Who Is Torching the Middle East?

TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the United States is the root cause of all tensions in the Persian Gulf, rejecting accusations raised by the War Party and its Arab allies that Iran was behind the attacks on four vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking on the sidelines of the International Quds Day rallies in Tehran on Friday, Major General Hossein Salami categorically denied Iran's involvement in the vessel attacks in Fujairah port, saying, "Iran is a powerful country. We do not need to hide anything. If we do something, we'll announce it publicly."

His comments came in reaction to allegations by US National Security Advisor John Bolton and some Saudi and Emirati officials that the IRGC launched the attacks through its "proxies". He added, "Some primitive Arab regimes in the Persian Gulf are sidekicks of the US and under total control of Washington, and their comments and messages are not even worthy of any response."

It is now an established fact that the US and its allies have a broken record in the region, that’s why their baseless allegations come to focus always on Iran. The enmity between the countries have only continued to grow since the War Party and its allies torched the Middle East by invading Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. 

Though it’s long been forgotten in the West, they have also helped Israel to occupy and terrorize the long-suffering people of Palestine, in great violation of international humanitarian law and the Charter of the United Nations.

The US military even helped the Iraqi Ba’ath regime’s forces target Iranian troop concentrations at a time when dictator Saddam was using chemical weapons on them during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. And then, of course, the US turned on Saddam, declared him part of an “axis of evil” (including, of course, Iran), invaded Iraq based on WMD lies, and left its ruler to be hung. But even when destroying its former ally and disastrously occupying Iraq, President George Bush's top officials, including John Bolton, never took their eyes off Iran.

It seems that they’re once again angling to take a shot at it, as the Trump administration further beefs up US forces in the region. Under this environment, the blowback will only continue, and such a policy approach could go wrong in many ways.

By accusing the IRGC attacking oil tankers and pipelines in the Persian Gulf region, Washington and cohorts are playing that same silly game again. Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are the ones driving this hostility reboot, halfway across the planet pushing for war with Iran they know they cannot win. Meanwhile, it’s increasingly clear that Donald Trump gets his own kick out of being a “tariff man” and a “sanctions president”, and the unique form of threat production that goes with it: “We don’t want war with Iran.”

Since it’s a recipe for disaster, Washington has no choice but to reverse policy. Iran won’t capitulate. Its defense capabilities cannot be negotiated away. Add this irony to the grim farce to come: Even many European allies see a genuine Saudi-Israeli-American troika of tyranny and destabilization here. They refuse to provide ample backing to the warmongers and turn a blind eye to their extensive human rights abuses in Yemen. Some have even stopped supplying weapons to the Saudis.

Ultimately, this is what counts, not their anti-Iran statements and certainly not their hostile rhetoric. The ongoing war and bloodshed in Yemen certainly proved the Saudis anything but friends to democracy, human rights and security. They even invaded protesting people in a tiny neighbor to the East, Bahrain, to suppress civil-rights protests by that country’s embattled nation.

In Yemen, the Saudis continue to terror bomb civilians. Tens of thousands have died - the exact number isn't known - under a brutal bombing campaign and at least 85,000 Yemeni children have already starved to death, thanks to the war and a US-backed Saudi blockade of what was already the Arab world’s poorest country.

Through it all, Washington stood by its Saudi allies, and continues to threaten everything and everyone in the region lest they attack the “cow” it milks. Trump let it be known that the “milk” would keep flowing from the “cow” into military-industrial coffers with a record $110 billion set of arms deals. In other words, it is Saudi Arabia, and not Iran, that with fulsome support from Washington, sophisticated weapons, and a boatload of American cash, continues to unleash terror and instability at home and across the region. This much is certain.