Warsaw meeting: Roots of the crises in the Middle East

By M.A. Saki

TEHRAN - The U.S. is co-hosting a conference on the Middle East with Poland in Warsaw. It has claimed the aim of the conference is to address crises in the region.

It is not difficult to really understand the chief causes of conflicts and instability in this volatile part of the world.

First and foremost, Israel and Washington’s blind support for Tel Aviv have been and will remain to be the main culprits behind the conflicts in the Middle East. 

The continuous stealing of the Palestinian lands is not only a violation of international law and the basic rights of an entire nation, it has also radicalized the youth in the regional countries, especially those in the Arab world.

Add to this the transfer of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds in violation of international law. This has just added salt to the wound.

Now Israel may boast that it is gradually normalizing ties with certain Arab countries but its continued policy will not help change the minds of the Arabs and other Muslims about the Tel Aviv regime.

The other main reasons behind the problems in the region is Washington’s support for dictators in the Arab world. Donald Trump’s sword dance with Saudi officials who ordered the brutal chopping of Jamal Khashoggi is a concrete example.

While the U.S. claims support for human rights, it is shamefully arming and supporting Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners in their relentless war on fellow Arab nation of Yemen.

Washington is also oblivious to the Shias’ struggle for equal rights in Bahrain and has closed its eyes to the Medieval Age verdicts against political opponents in the country.

There are many other examples to cite.

The other reason for the headaches in the region dates back to the United States’ support for Muslim youth fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. In those days U.S. politicians viewed religious fanaticism as the main bulwark against the Soviets who were viewed as pagans. In fact, officials in Washington fueled religious fanaticism to prevent the influence of the Soviets in the Cold War era.

Later these Muslim youth, chief among them al-Qaeda members who were mostly from Arab countries, turned against their masters and started terrorist activities in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

Add to this the U.S.-British invasion of Iraq in 2003 in violation of international law and repeated warnings by international figures of the time such as Kofi Annan, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schröder, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Nelson Mandela and many other dignitaries.

It is clear to the entire world that the U.S. invasion of Iraq, under the false claim that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction, not only led to unspeakable suffering for the Iraqi people it also led to spread of terrorism and violence in the region.

Some of those notorious terrorists in Iraq had become battle-hardened in Afghanistan and through their bigoted ideology triggered civil war in Iraq.

When the Arab spring started people who were angry of the rulers and their corrupt systems rose up for a change but, without the exception of Tunisia, the uprisings in the Arab world were misled and struggle for democracy and justice changed their place with terrorism and violence.

Rich Arab nations in the Persian Gulf region were instrumental in misleading pro-democracy movements in order to prevent the spread of uprisings to their countries. Analysts say they transferred money and arms to terrorists in order to convey this message to the people that if they rise against their ruling system they will become another Syria.

Some of those youth who had been trained and fought in Afghanistan and years later committed many terror acts inside Iraq poured into Syria.

Certain Arab countries’ support for radicals to topple the Syrian government, which does not see eye to eye with Washington and its regional allies, was so great that it led to the birth of more terrorist groups such as ISIS who were crueler than al-Qaeda.

If the U.S. did not fan the flames of religious bigotry in Afghanistan in the 1980s and did not invade Iraq, and also if certain Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia did not support radicals in Iraq and Syria today there were not such names as al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Nusra and some other terrorist groups.

So it is clear that Washington, especially its current administration, does not really seek a peaceful and stable Middle East. If it is really seeking ways to stabilize the region it must rectify its mistakes; stop support for countries such as Saudi Arabia which is the birthplace of the ideology of religious terrorism; pressure Saudi Arabia and the UAE to end their war on Yemen; and more importantly stop supporting Israel which has been acting for decades against all internationally accepted norms and international law.

Though Washington, under European pressure, has been forced to retitle the agenda of the Warsaw conference from demonizing Iran to a focus on peace and security in the Middle East, there is no doubt that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Vice President Mike Pence, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will use the opportunity to vent their personal anger at Iran and say that Iran is the root of the problem.

However, demonization of Iran will not solve any problem so long as this policy continues. The Warsaw conference is in fact a disinformation campaign against Iran. To the surprise of Pompeo and his friends in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the disinformation campaign in Warsaw faced a dead end before it started on Wednesday.

US-EU Nuclear Deal with Iran Exposes Western Hypocrisy

By Latheef Farook  

The United States and  its European countries have finally managed to force Iran to agree to a nuclear deal by using sanctions and other ruthless means crippling Iran’s economy and causing sufferings to its people. However this is not the end as key issues need to be resolved before a final agreement by June 30. However no such immoral methods were used to force Israel which is reported to be, not developing, but having around 400 nuclear bombs threatening the entire region?

This is the traditional double standard of US and Europe in treating Israel and Muslim countries with different yard sticks. Israel, a country established illegally on robbed Palestinian, remains above law since its creation in 1948 while Muslim countries should abide by their dictates like divine command or face crippling economic sanctions .

Ever since Iran’s nuclear program came to light Israel was alarmed as its nuclear supremacy in the region was challenged. Thus Israel  and it US led European allies began using pressure tactics on Iran to prevent its nuclear program.

On 21 September 2011 Iran announced its second uranium enrichment facility stating that the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA was informed as early as 2004 of this. It is being built into the side of a mountain at the holy city of Qom making it less vulnerable to destruction, even with the latest bunker-busting U.S. bombs, to ensure nuclear activities continue uninterrupted in the event of a military strike.

Then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said  his country was ready to let the IAEA inspectors inspect the new facilities and time and again then  IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei said  Iran was 'on the wrong side of the law’ and he had seen "no credible evidence"  of developing nuclear weapons”.                                                                                         

In the midst came Iran’s test firing of medium- and long-range missiles. Reacting swiftly as if Iran has declared war on the West, President Barack Obama, along with then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accused Iran of building a secret nuclear fuel plant. French President Sarkozy warned that Europe and the United States would tighten sanctions against Iran unless it halted its nuclear program.

"The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, Russia has about the same, Britain and France had several hundreds. Israel ,having one of the most sophisticated nuclear arsenals in the world, refused to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, NPT, which seeks to limit the spread of such weapons of mass destruction.

However, there was hardly a reference to Israel’s secret nuclear weapons. Instead President Obama assured Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel would not be pressured into accounting for its nuclear arsenal or signing the NPT.Thus allowing Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections.

According to reports President Obama also guaranteed that the White House would continue its almost five and half decade-old secret deal with the Zionist state. Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity and the tacit agreement prolonged the nuclear understanding reached between President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Western countries' focus on Iran's nuclear program and stressed that the world should deal with Israel's nuclear weapons that used "phosphorous bombs" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

 What is the reason for this double standard? Why are world leaders so reluctant to open Israel's nuclear arsenal up to discussion, whereas Iran's ambiguous ambitions are occupying the floor in the UN? The answer lies in Israel's successful public diplomacy tactics. 

Israel has the backing of the strongest lobbying groups in the US and the European capitals. It has the advantage of using the media to create a favorable image of itself and an abhorrent image of Iran and other “enemies” of Israel. It has the advantage of the “Holocaust shame” of the Western world. It has the pretext of being able to claim “existential threat.”

Apart from the Holocaust, none of these advantages was natural-born advantages of being Jewish and the sole home of the Jewish people in the world. Even the “Holocaust shame” of the Christian West is a product of years of propaganda.

A satellite image of Israel's Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona

Iran, as one of the original signatories of the NPT, has been a consistent advocate of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. In contrast, Israel has never agreed to an IAEA inspection, and its nuclear weapons plant at Dimona remains an open secret.    Israel dismissed UN resolutions calling on it to sign the NPT, just as it dismissed the   UN report charging it with crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel maintains a world record for violations of international law, it gets away with this because the powers that be grants it immunity. 

Western media, an integral part of the Western war machine, manufacture lies to mislead the world. They did the same thing to justify their designs on Iran, the only country in the region that refused to bow down to the dictates of the unholy Anglo-American –Israeli trinity unlike their counterparts in the Middle East.

The media screamed with head lines such as “Showdown looms with Iran over secret nuclear plant”. “The clock ticking”, “Good versus evil”, “Iran’s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq”, “Iranian plan to wage war on, and defeat, US forces in Iraq” by September of that year – a demonstrable falsehood for which there has been no retraction.

The weapons Industry remains an integral part of the US, UK, France and Israel. They need wars, destructions and massacre of innocent people to ensure their weapons industries flourish. Politicians implement the evil designs of the weapons industry and the so-called Western free media whose freedom ends when it comes to holocaust and criticizing Jewish crime, manufacture lies to mislead the world to justify wars.

The  name of the game remains the same-  toe the line or face destruction- whoever be at the helm- be it George Bush, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Jacques Chirac, Ehud Olmert or   Benjamin Netanyahu  .The goal is to control the “strategic prize” of the gas and oilfields of the Caspian Sea, central Asia, the Gulf and Iran – in other words, Eurasia.  Innocent people all over the world pay the price with their flesh, bloods, lives and their natural resources. Ends