The worse kind of international behavior, short of military aggression, is economic warfare, and what is being imposed today on the Third World and particularly on the Islamic world, is the bitterly paradoxical behavior of the US and the EU with respect to the inhabitants of these countries, and particularly Iran.
There is a great dissatisfaction among Iranians with respect to the negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 over the nuclear issue. The question many have is why the government of Iran and its negotiators have not taken a more solid and serious stance in response to the unfair and inhumane sanctions imposed on the country.
Two kinds of sanctions exist; one, the unilateral sanctions imposed by a single country, and two, multilateral international sanctions. If multilateral sanctions are imposed due to rumors and destructive threats by Israel and some Arab countries, thereby convicting Iran of crimes before any trial and in the absence of evidence, then they become some of the most difficult issues to overcome and will influence future negotiations.
In the case of the Iran nuclear negotiations, it is the P5+1 that must give security guarantees to Iran, and it is the P5+1 negotiators who must resist the economic warfare currently imposed on Iran by the US and the Europeans. In reality, the P5+1 negotiators should have prevented certain sanctions from being imposed in the first place.
It appears that the West wants to "sweeten Iranian mouths with an empty spoon." Iranians have had bitter, rather than sweet, experiences with this type of behavior, and the experiences remain with us. The question is, in response to this savage economic warfare, what the P5+1 intends to do. If the level of Iran's cooperation with the IAEA and the international community is to change, but if no attention is ever paid to that continuous cooperation, (then why should negotiations continue under the current circumstances? Why continue with this level of cooperation? Why, in fact, should Iran not reconsider its membership in the NPT at all, when neither Israel nor Pakistan is a signatory to the NPT, and that is of no concern to the international community?
The Supreme Leader of Iran, other than his political leadership, is also the spiritual leader of Iran, and his fatwas supersede even laws passed by Parliament, or articles of the Constitution. When the Supreme Leader has said that we are not developing nuclear weapons and that they are haram, there is no reason for one-sided cooperation between Iran and the West. The nuclear negotiators are representatives of the Iranian leadership, and the leadership of Iran is opposed to a one-sided cooperative relationship with the West.
By the 1st of July of this year, if the P5+1’s approach to the nuclear negotiations as a strategically important issue continues, it cannot be ignorant of the effects of the ongoing and increasingly stringent sanctions. The oil sanctions, the sanctions on Iran's Central Bank, the expulsion of Iranian banks from the SWIFT system, the pressure on insurance companies to withhold insurance for Iranian shipping; all these which are non-UN mandated sanctions must cease, as must the US shuttle diplomacy which is designed to pressure non-European countries to abide by Western multilateral sanctions.
If these sanctions continue and if the P5+1 doesn't intend to cease this economic warfare, then the West may face a new strategy by Iran, a part of which may be Iran's reconsideration of its membership in the NPT and a continuation of its own independent policies. Iran's policies will no longer be geared to "carrots and sticks", but designed to meet "sticks" with "sticks". The Leader and the people of Iran will never accept humiliation or capitulation, which is what the West is apparently seeking from Iran. Mrs. Catherine Ashton, as the negotiator for the P5+1, has a heavy responsibility in the coming months: one, cessation of the economic war, and two, convincing Iran to continue its cooperation.
Have you ever stepped back and looked at the crumbling regimes in the Arab East? If you did, have you realized they are republics and not monarchies; not that there is much of a difference between the two but the hype in the corporate media is about freedom, rights, dignity, democracy, and the rest of this political litany that is well-known. And if we were to stick to this line, then surely the people most deprived of these freedoms, rights, etc. are the people who live under such despotic rulers as the Saudi royals where criticizing the king is tantamount to kufr!
It is against the law to hold a demonstration in American-managed Saudi Arabia. It is against the law for a woman to drive a car in American-supervised Saudi Arabia. It is against the law to allow Muslims to meet in Makkah and Madinah so they can express their ideological mind and Islamic conscience about such uniting issues as the liberation of Palestine and other American occupied territories. And it is an unwritten law that forbids the establishmentarian journalists and the salaried academics from highlighting the anti-democratic and pro-chauvinist nature of the kings and princes of Arabia. It is called “self-censorship.”
And if the woes of the Peninsula were limited to Arabia then it could be argued that it is up to the Arabians of Arabia to fix their own house. One Saudi lady, complaining out loud a few weeks ago after noticing other men in other countries standing up and sacrificing life and limb for their principles, is quite right when she said that Saudi men have lost their testosterone. To which we add: they have misplaced it; they let go of it in brothels instead of building it up in boot camps. But, alas, the evils of that kingdom are directed into other Islamic regions, particularly into the lands that are fired up by the “Arab Spring.”
With American and Israeli guardianship, the Arabian mushrik monarchs were thrown the Libyan bone. They sensed victory was in the air. And, thus, they turned their fury against Syria. Syria has become the political Maginot Line for Riyadh and its Gulf Cooperation Council offshoots (Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and ‘Oman). Syria in and of itself would be of no concern to these moneyed mushriks. [Mushriks, we say, because they have correlated Allah’s (swt) power and authority with that of the imperialists and Zionists]. But Syria is the untested link between a future groundswell of popular determination to liberate Palestine that is centered on Islamic Iran and extends all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The Americans and Israelis played their hand against Islamic Iran in Iraq, first via Saddam’s regime and lost, and then via the current regime in Baghdad and lost again. The Israelis and Americans tried their hand against Hizbullah and Hamas and lost yet again. The only thing left now is to sabotage the Syrian connection by breaking Syria up.
And to do this the Israelis and the Americans will need their trump card: the Saudi brand of Islam. The Saudi brand of Islam, which considers [Zionist] Jews and [imperialist] Christians to be “Ahl al-Kitab” and considers ‘Alawi Muslims and Shi‘i Muslims to be kafirs, heretics, and unbelievers, is a godsend to the American and Israeli policy-makers at this critical moment in the world-shaking developments in the Muslim realm. The political slaves of Arabia who were never liberated by the Qur’an and the Sunnah are taking orders from America and not from the Almighty. We can without much imagination see how desperate and hopeless the master in Washington is when he speaks to his slaves in Riyadh, and how inferior the slave who obeys a toothless master must be. Uncle slave-master Sam nervously watches the 19 Americans to be tried in Egypt by, of all people, the Egyptians who were also the political slaves of the US just last year. Three US senators have gone to Cairo to “extradite” these 19 Americans from the US embassy where they have been fugitives from the law for the past couple of weeks. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman are probably expressing dire threats in diplomatic language to diffuse this new low in American prestige overseas. And the Egyptian officials (if we read them correctly) will either release the 19 without due process to gain brownie points with their yesteryear masters, or will promise the senators their eventual release after a theater of due process so as to avoid the wrath of Egyptian public opinion.
The price of oil is climbing because Israel wants its Euro-American allies to put the pressure of sanctions squarely on the people in Iran. Prices have already hit $120 a barrel after the Islamic Republic cut off oil sales to the Israeli political subsidiaries of France and Britain. The more the Israelis and Americans become nervous the more their Saudi subordinates feel the pressure to “do something about it”.
Enter al-Qaeda. How about that? Al-Qaeda has found common purpose with its arch-enemy, the US, in targeting the heretic ‘Alawis in Syria! How about that for a Saudi feat? An al-Qaeda leader somewhere to the east or south of Tora Bora is rediscovered by the media and his video-taped message to all al-Qaeda units in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey becomes a news sensation. Don’t be fooled by this yet again al-Qaeda-fits-all-occasions scenario. It is not al-Qaeda that is on its way to kill, blowup, assassinate, or commit acts of violence and terror is Syria. It is the Special Forces of the US, Britain, and Zionist Israel who are about to enter the fray in Syria. You can be sure that when the specter of al-Qaeda is flashed to the general public, it means that Navy Seals, Army Rangers, intelligence agents under deep cover, and black-ops personnel are being positioned to execute their orders which will prove the Saudi propaganda correct: kill the Syrian heathens (minority Muslims) and thank Ahl al-Kitab Sam and Ahl al-Kitab Moshe for being on the orthodox side in this intra-Islamic strife in war-torn Syria!
The Syrian-Saudi sectarian strife is only one chapter, as important and dangerous as it is, in the ongoing three decade confrontation between the US and Israel on one side and the Islamic Republic of Iran on the other.
All these details aside, the maturing political Muslim must understand that the corporate and capitalist war against Iran with all its ruling classes around the world is what defines the reactions of such regimes as the Saudi and other Arabian ones. The Syrian people are oppressed like other peoples in that castaway part of the world. The Syrian people deserve a representative government like all other peoples in that region and in the world. That, though, does not mean that the Israeli-American-Saudi troika should be given the opportunity to play off their antagonism toward Islamic Iran riding on the waves and lives of the Syrian people. How hypocritical and misleading can an American regime be when it is shedding crocodile tears on those killed in Homs while the same American regime committed atrocities in Fallujah across the border in Iraq — that in comparison would make the Syrian regime look quite civilized? When were the American and Israeli officials so concerned with Syrian lives? When were the Saudi royals themselves concerned with Syrian lives?
The Saudi brainsick rulers will not listen to advice. They have attached themselves to the US and thus to Israel beyond any quote from the Qur’an and citation of the Sunnah. They can’t see that Israel is positioning the Iron Dome defense batteries around Tel Aviv in preparation for war. This fortification of Israeli urban centers will continue in the coming weeks. Israeli schools are holding what they call earthquake exercises. Israeli police are running drills in what they tell us are scenarios of Palestinian mass riots and attempts to storm across the borders from all directions. This may be in reference to this year’s mass mobilization of a peoples movement to cross into occupied Palestine from Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria.
The noose is tightening around the war criminals in their racist enclave. The wars that have been imposed on the Muslims all over the world amount to an unintended military basic training exercise. The US and Israel along with their Saudi sidekick have militarized the Islamic world. And if they want to light the match they should know very well that their corporate and transnational interests will go up in flames. People will fight on their own turf for however long it takes to free themselves of invasions and occupations.
History 101: there has never been an invading force that has indefinitely conquered another people against their own faith and will. Will the Muslims identify who the other Muslim is before it is too late? Will the Muslims distinguish between Ahl al-Kitab and the Zionists and imperialists before it is too late? “O our Sustainer! Bestow on us Your eminent grace, and endow us, whatever our [outward] condition, with consciousness of what is right” (10:18).
A year after two long-entrenched dictators were consigned to the dustbin of history, the shell-shocked monarchies of the Muslim East appear to have regained their composure somewhat. Initially, they appeared to be teetering on the brink but today they are striking back both at home and abroad. Mass arrests of protesters coupled with huge bribes have provided them some breathing room. But even this would not have saved their thrones were they not supported by their western masters in Washington, London and Paris. The tribal monarchies are presenting themselves as champions of democracy and supporters of people’s rights, provided these apply to regimes they do not like. They appear to be having some success in places like Libya and Syria where the uprisings have had open support from such primitive family-based regimes as those in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
An Iranian artist’s rendition of what is happening in Syria.
At home, these regimes have clamped down hard on protesters and dispatched troops to places like Bahrain to crush the people’s legitimate demands expressed through entirely peaceful means. The Saudi regime holds more than 30,000 political prisoners and this number is rising but one would be hard pressed to read about this in the New York Times or hear about it on al-Jazeera, for instance. The tribal-owned network has been a handy tool in the hands of the dinosaurs that rule the kingdoms and sheikhdoms. Like CNN and Fox News, it has gained notoriety for spreading disinformation.
To understand what has transpired and what can be expected in the future, it is important to categorize countries based on their current situation. Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco form the first tier of countries where some changes have occurred following elections. The second group comprises countries like Libya and Yemen where rulers have either been killed (Colonel Muammar Qaddafi of Libya) or forced out of office (Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen). In the third category lies Syria where a foreign-backed uprising is underway and has become an open battleground for influence in the Muslim East. What happens in Syria will shape the destiny of the entire region. Ironically, while change in Syria is desirable, its consequences for the larger struggle in the Muslim East will be disastrous. The last category is that of the primitive monarchies in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Jordan and Kuwait. To varying degrees, they are all fighting for survival by waging battles on someone else’s territory.
It would be tempting but wrong to conclude that just because elections have been held in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco that the people’s problems have been solved. The old systems remain entrenched together with their institutional support mechanisms. A few new faces from groups that were traditionally hounded and suppressed have been co-opted into the system but little else has changed. The danger for Islamic parties, whether in Tunisia, Egypt or Morocco is that while they will have to solve the problems bequeathed by the old regimes, they are not free to formulate their own policies. With their hands tied behind their backs, they will be blamed for all the failures. This is what happens to political parties, even those with an Islamic tag, that opt to work within the old corrupt system. It is impossible not to get contaminated by stepping into filth. Some people in Egypt appear to understand this and the youth have still not given up. How far and long they will continue to challenge the old order is difficult to predict.
It is, however, the struggle in Syria and the role played by such tribal monarchies as Qatar and Saudi Arabia that are crucial to understanding the future of the Muslim East. The struggle in Syria is not merely for people’s rights. The more crucial aspect is the assault on the resistance front comprising Hizbullah, Syria, Hamas and Islamic Iran against Zionist Israel. The US is and has always been fully committed to the Zionist entity even at the expense of its own people. It is the dinosaurs of the desert that have now come out of their caves to support Israel openly. The Arabian regimes have always functioned as the first line of defence for Israel even if they tried to hide their subservience behind loud rhetoric. If was the repeated humiliations of these regimes and their spectacular failures to redress Palestinian grievances that gave rise to such movements as Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hizbullah.
Subservience comes naturally to the Arabian rulers and treachery runs in their blood. They have never had any legitimacy even if defined in the narrow sense of people’s approval of their rule. On the broader canvas, kingship is forbidden in Islam and legitimacy is obtained only when rulers apply divinely ordained laws. On all counts, these rulers are illegitimate and must not be allowed to remain in power. Only the support of Western imperialists keeps them in power. This merely confirms their illegitimacy as far as the people are concerned.
They use such weapons as ethnic, tribal and sectarian divisions to cling to power. The sectarian card is the most potent weapon but they also play the others. Migrant workers from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, for instance, are treated like slaves by the tribal-based monarchies. Physical and sexual abuse of workers who have no rights is rampant. Sectarianism is always invoked when these illegitimate rulers feel threatened. It is being used in Syria with devastating effect. What is tragic and shocking is that some members of the Islamic movement and ‘ulama’ have also fallen for this. True, the ‘ulama’ have been co-opted through bribes but it is a telling reflection of the sad state of affairs that a Syrian ‘alim, Sheikh ‘Adnan al-‘Arour (residing in Saudi Arabia) would appeal to the Israelis to save the people of Syria without the Saudi regime, that has no diplomatic relations with the Zionist entity, arresting him. If some ‘alim in Saudi Arabia were to call upon Islamic Iran to help the people, it is safe to assume he would be immediately arrested. For the Saudi regime, Islamic Iran is an enemy but Zionist Israel is a friend!
If the people of Syria do not wake up to this reality, they might end up in worse shape than what they currently face. They must ask themselves: do they want to live in subservience to the US and Zionist Israel or even worse divide Syria along sectarian or ethnic lines? A century ago, the British came promising “liberation” of the Arabians from “Ottoman imperialism.” The result was breakup of the Muslim East into unstable nation-states. Do they want to repeat the same mistake all over again?
Newspapers in Sri Lanka and practically every other country in the world can now be expected to carry every day news items, articles etc stating that Iran had threatened to wipe out Israel from the map. It is intended to make people believe that Iran has a genocidal program against Israel. That’s a lie. What happened was that some years ago the Iranian President made a statement that Israel would be wiped off the map. There could have been a mistranslation leading to the impression that he was threatening mass genocide against the Israeli people. A clarification was therefore issued by the Iranian authorities, to the effect that all that was meant was that in the course of time Israel would cease to exist as the racist and expansionist state that it now is. In other words the Zionist state would cease to exist, not that the Israeli people will be wiped out.
The clarification, surely, was hardly necessary. Can anyone in his right mind really believe that the Iranian President seriously entertained the idea of committing genocide against the Israeli people? If nuclear weapons are used for that purpose, Iran itself will be quickly wiped out by the US. Alternatively, can anyone really believe that Iran, even if it is accompanied by all the other Islamic nations in the world, will be able to accomplish that purpose through conventional war? Anyway the clarification was made, and of course it has been steadfastly ignored by Israel, the West, and the world’s media.
Alternative explanations are available for what looks like Western gullibility over Israel’s lies. One is that power tends to idiotize, and absolute power idiotizes absolutely. Many Westerners have idiotized themselves through their Islamophobia. The other explanation is that the pretense about Iran’s genocidal intent can serve as a seemingly valid casus belli, even as justifying a nuclear bomb attack on Iran. It is a prospect that keeps Israel hopping about and yelping delightedly. We must bear in mind that Americans in powerful positions had seriously thought of bombing the native boys of Vietnam and Pakistan right back into the Stone Age.
It is known that distortions of the truth, half truths, downright lies, are now used far more extensively than ever before in campaigns of misinformation. It is a downright lie that Iran has a genocidal programme against Israel. Sri Lanka on the other hand has been subjected to a campaign of distortions and half truths which can be even more lethal than downright lies as they could be more difficult to expose. The Darusman Report and the Channel 4 video may merit serious consideration but only as material advancing the case for the prosecution, in which case we can be wary about distortions and half truths. But the Darusman Report has been given the imprimatur of the UN through diabolical maneuvering of which Sri Lanka is the victim.
Imagine this scenario: A developing nation decides to selectively share its precious natural resource, selling only to “friendly” countries and not “hostile” ones. Now imagine this is oil we’re talking about and the nation in question is the Islamic Republic of Iran…
Early news reports on Wednesday claimed that Iran pre-empted European Union sanctions by turning off the oil spigot to six member-states: the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Portugal. The reports were premature. According to a highly-placed source in the country, Iran will only stop its oil supply to these nations if they fail to adopt new trading conditions:
1) signing 3 to 5-year contracts to import Iranian oil, with all agreements concluded prior to March 21, and 2) payment for the oil will no longer be accepted within 60-day cycles, as in the past, and must instead be honored immediately.
Negotiations are currently underway with all six nations. Iran, says the source, expects to cut oil supplies to at least two nations based on their current positions. These are likely to be Holland and France.
Meanwhile, the other four EU member-states are in dire financial straits. They are knee-deep in the kind of fiscal crisis that has no hope of resolution unless they exit the union and go back to banana republic basics. Yet, they found the time to sanction Iran over some convoluted American-Israeli theory that the Islamic Republic may one day decide to build a nuclear weapon. I am sure arm-twisting was involved – the kind that involves dollars for votes.
But I digress. This blog is really about ideas. And not just ideas, but really ridiculous ideas.
New World Order Jump-Started by Iran?
Alternative sources of oil will be found in a jiffy for these beleaguered EU economies. But this isn’t so much about a few barrels of the stuff that fuels the world’s engines.
The past few years have shown that there is no global financial leadership capable of pulling us back from the abyss. The US national debt hovers around the $15.3 Trillion mark. Its GDP in 2011 was just under $15 Trillion. You do the math – there is no fixing that one. The only next-big-thing coming out of that dead end will be the complete transformation of the current global economic order.
But how will that take place without leadership and clear direction? I’m betting hard that It will not come from the top, nor will it be directed. The new global economic order will be organic, regional and quite sudden.
What do I mean?
Imagine: Iran stops selling oil to the EU; China tells the US to take a hike on currency values; India starts trading in large quantities of rupees; Russia’s central bank becomes a depot for holding dollars that don’t need to pass through New York; the creation of a global payment messaging system competing with SWIFT. Now imagine that a combination of actions – triggered only by an attempt to circumvent some really very silly sanctions – can suddenly unleash some unexpected possibilities that were beyond the realm of imagination a mere few years ago.
Imagine the emergence, say, of regional economic hubs, powered by the currencies of the local hegemonic powers, where bartering natural resources, goods and services becomes as commonplace as transactions involving currency transfers. Because of the frailty inherent in dealing with these new local currencies and a bartering system, nations tend to trade most with those closest to them in geography and culture. Shocking? Maybe not. Sometimes it just takes a need for change…and a handy tipping point.
“This is not the time to fan the flames,” someone should have told the United States. “You and your pals are sitting in a jalopy tottering on the cliff’s edge – why risk making moves now?” they should have warned. “Be a little less arrogant,” would have been sage advice.
But Washington is absolutely, irrevocably, dangerously fixated on showing Iran who’s boss, and spends a good part of every day trying to tighten the screws around the Islamic Republic. For the most part, the US’s pursuit of this dubious objective has instead stripped it of the vital political tools it once wielded. No more UN Security Council resolutions, no more unscrutinized military adventures. The only thing left is the nefarious tentacles of the United States Department of Treasury and its financial weapons. “The new tools of imperialism,” as once US-friendly central banker in the Mideast bluntly put it to me.
I only hear shrill desperation when politicos now parrot the “sanctions are biting” line. Here’s a juicy tidbit for those rolling their eyes right now: Goldman Sachs – America’s premier investment bank and Wall-Street God – has identified the Islamic Republic as one of the “Next 11” growth drivers of the global economy after the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations. BRIC was a term coined by Goldman Sachs, if you recall, and boy, were they right about that one.
Thirty years of “biting” sanctions and sanctions “with teeth” have achieved the following: “Strong or improving growth conditions,” said Goldman Sachs just last year, “combined with favorable demographics, form the foundation of the N-11 growth story.” The investment bank, furthermore, estimates “a measurable increase in the N-11’s share of global GDP, from roughly 12% in the current decade to 17% in 2040-2049.”
It’s a bad global economy we are facing right now, but Goldman Sachs’ charts illustrate that Iran is still one of five nations in the N-11 pot whose “productivity and sustainability of growth” is above average.
Shrugging off Dollar Dominance
A British investment research firm wrote in January: “Sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran effectively restricts Iranian oil sales to barter contracts or to state-to-state agreements utilizing non-G8 currencies…It represents a major irritation to the Iranians, rather than a chokehold.”
The authors specify the Chinese Yuan as the non-G8 currency, but in the past few days that scenario has busted open with the addition of the Indian Rupee into the mix. The new trade deal inked between Iran and India ensures Rupee payment for 45% of Iranian oil imports, with the balance remaining in Indian banks to pay for exports to the Islamic Republic. This achieves two important things that are an unintended consequence of US sanctions: firstly, it eliminates the Dollar as the trading currency (note that oil prices have traditionally been priced in US Dollars); secondly, it significantly accelerates economic integration between Iran and one of the four largest emerging economies in the world.
D.S. Rawat, head of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India, says of the agreement: “The potential of trade and economic relations between the two countries can touch the level of $30 billion by 2015 from the current level of $13.7 billion dollars in 2010-11.”
There’s more. During the course of the past two weeks, Iran has purchased around 1.1 million tons of cereals and wheat from international markets – including products originating in Germany, Canada, Brazil and Australia – which it has paid for entirely in currencies other than the Dollar.
The US Dollar, which has been the international reserve currency for close to a century, is on its way out anyway. America’s huge balance of payments deficit has weakened US fundamentals and made investors wary. The downside of the Dollar’s changing status is that the Federal Reserve loses a lot of flexibility in managing its currency and the US economy. That does not bode well for keeping the US competitive against the BRIC nations and other emerging economies.
Iran Sanctions Biting the US Right Back?
It takes one solid idea, in a world desperately seeking them, to start the creaky shift to a new global order. Emerging economies have been nipping at the heels of the world’s governing bodies for decades, demanding entry into the hallowed halls of the UN Security Council’s permanent members; insisting on a seat at the main table at the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization.
When European leaders went begging for scraps at the last G-20 meeting, the BRICs found their feet and yawned a collective “no.” It signaled a reversal of fortunes, that meeting, and the idea that they can forge their own path was born. The BRICs then announced their first joint foreign policy statement last November – on Syria, of all places. The idea matured.
But US/EU sanctions against Iran are giving the idea steam. One has to act when faced with a dilemma, after all – and that dilemma has been literally foisted in the faces of nonaligned countries the world around: “sanction Iran or else.”
Now they are just shrugging and finding ways around the maze of traps set up by the Department of Treasury. Why should they care much? What is the United States today but an unwieldy bully with few arrows left in its quiver?
This week the US is putting the screws on Belgian-based SWIFT. If you’ve ever wired money to another country, you have used SWIFT – it is essentially the messaging system between banks that alerts them to money transfers. The US wants to cut Iranian banks out of the SWIFT system, in effect making it practically impossible for anyone inside or outside Iran to send or receive funds.
Who knows what Iran will do if this comes to pass? It will probably just join non-aligned countries to create an alternative SWIFT, further undermining the western grip on global finance. Iran, after all, decided last year not to put up with the prospect of perpetual cyberwar with the west, and is forging ahead with plans to create a closed internet system for itself.
Each step the US and EU take to hinder Iran’s flexibility is countered with an innovative solution – one that includes more and more non-western players who are keen to craft a new global order. They used to worry about that kind of confrontation with the west, but the collapse of the current order has left few obstacles in their paths – and even offers incentives.
Like the proverbial finger in the dyke to block a leak…the water will always find another way out and possibly even bust open the dam. A warning to Washington: the burden of anxiety will always fall on the one who needs the dam most.
Sharmine Narwani is a commentary writer and political analyst covering the Middle East. You can follow her on twitter @snarwani.
Thirty-three years ago this month the world was witness to the fall of a Shah and the rise of an Imam. The Shah was Persian by culture, American by loyalty. The Imam was Persian by culture, Islamic by persuasion. The Muslims of the world along with the imperialist victims of the world rejoiced at this turn of events. Ever since that time Uncle Sam and his nephew Cohen have been playing their cards against the Imam and the Revolution. How valiant and patient the sons and daughters of that revolution have been throughout all these years! Had all the forms of warfare and conspiracies and out-and-out lies been leveled against another revolution, it would have been on its knees by now.
Today, the Islamic Revolution in Iran is standing tall. It has developed its skills, advanced its technology, and extended its infrastructure to a degree that has finally brought the imperialist-Zionist club of nations out into the open in their war preparations, which are being set in motion as this article goes to press. The spreadsheets in the US and Europe inform us that there are 15,000 US combat ready troops in a slaphappy Kuwait: at least two army infantry brigades and a helicopter unit. The Pentagon has two aircraft carriers prowling regional waters: the USS Carl Vinson and the USS John Stennis. There are reports of a third aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln steaming toward the Persian Gulf, as of this writing. These and their strike groups are sharking their routes between their home base and the Persian Gulf. The hot line between Washington and Tel Aviv is sizzling with blood-and-guts coordination plans. The word is out that the twin cities of Washington and Tel Aviv are gunning for Iran. Not to be left out of this imperialist-Islamic buildup of tension and threats the Qatari collaborator Sheikh Hamad Aal Thani (the Qatari Foreign Minister) and the Saudi sycophant Sa‘ud al-Faisal (the Saudi Foreign Minister) were in Washington last month listening to President Barack Obama and probably signing on to any future outbreak of hostilities. Their conversations remain a tightly guarded secret. Thanks to you, Islamic Iran, for showing the rest of the world who these toady officials in Arabia are and to whom they owe their allegiance.
Then we had, during this past month, the British Prime Minister David Cameron flying into Arabia to sell handsome amounts of weapons to the scared-to-death Saudi rulers. He held talks with King ‘Abdullah and his Crown Prince Nayef. This war scenario which comes to us from Washington and Tel Aviv is exactly what the military-industrial-banking complex needs. Thank you, Islamic Iran, for blowing the Islamic camouflage off the Anglo-American sheikhs in Arabia — and beyond.
You, the sons and daughters of the Revolution, with your dedication and tireless efforts have built your own state. You are showing the rest of us the way. It is your devotion to Islam as it was meant to be that is causing cracks in the Yahudi-Yankee edifice. Not all is rosy and peachy between the Israeli Knesset and the US Congress. The US budget has been bleeding for the better part of the past 33 years of the Islamic Revolution. The US Congress realizes that the America now owes more than it makes in a given year. And the hatchet men are out to chop off financial appropriations that are non-essential: there are plans for sequestration. This means that dollar-addicted Israel will have to be put on notice that it cannot expect to receive the generous amounts of cash infusions that it is addicted to. And this is resulting in a flare-up of behind-the-scenes tension between an America that no longer can supply and an Israel that needs more and more.
Little does the public eye notice that Israel is leading the charge, and the US is being pricked into combat position, a situation it is not ready for after its battles in Afghanistan and Iraq. The relationship between Yahudi-firsters in Washington and the Bible supremacists in Tel Aviv must be on thin ice when we hear that both sides called off “Austere Challenge 12” which was supposed to have been the largest war exercise ever between the US and Israel. Thank you, the persevering sons and daughters of the Islamic Revolution, for having shown us (those of us whose eyes are open) how flimsy and vulnerable the relationship is between the chicken hawks in Washington and their roosters in Tel Aviv. People without prejudice — Muslims and non-Muslims — have watched your revolution grow from infancy into manhood. These people saw how the imperialists and Zionists targeted, via their agents, the scholars of Islam Ayatullah Murtaza Mutahhari, Ayatullah Seyyed Muhammad Hussein Beheshti, Ayatullah Ashraf Isfahani, Ayatullah Dastagheib, and many other great scholars of Islam were assassinated by “Persian” fifth-columnists. Yet the Revolution survived. Next, Iran’s soldiers became the target of the same enemies. And after eight long and bloody years and after hundreds of thousands of martyrs the Islamic Revolution survived. Now, the same enemies are targeting the scientists. You, the sons and daughters in your principled defense of the Islamic Revolution, exposed the cowards and showed us how they fight. When they lose at the battlefield they turn to assassinations and random killings.
The historical Islamic Revolution demonstrated to us the lengths to which the Zionists and imperialists will go to “frame” and “entrap” Muslims to justify a worldwide war that they say may continue for over a hundred years (a Freudian slip of the tongue that the Islamic Revolution may be around for a hundred years or more). You, the class of shuhada’, enlightened us as to the depth of hate and the visceral hatred that lurks in the bosoms of Euro-American-Israeli officials who cannot tolerate an independent Islamic state acquiring peaceful nuclear technology, when they themselves say that it is the right of all states. You, the leaders of the Islamic State under the guidance of Imams Khomeini and Khamane’i, have stimulated our thoughts as to the real nature of our enemies and the enemies of oppressed people in the world. You educated us in these 33 years about enemies who hide behind a gloss of civilization but in their hearts they are anything but civilized. These enemies, as we all celebrate these bittersweet 33 years of revolution, may very well be planning a mass casualty attack of some sort against innocent people that will be blamed on Muslims.
They may even be thinking about some type of cyber-attack that may paralyze some society’s infrastructure in a way that is equivalent to a natural catastrophe or national emergency. They may be planning some type of disruption in the energy sector of the producers and consumers of petroleum. Their own man-made economies are teetering on the brink in Europe and in America. They are very adept at triggering a trans-Atlantic crisis that the world itself will suffer from.
You the leaders, the martyrs, the scholars, the soldiers, the scientists, and the devotees of Islam, have changed the geopolitical landscape of the world; whether you know it or not. You snatched the masks off the faces of political hypocrites and removed the gloves off the hands of financial thieves exposing their finger prints on crimes. And at the end of this line we and all the world can see how civilized these shayateen are: they urinate on dead Muslim bodies, they desecrate the Qur’an, they ridicule the Prophet (pbuh), they sexually assault the innocent, they commit every crime in the Book and none of our rulers from the filthy rich of Arabia to the dirt poor of Africa are able to speak truth to power the way you have done in Islamic Iran.
In all these years, an unspoken question lies deep down inside every astute Muslim, and that question is: will the imperialist US or Zionist Israel attack Islamic Iran? You have been answering that question for 33 years. And your answer in Allah’s (swt) words is:
They [the committed Muslims] were told: ‘But everyone is against you, be heedful of the danger’. And this [scenario] boosted their faith and commitment; and they [the committed Muslims] answered back: Suffice it that Allah is on our side, and He is the best confidant (3:173).
Pull quotes: Today, the Islamic Revolution in Iran is standing tall… You, the sons and daughters of the Revolution, with your dedication and tireless efforts have built your own state. You are showing the rest of us the way. It is your devotion to Islam as it was meant to be that is causing cracks in the Yahudi-Yankee edifice… Not all is rosy and peachy between the Israeli Knesset and the US Congress.
Iranian Muslim sisters demonstrate support for their country’s Islamic leadership as well as for oppressed people, by wearing the Palestinian head garb, now a universal symbol of liberation (one of the healthy impacts of the Islamic Revolution).
Editorials, Zafar Bangash
This month marks the 33rd anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The US- and Zionist-backed puppet Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Shah of Iran) was driven from power by a tidal wave of mass uprising led by the charismatic and muttaqi leader, Imam Khomeini (may Allah (swt) comfort him) in February 1979. While suffering massive casualties — 80,000 dead according to some estimates — the Islamic Revolution was completely non-violent. The leadership of the Islamic movement refused to respond in kind to the regime’s extreme brutality, which was fully supported by the US. Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter has admitted in his book, Power and Principle (1983), that despite US urging, the Shah did not show enough resolve in “dealing firmly” with the protesters. Perhaps Brzezinski thought a million civilians killed would have crushed the uprising. So much for Carter’s much-touted human rights campaign!
One cannot help but compare the non-violent nature of the Islamic Revolution in Iran 33 years ago with the violent uprisings in Libya that brought down the regime of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi and the one currently underway in Syria against the regime of Bashar al-Asad. In both places, significant foreign intervention is pushing the situation toward civil war. Despite the overthrow and murder of Qaddafi, the situation in Libya is far from settled; tribal warfare continues and has the potential to escalate. In Syria, the turmoil is likely to drag on for months with neither side overwhelming the other, ultimately descending into a chaotic stalemate. In Egypt and Tunisia, where two long serving dictators were driven from power, the old system remains entrenched.
While reflecting on the Islamic Revolution it is fair to ask what it has achieved in 33 years. The former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once remarked: “a week is a long time in politics.” To survive for 33 years in a hostile environment in which from the first day, its enemies have been trying to undermine Iran internally as well as externally, is a remarkable achievement. But Islamic Iran has done more: it has made great strides in scientific and technological fields despite facing stringent sanctions and the freezing of its assets by countries like the US and Britain. Since tens of billions of dollars of its assets have been frozen, this is tantamount to a declaration of war aimed at crippling the country’s economy. If freezing its assets were the only hostile act, this in and of itself would have constituted enough pressure on the fledgling Islamic State. After all, it had just undergone a revolutionary upheaval that disrupted normal life. Almost immediately after the success of the revolution, leading figures were assassinated by US-Zionist agents. These included many leading ‘ulama’, a president, a prime minister, the chief justice, and many members of parliament. Altogether, some 1,200 leading figures were martyred. The elimination of leading figures on such a scale would have brought any other country to its knees; not the Islamic State of Iran. What this reflects is the depth of support the Islamic Revolution has among the masses and the courage and determination of its leaders. Even while this campaign of sabotage and assassinations was underway internally, Islamic Iran was subjected to a full scale military invasion on September 22, 1980 by the Ba‘thist regime of Saddam Husain in Iraq. While Saddam’s regime had the backing of almost all the Western powers, which supplied him lethal weapons including chemical and biological poisons, and generous funding from his fellow Arabian rulers, the Islamic Republic singlehandedly withstood this onslaught for eight years. It is important to note that despite using chemical and biological weapons against Iran, not once did the UN Security Council muster the courage to name Saddam as the guilty party, or to label him a war criminal. This would have implicated the same Western powers that dominate the Security Council, in war crimes. Also interesting to note is the fact that Iran neither suspended its constitution nor postponed elections for the president or parliament. While defending itself all alone, Islamic Iran also did not incur any debt. Compare this to Britain during World War II or the more recent US experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the end of WWII, Britain had incurred a debt of $55 billion (perhaps several trillion in today’s terms). The US’ plight is even worse: it has an external debt of $14.5 trillion and rising. The US economy has nosedived and continues to suffer serious blows. Statistics aside, what we must ask is: how has the Islamic State of Iran withstood all these pressures singlehandedly and survived? The principal reason is that an Islamic revolution changes the very nature of society and makes it impervious to economic or other kinds of pressures. Similarly, its leadership is sincere and does not work for a particular class of people. In a truly Islamic society, taqwa becomes the norm and spreads to all segments of the population. For the masses, it is not their personal interest but rather the interest and survival of the revolution that is paramount. This, however, is only possible if the leadership is muttaqi and willing to make sacrifices. This is what has happened in Iran. Imam Khomeini’s simple lifestyle, emulated by the Rahbar, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei is what keeps them close to the hearts of the people.
Islamic Iran is subjected to an intensified regime of sanctions and its nuclear scientists are being assassinated by US-Zionist agents to undermine its peaceful nuclear program, yet it has stood its ground. The question that must be asked is: why is Iran being attacked so viciously? The main reason is that it has dared to break out of the system crafted by the victors of WWII. This is seen as a threat to the vested interests of the predatory powers that thrive on sucking the blood of other people. Islamic Iran refuses to allow them to do so, hence the campaigns of sabotage, sanctions and killing of its civilians, soldiers, technocrats, and public representatives.
Far from having its will broken, the steely determination of the people and leaderhsip of Iran has inspired people elsewhere — in the Muslim East and beyond — to rise up for their rights. What is underway in the Muslim East, although not on the same scale, is the direct result of Iran’s great example set 33 years ago. The US and its Western allies are in retreat even while clutching to straws to save their tattered image. Their Arabian client regimes are similarly destined to oblivion, sooner rather than later.
