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US-Israel and EU stance on Iran reeks of hypocrisy!

NOAM Chomsky writes in Khaleej Times: "NUCLEAR threats and counter-threats are a subtext of our times, steadily, it seems, becoming more insistent. The July meeting in Geneva between Iran and six major world powers on Iran's nuclear programme ended with no progress.

The Bush administration was widely praised for having shifted to a more conciliatory stand — namely, by allowing a US diplomat to attend without participating — while Iran was castigated for failing to negotiate seriously. And the powers warned Iran that it would soon face more severe sanctions unless it terminated its uranium enrichment programme. Meanwhile, India was applauded for agreeing to a nuclear pact with the United States...."

Firstly, the US administration has for years refused to sit and negotiate, or even discuss, with Iran; and then eventually sends a minor diplomat as an "observer" without the franchise of participation and, wonder of wonders, castigates Iran for failure to negotiate seriously. And the rest of the diplomatic, or media zoo, calls it "conciliation." C'mon! I call it sheer imperial arrogance!

Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin has contradicted the United States and Britain's claims of any agreement or discussions among the six major powers, to pursue new UN sanctions against Iran at this stage, or deadlines set for Iran to respond. So, the United States attends international conferences and reports findings and accords which were not even tabled? A lie, is a lie, is a lie, regardless of how big or ridiculous! Makes you wonder where these people are coming from, who expect to get away with such falsehoods?

Another fact is that India is not a signatory to the NPT and the US-India nuclear deal is illegal under the NPT (as well as under US law). Yes that's right; the entire deal is illegal from the git-go! Well, the US "coerced" India with the "threat" of cancelling the nuclear deal to vote against Iran in the IAEA board of governors.

Now, with just a little bit more of arm-twisting, they have made the entire illegal affair legal! That is the way these powers have always done business. And to them building nuclear power plants, or selling bomb designs has always been business first.

Assisting a nuclear wannabe is also a good means of bonding with a potential ally in future misdeeds against the rest of the world. I am saddened to see India capitulating and climbing into the bed with such a corrupt partnership deal. I have always had a higher regard for their foreign affairs dealings. They defile the name and memory of Mahatma Gandhi.

The world's energy needs are multiplying at an alarming rate. Unless someone comes up with an entirely new and revolutionary source of massive amounts of electrical energy, nuclear energy is ultimately inevitable as its source. So, it is Iran's right as a sovereign nation and also under NPT to be able to enrich uranium for electricity. Therefore, the stance of United States and its allies against Iran is not only based on an unfounded and unfair premise, it reeks of hypocrisy especially when nuclear-armed Israel has a green light to continue its ridiculous policy of nuclear ambiguity.

As for nuclear weaponry, nuclear weapons are not effective in the defence of any country. They are the source of destruction of the entire world! The last nuclear war stopped with the destruction of only two cities because only one side had them, and they had only two of them. This is no longer the case, and the history of warfare had demonstrated that whatever restraints the belligerents may have in mind at the outset of war, escalation is always the course followed when one side begins to prevail over the other. Ultimately, nuclear weaponry can and will destroy the world as a habitable planet.

The member states of the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) have always supported and called on the international community to make the Middle East a zone free of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Their intentions have always been crystal clear. It's for the US and the EU and the IAEA, to start by pressing Israel to come clean on its stockpile of WMD and denuclearise, in order to prevent a Nuclear Arms Race in the region. Instead, we see the US, with its proxies, and arm-twisting and puppets and Special Forces and Black Water Mercenaries, now occupy and hold not only Iraq but much of the Middle East hostage. Those who don't see these facts are either blind or plain hypocrites!

To write North Korea off the "Axis of Evil list" is a faux indicator to the world, if not Iran, that the US will negotiate with Iran... yeah, negotiate Peace in good faith, like Israel negotiates with Palestine! It must be noted that Iran did suspend its enrichment programme between October 2003 and February 2006, but even then negotiations did not make any progress. This is significant of how serious and interested the Powers are in concluding the negotiations. Instead, they dragged the suspension out indefinitely. Much like the Palestinian 'peace process' that everyone knows now is nothing but a hoax to buy time to change the facts on the ground on phoney charges such as 'Israel's security,' while Israel flexes its muscles, waves its nuclear sabre at the "enemy," and threatens more war crimes by preparing for an unwarranted attack against its neighbour. And, in the best traditions of Orwellian newspeak, Benny Morris, the spokesman from Hell, in the New York Times, justifies all this in the name of "peace!"

This US administration is dominated by neoconservative Israeli-centric ideologues whose only acceptable "settlement" with Iran will be total immobilisation, military, diplomatic, and economic disablement — the end of Iran as a functional state, and oil producing or exporting nation.

It is no surprise to read Chomsky's assertion, that the Samson policy has been adopted as an Israeli diplomatic stratagem! Lt. Col. Farr declares that the purpose of Israeli nuclear weapons is actually for "use" against the US. "Use" is encased in quotation marks in this case, presumably to indicate that they will be employed as Chomsky implies as a "threat" to turn the world or at least the Middle East into an actual holocaust if their demands are not met. I suggest that the "threat" may go even further than that, and that Israel is not simply posing intimidating threats to ignite just the Middle East with nuclear weapons if its desires are not met. This is the way Samson would have done it! Temple mine or no temple at all! My world or burn... all of you! How else can we explain the docile capitulation of so many Western "leaders" and statesmen to the demands of Israel, and the absolute subservience they demonstrate to the State of Israel?

Does Chomsky, et al, not see this rather obvious possibility, or are they simply too afraid to confront and call them openly, so they sit on the sidelines maintaining academic objectivity, academically analysing the charades thrown out by them?

Incidentally, one brave voice seems to have recently emerged from mainstream media and he is facing a lot of flak for it. Times columnist, Joe Klein, categorically states in an interview: "I think these people are following very perversely extremist policies and I really believe that it was time for mainstream Jews to stand up and say, "They don't represent 'us', they don't represent Israel."

Debbie Menon is an independent writer based in Dubai. She can be reached at debbie.menon@yahoo.com