveloped nation. A trained lawyer, he even successfully defended his case at the World Court—a legal decision that the British rejected.

After the coup, the United States helped the shah establish the notorious internal intelligence agency, SAVAK. The CIA trained SAVAK personnel in the most brutal forms of modern, scientific torture to ensure the longevity of the Shah’s rule against a population that increasingly saw him as an American puppet. As a result, according to Amnesty International, the Shah’s regime became one of the world’s worst violators of human rights. The Iranian opposition, which had long reeled under SAVAK’s heavy boot, predictably blamed the United States for the Shah’s repression.

After Britain announced the withdrawal of its naval forces east of the Suez, then-President Richard Nixon went to Iran in 1972 to meet with the Shah to ensure that America’s ally in the Persian Gulf would fill the void. President Nixon offered to sell the Shah the most sophisticated American military hardware short of nuclear weapons to become the policeman of the Persian Gulf. The Shah eagerly obliged by building the most powerful military in the region. By 1976, the United States was selling more weapons to Iran than any other country in the world. In turn, the Iranian opposition criticized the Shah’s multi-billion-dollar arms purchases as a waste of the country’s wealth.

The Shah also had an interventionist record that aligned with American strategy during the Cold War. Bogged down in Vietnam, the United States looked to outsource the fight against Communism to right-wing regimes like the Shah’s. In the early 1970s, Iran dispatched soldiers across the Persian Gulf to help put down Marxist insurrections in places like Dhofar, Oman—interventions that were supported at the time not only by the Americans, but the Saudis as well.

In sum, a “normal” Iran before 1979 was an autocracy that ruthlessly repressed dissent, bought billions in American weapons, protected US interests in the Persian Gulf by intervening in other countries, and even had a Western-backed nuclear programme.

Let us look at other so-called ‘normal nations’ in the West Asia-North Africa region.

Cold War strategic considerations perhaps prompted the United States to consider such “behaviour” as “normal.” Yet, a survey of America’s allies in the post-Cold War era illustrates how the precedent of the Shah is very much consistent with what the United States considers to be “normal” today.

Saudi Arabia is an apt starting point given that US-Saudi relations go back as far as Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency. Today, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—with the backing of the Trump administration—are spearheading the bombing of the poorest country in the Arab World, Yemen, contributing to what the UN considers the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The Saudis and Emiratis are also the leading force in the blockade of America’s other ally in the Persian Gulf, that is, Qatar.

They are supporting some of the most extreme elements in Syria—though this support has lessened after the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen diverted resources and attention. Mohamed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, is also credited with ordering the assassination of the US-based Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, when the latter visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

Long before the upstart Heir Apparent, Saudi Arabia had been deploying its oil wealth to spread its Wahhabi cultist interpretation of Islam across the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda and Daesh were born, in part, from this ubiquitous Saudi terroristic conditioning.

Moreover, although President Trump alleges that the Iran nuclear agreement was not stringent enough, his administration quietly signed agreements to sell nuclear technology to the Saudis. What’s more, two American allies in the region, Pakistan and Israel, the former of which borders Iran, possess nuclear arsenals.

In terms of other “normal nations,” Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories has endured for more than half a century with no signs of abating. Instead, the Zionist regime frequently announces plans to build more settlements in the West Bank.

The US sends billions of dollars in annual military aid to Israel and Egypt. The latter has jailed thousands of dissidents since the overthrow of its democratically elected government in 2013 – of President Mohammed Morsi. The home to one of the most iconic uprisings in the Arab World has become its seeming deathbed. The current Egyptian regime – of General Abdel-Fattah as-Sisi – is exponentially more authoritarian than the Hosni Mubarak regime that collapsed in 2011 after 30-years of dictatorial rule.

According to Human Rights Watch: Since President Abdel Fattah as-Sisi secured a second term in a largely unfree and unfair presidential election in March, his security forces have escalated a campaign of intimidation, violence, and arrests against political opponents, civil society activists, and many others who have simply voiced mild criticism of the regime. The Egyptian government and state media have framed this repression under the guise of combating terrorism, and as-Sisi has increasingly invoked terrorism and the country’s state of emergency law to silence peaceful activists.

The coup at home was not enough. Egypt, along with the Emiratis and the Saudis, is backing the renegade general, Khalifa Haftar, whom Trump has endorsed, as he attempts to topple the UN-recognized government in neighbouring Libya.

Another so-called “normal nation,” Bahrain—with the aid of Saudi Arabia and the UAE—repressed the most peaceful uprising of all. American support for the Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, however, remained steadfast since the island country is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

As such, “normal” today, as in the past, means pro-US dictators, supposedly religious governments but of the pro-American kind, military occupations, regimes that violate human rights, hosts to US armed forces and high-end customers of the American arms industry, and governments that intervene in the affairs of their neighbours. To be sure, none of this should actually be considered normal.

In reality, the only thing not “normal” about the Islamic Republic of Iran’s actions is that they do not align with US foreign policy goals as they did in the past – during the pro-American Shah’s regime. In other words, a ‘normal nation’ is allowed to do seemingly anything as long as its actions accord with US interests anywhere in the world.