|
|
Issue 231, Friday 25 July 2008 - 23 Rajab 1423 Dr Strangelove and Iran It was a mere coincidence that on the same day last month as the EU froze the accounts of Bank Melli, Iran’s main bank, the UK lifted sanctions against the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MeK or PMOI) organisation. It came after the MeK, MKO or PMOI, to use some of its many pseudonyms, becomes the first terrorist group to be removed from the country’s officially proscribed list, even though the Government remains adamant that it is still a terrorist organisation that has boasted the killing of thousands in Iran. “There can be no doubt that the PMOI was responsible for acts of terrorism over a long period, stretching back some two decades,” Government Minister, Lord Bassam, said when introducing an order to de-proscribe the Iraq-based group. “These acts were not attributed to it by the Iranian authorities: the PMOI expressly admitted responsibility for a number of horrendous crimes carried out against the Iranian people,” he said. Their removal came after a long and sustained campaign by several MPs and Peers. When the Government’s application to overturn the ruling was refused by the Court of Appeal, Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, insisted the Government will “ensure that the safety of the public is not in anyway jeopardised” by the de-proscription and would “tighten legislation if necessary.” But no subsequent amendments were made unlike previous instances when emergency measures were rushed through, such as control orders, leaving the Government in an embarrassing position of not being able to defend a major plank of its counter-terrorism strategy. This is despite Foreign Office Minister, Lord Mallach Brown, insisting that the MKO had made “no renunciation of terrorism and disarmed only in the face of pressure from coalition forces” at its Camp Ashraf base in Iraq in 2005. The whole sorry saga was denounced by the Iranian Embassy in London, which said it was “clear evidence of insincerity on the part of Britain in its approach towards tackling terrorism, especially in our region.” The ruling to exclude the MKO “vividly ignored the nature, structure as well as a long record of atrocities of this terrorist cult against Iranian and Iraqi civilians throughout the past three decades,” the Embassy said. It “truly discredits the British position in combating terrorism,” it said, warning that it was a “politically motivated ruling [that] in no way acquits the British Government from its responsibilities in an indiscriminatory fight against terrorism.” If the decision was used as a political tool in the West’s war of words with Iran over its nuclear programme, it sets a dangerous precedent for Britain’s priorities in defeating international terrorism. The corresponding implementation of EU sanctions against Iran’s largest bank (which was prematurely announced by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, during US President George W Bush’s visit to London) only rubs salt in the wound. The EU’s unilateral action to freeze the accounts of Bank Melli goes far beyond any UN resolution, seemingly because other members of the Security Council could not be coerced into such a blanket ban that not only affects the operation of Iranian institutions in the UK but also the welfare of Iranian students and other resident nationals. The new sanctions are not “targeted” at the country’s nuclear programme but are seen as more of a collective punishment. Iran’s nuclear programme has been put at the top of the US agenda since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime led to such disastrous consequences in Iraq. But the parallels are uncanny as again all the allegations are not based upon any evidence that Iran may be abusing its right to enrich uranium to develop nuclear weapons. The West has chosen to ignore the fact that all original suspicions that were used to justify referring Iran’s case to the UN have been cleared by the nuclear agency, IAEA, only to find that the US is moving the goalposts to ratchet up the pressure. Threats of military action against Iran by the US or Israel as its proxy have been looming for more than two years. But now British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, is unprepared to repeat the assurance given by his predecessor that a war against Iran is “inconceivable.” It is a highly dangerous game that could ignite the whole of the Middle East with monumental consequences, which everyone recognises. The folly is that Israel has never respected any semblance of international law since its creation and no one seems to know how much of a megalomaniac in the fashion of Dr Strangelove Bush may be in his final months in office. It is particularly alarming when even papers like the Daily Mail have expressed fears that the US President may be prepared to commit “his last and most contemptible act of vandalism against world peace.” Yet all this renewed sabre-rattling has come about when each side has put forward new proposals to find a diplomatic resolution. EU High Representative, Javier Solana, has been put forward to hold talks with Iran, the latest being on July 19 as of going to press, but is not being allowed to go the full way to open negotiations unless Iran again freezes its enrichment programme it is entitled to have under the Non Proliferation Treaty. It is a despicable political game, which everyone knows cannot be resolved until someone uses some statesman like qualities. It has been suggested that the US appoints a high-ranking envoy like former President, Jimmy Carter, to break the deadlock, but his mission to the Middle East, in which he expressed sympathy for the plight of Palestinians, was treated with derision. For Britain’s part, it has been suggested that someone senior like Miliband flies to Tehran as Straw did five times while he was foreign secretary. Without any initiative, the situation will not only get worse but could spiral out of control with the consequence of thousands of innocent Muslims being killed and injured because of nuclear fallout in the wake of US or Israeli bombings of Iranian nuclear facilities.
|