By Syed Zafar Mehdi
TEHRAN _ At a time when the Trump administration is facing backlash at home over its military support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and disgraceful defeat in Afghanistan after 18 years of war, spin doctors in Washington are looking for convenient scapegoats to escape accountability.
Last week, five human rights watchdog bodies issued a terse statement, saying the U.S. will bear shared responsibility for what may be the largest humanitarian catastrophe in decades if it doesn't end support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Ironically, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal murder has brought the spotlight on Saudi regime’s war crimes in Yemen.
In Afghanistan, the U.S. imposed war, which has stretched into its 18th year now, has turned out to be an exercise in futility. Even the top-notch U.S. officials have admitted defeat there, thereby emboldening terrorist groups like Taliban and ISIS to up the ante.
Amidst this hullabaloo, the ‘astute’ advisors of Trump have come up with an innovative ‘idea’ to escape culpability for Yemen and Afghanistan. Only that this idea doesn’t seem to work.
A few days ago, Pentagon unveiled what it called “new evidence of Iran’s ongoing missile proliferation”, claiming that Tehran’s support of Houthi rebels in Yemen has “deepened” and it has been providing “materiel support” to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
A select group of journalists were invited for a briefing in Washington by Brian Hook, U.S. special representative for Iran. Hook began by saying that the U.S. deeply valued its “partnership with the UAE, Bahrain and Israel”. That is how the agenda was set for the briefing.
UAE is an integral part of the Saudi-led alliance that has wreaked havoc in Yemen, with the U.S. support. Bahrain, where Al-Khalifa regime has been committing horrendous war crimes, is home to the American Fifth Fleet. Israel, a key U.S. ally, has been illegally occupying the Palestinian territories and brutalizing native Palestinians.
After the initial round of lavish praise for these three regimes, with terrible human rights record, Hook spoke about the imaginary ‘dangers’ posed by Iran’s ‘dangerous proliferation of missiles across the Middle East’. The agenda was clear: to spread misinformation against the Islamic Republic, which dares to say ‘no’ to the ‘Big Satan’ and all its allies, including these three regimes.
He conveniently forgot that his country’s commitment under Article VI of Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to work towards total disarmament has turned out to be hogwash. He forgot that U.S. ally Israel has refused to open its nuclear facilities for UN inspections and refused to adhere with the resolution regarding non-proliferation.
Displaying pieces of what he said were ‘Iranian weapons supplied to militants in Yemen and Afghanistan’, a tried-and-tested ploy to intimidate Iran, Hook accused the Houthis’ of ‘reckless use of advanced weapons provided by Iran’.
He didn’t mention the billion dollar arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the same arms being used to slaughter Yemenis. He didn’t talk about the blockade of aid supplies triggering world’s worst humanitarian crisis with thousands of deaths over the past three years and more than 22 million people in need of assistance.
Iran, he said, has ‘no legitimate interest’ in Yemen, other than to ‘expand its sphere of influence and to create a Shia corridor of control’. So, what interest does the Saudi regime have in Yemen and what interest does the U.S. government have in supplying arms to Riyadh.
Pertinently, the U.S. State Department had admitted in leaked cables that Houthis were not Iran's proxy and they received neither funding nor weapons from Iran. That’s what happens when you don’t do your homework well. Or maybe, ignorance is bliss.
He went on to accuse Iran of arming the Taliban, the same militant group that was on CIA’s payroll once. The same militant group that has been holding ‘secret parleys’ with the U.S. officials in Qatar. The same militant group the U.S. wants to keep alive to justify its occupation of the war-torn country.
Taliban spokesperson punctured his claim saying the militant group has weapons depots spread in various parts of Afghanistan. He said the U.S. government was just seeking to deflect global attention from its failures in Afghanistan by leveling such unfounded allegations.
As a reminder, on the afternoon of Oct. 7, 2001, when the U.S. and its allies started the deadly air raid in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld said the objective of the ‘campaign’ was to decimate the Taliban and al Qaeda hideouts in the country. As of today, the war has completed 17 years, consumed thousands of lives, and cost U.S. taxpayers more than $150 billion. All this without achieving the stated ‘objective’.
And it’s not Iran supplying weapons to the Taliban. It is the United States. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), a U.S. government watchdog body, in a report last year detailed the horrible job Pentagon does at keeping weapons that eventually end up in terrorist hands. And some of the weapons are from Soviet war days when Americans and Taliban were fighting together. Hook perhaps needs lessons in history.
