Iran and US-Israel enmity an elaborate act?

Forget the fiery rhetoric, Washington, Tel Aviv and Tehran have more in common than you might imagine. All share the same aim: to control Arab states and prevent them from uniting. Earlier, they have been co-conspirators in that endeavour. The question is whether Iran truly is an enemy of US-Israel and a natural ally of the Arab world as the Iranian leadership works hard to portray.

The Persian-Arab rivalry goes back 1,400 years to the Muslim conquests when Persians embraced Islam. Today, Iranians wrap themselves in an Islamic flag in an effort to lead the Muslim world yet the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian New Year Norouz is still Iran’s most celebrated festival.

If Iranians were true friends of Arabs, they would not impede Arabic being spoken or the construction of Sunni mosques when Shiite mosques and synagogues proliferate. The Iranian government also bans parents from giving traditional Arab names to their newborns. It should be remembered too that Tehran still occupies UAE islands, refuses demands from the Arab population of Al-Ahwaz (Khuzestan) for autonomy, has territorial claims on Bahrain and threatens airlines that use “Arabian Gulf” instead of “Persian Gulf” with being barred from Iranian airspace. With friends like these, who needs enemies!

Dr Abdullah Al-Nafisi, a university professor and specialist on Shiite affairs, says Iranians are primarily Persian nationalists who use their faith to reach Arabs via Shiite Arab minorities. He says Iranian officialdom from the Supreme Leader down to senior military officers, Revolutionary Guards and intelligence personnel once followed the teachings of the politician and cleric Abdollah Nouri. This former interior minister maintains that all Gulf States belong to Persia and promotes Iranian retribution on Arabs for helping to destroy the Persian empire which may account for Iranian Arabs being treated as second-class citizens. Conversely, according to Al-Nafisi, ordinary Iranians harbour no hostility towards the country’s 25,000 Jews who are represented in Parliament and are so respected that most have declined cash incentives to move to Israel.

Under-the-table dealings between Israel, US and Persia extend back to the reign of Mohammed Reza Shah when Iranian oil flowed to Israel and, in turn, Israel supplied Iran with technological knowhow, missile assembly plants and military training. Iran even supplied Israel details of Jamal Abdul Nasser’s military planning, according to a book by Trita Parsi Treacherous Alliance. Following the 1979 Islamic revolution, Yasser Arafat was lectured by Ayatollah Khomeini on the need to reject Arab nationalism, Parsi says. It was clear that Khomeini wasn’t serious in his support for the Palestinian cause. His primary aim was to lead the Islamic world, indoctrinate Arabs with his credo and bolster Arab Shiites.

In 1981, Iran facilitated Israel’s attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor and during the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War, the Iranians purchased weapons from Israel with the White House’s blessing, writes Parsi. In 1986, President Reagan signed a secret memo authorising the sale of US arms to Iran, resulting in the Iran-Contra scandal.

With the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Tehran saw its plan to dominate the Arab world slipping away and so began funding and supporting Islamist rejectionist groups to spoil the peace process. Iran also offered to help strengthen the fledgling Afghan army under US supervision and in 2002, the US State Department initiated talks with prominent Iranian political figures.

Tehran later urged Iraqi Shiites not to resist the US-led occupation for good reason. Iraq—the main obstacle to Iran’s access to Gulf states —had been conveniently defanged and was now ruled by political figures that have either lived in Iran or consider it as their spiritual home. Inadvertently or otherwise, Bush spent billions of American taxpayers’ money and sacrificed tens of thousands of lives only to bring Iraq into Iran’s sphere of influence.

Tehran has since made efforts to woo US to gain access to the IMF and win clout in the UN. Economic sanctions against Iran have not heavily impacted the Iranian economy. The US has been flexing its muscles over Iran’s uranium enrichment programme since a 2006 UNSC resolution demanding its suspension but the West has refrained from packing a punch.

Toppling of strong Arab leaderships is an invitation to sectarian conflict, extremist organisations, secessionist groups—and civil war. I would argue that division and chaos under the banner of “freedom” will serve Iran. It’s already happening. The new Egypt has permitted Iranian warships through the Suez Canal and is preparing to normalise relations with Tehran.

While the US is vehemently supportive of revolutionaries in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Syria and is using its airpower to attack the Libyan regime, its condemnation against Iran’s repression of anti-government activists has been lukewarm. I have always suspected that the ‘enmity’ between Iran and the US-Israel may be an elaborate act. In any case, keeping up the pretence of enmity is a symbiotic win-win situation for all concerned. Israel has a pretext to expand its nuclear arsenal and propagandise its need to put security first in the face of an Iranian existential threat. Iran uses anti-Israel slogans to increase its standing among Muslims. And the US has an excuse to maintain its military footprint in the Gulf.

What if, in the future, Washington, Tel Aviv formed an alliance? How would that impact the independence of Gulf states? I would strongly urge GCC states to increase their military might and initiate a unified defence strategy. In an increasingly unprincipled geopolitical climate, where major powers are willing to dump even close allies, we cannot rely on others. We’re on our own—and the sooner we face up to that, the better.

The writer is chairman of the Dubai-based Al Habtoor Group

Courtesy: Al Arabiya