Arab Media See U.S.-Iranian Deal-Making Behind a War of Words
Pacific News Service, News Analysis, Jalal Ghazi, Posted: Mar 15, 2005
Editor's Note: Newspapers and political talk shows in the Arab world speculate that despite public posturing, Washington and Tehran are willing to talk.
SAN FRANCISCO--Despite harsh words between Iran and the United States, many Arab commentators are convinced that the two sworn enemies are co-operating behind the scenes -- especially when it comes to Iraq.
The Iranian role in Iraq recently headlined the most popular and daring talk show on Al-Jazeera Television, "The Opposite Direction." During the show the audience was asked whether Iran was an enemy or an ally to the United States. More than 70 percent of the 1,374 respondents called Iran an ally.
Awni Al-Qalamji, a guest on the show and spokesman for the Iraqi National Alliance, a reformist opposition party that has supported both a multi-party, human rights-oriented constitution for Iraq and armed resistance to the occupation, laid out the recent history of U.S.-Iranian co-operation. Other Arab media such as Al Alam television and Al-Quds Al-Arabi and Asharq Al-Awsat newspapers point in a similar direction.
Al-Qalamji asserts that in October 2001, Iran helped American war efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, citing reports and the statements of several Iranian officials. Iran also helped the United States during the invasion of Iraq, Al-Qalamji claims, noting that Australian Navy forces reported that the Iranians captured one Iraqi torpedo boat loaded with explosives and warned the Australians about three others. The boats were intended to be used by Hussein's regime in suicide missions against foreign ships near Shat Al Arab.
In addition, during the war in Iraq, American forces allowed 10,000 armed men from Bader, the military wing of the Iraqi Higher Council for the Islamic Revolution, to enter Iraq from Iran. This Iranian-backed organization is one of the major political parties that joined Ali al-Sistani's United Iraqi Alliance.
Al-Qalamji points out that Iran has supported al-Sistani's efforts to pacify the Iraqi Shiites, such as when al-Sistani issued a religious decree asking Iraqis not to carry arms against the Americans. In return, Paul Bremer, the former American civil administrator in Iraq, agreed to go along with Ahmed Chalabi's de-Baathification project by dissolving the Iraqi army -- a move widely believed to have fueled Sunni resistance operations.
Iran also supported al-Sistani when he issued a religious decree making voting a duty, an instrumental factor behind the success of the Iraqi elections.
Arab media took notice of recent conciliatory rhetoric from the United States toward Iran on the issue of Iran's nuclear program. Al Jazeera reported prominently Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's announcement that Washington would allow Iran to begin talks on joining the World Trade Organization, and would consider letting Iran buy civilian airline parts. "The Europeans have a strategy which is to show the Iranians that if they are prepared to live up to their international obligations there is an alternative path to confrontation," Rice said.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a London-based Arab newspaper, published an article on March 14 that downplayed tension between the Iran and the United States. "Iran and the U.S. may be involved in a war of words concerning Tehran's nuclear plans, but there isn't much evidence of tension in the former Soviet bases along the Iranian borders that are now being used by the American forces." Life is so slow in the large air bases, the paper noted, that U.S. troops "are wasting their time by playing with old parts of crashed Soviet planes."
The question is, would the United States tolerate a nuclear Iran, asked Huda Al-Husseini, a regular commentator in the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. In a Feb. 24 article, Husseini concludes that Washington may let Tehran keep its nuclear program rather than take military action.
"Some if not all Iranian nuclear complexes are actually decoys built to distract attention from real facilities buried underground," Al-Husseini notes. She also wrote that if the U.S. air force should attack Iran, political change in the country would be derailed.
Tehran has another important card in its deck, Arab media notes: oil. Al Jazeera reported that Hasan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said that a U.S. attack "would cause problems for the regional energy market, for the European economy and even more so for the United States." Iran is the second-largest oil producer in OPEC and sits on one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world.
Arab commentators agree that Iran's ace is its ability to influence Arab Shiites and trigger an uprising in Iraq. Iran could also engineer another uprising in Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed Hezbollah recently massed the largest demonstration in the country's history.
On the other hand, a U.S. alliance with Iran could prove fruitful for the United States. Iran could play an instrumental role in quelling resistance in Iraq. "We are hearing from knowledgeable sources that Iran is expected to participate in eliminating the resistance through its major backed parties, the higher council for the Islamic revolution and the Daa'wa party," Al-Qalamji says.
Iran could also open its oil and gas fields to American companies at the expense of competing European and Chinese firms. In January 2005, Halliburton won a contract to drill at a huge Iranian gas field called Pars. Halliburton claims the operation does not contravene U.S. laws because it is run by a subsidiary based outside the United States.
There's a strong precedent for U.S. deal-making with Iran, Al-Qalamji says. The last time U.S.-Iranian relations were so low was during the hostage crisis of the early 1980s. And yet, Al-Qalamji claims, the U.S. sold $1 billion worth of weapons to Iran in return for delaying the release of the hostages until just after former President Ronald Reagan's inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981.
PNS contributor Jalal Ghazi monitors and translates Arab media for New California Media (a project of PNS) and Link TV.
Page
1 of 1
|
