Arab states don't trust Iran - can they work with Obama to confront Tehran?
Fox News, December 30, 2008
Alireza Jafarzadeh (Foreign Affairs Analyst)
Amid reports that the
international sanctions on the ayatollahs’ regime are having
an impact, a welcome –- albeit long overdue –- meeting was
held two weeks ago in New York to discuss Iran’s nuclear
program. The five permanent members of the UN Security
Council plus Germany met with senior diplomats of eight
major powers of the Arab world. U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice told reporters after the meeting, “All
there expressed their concern about Iran’s nuclear policies
and its regional ambitions.” Secretary Rice said that all
the Arab countries were backing the UN Security Council’s
efforts, adding, “Noting the utility of the consultations,
the states present agreed that they will want to continue
their meetings on a regular basis.”
Meanwhile, back in Tehran, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
reacted almost immediately. He usually saves his statements
for very important developments, and his thinly disguised
alarm only underscored the significance of the meeting. On
December 18, just two days after the UN summit, Khamenei
said that “Certain forces made efforts to make some Arab
leaders confront the nuclear rights of Iran and some other
demands of the Iranian nation… This is the most that the
enemy can do…”
The Arab states’ eagerness to take an active part in the
international campaign is well-founded. Clearly within the
reach of Iran’s long range missiles, which are capable of
carrying nuclear warheads, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait,
Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia know full
well that Iran’s hegemonic regional ambitions would be
strategically enhanced if it passes the nuclear point of no
return.
Recent media closely tied to Supreme Leader Khamenei have
called for the overthrow of the regimes of Saudi Arabia and
Egypt and the execution of their top leaders.
On December 7 the daily newspaper Jomhouri-e Islami called
Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak a “dictator” and “pharaoh.”
The newspaper Keyhan editorialized on December 2, “If [the
Egyptian people] rose up, no one would dare oppose them.
They should learn from the Iranian, Lebanese, and
Palestinian people [how to] stand fast and resist…”
Arab capitals have learned the hard lessons of the past
three decades. Since 1979, Tehran has waged a relentless
campaign to subvert their governments and foment instability
in the region. Today, most Iranian ambassadors in Middle
Eastern embassies are members of the Qods Force, the elite
unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In the
few embassies that are not led by a Qods Force officer, the
unit has a presence with at least two or three members on
the embassy staff whose job is to recruit locals and ensure
that the ambassador strictly follows the IRGC line.
Arabs leaders see Tehran’s role in Iraq as deceitful and
sinister. They are anxious and distrustful not of the Shiite
majority administration, but of the tremendous sway Tehran
has over Iraqi political and security policies. Furthermore,
they see Tehran not as a Shiite power per se, but as a
terrorist-sponsoring expansionist regime with long-held
hegemonic ambitions to install an Islamic empire modeled
after its own in the Middle East. And they know that in
pursuit of its regional agenda, Tehran crisscrosses between
religious divides, simultaneously supporting the Shiite
Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Sunni Hamas and Islamic Jihad
in Palestine.
On his recent trip to the Persian Gulf region, Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, who will stay on in the Obama
administration, addressed the issue:
“There is no doubt that Iran has been heavily engaged in
trying to influence the development and direction of the
Iraqi government –- and has not been a good neighbor. Much
of that effort has been focused on training and supplying
groups intent on undermining the government -– more often
than not, through violence and attacks on Iraqi security
forces and government installations and officials.”
Secretary Gates also decried Tehran’s missile and nuclear
programs, urging the Persian Gulf countries to keep up the
diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran by fully
implementing the financial restrictions called for by the
United Nations.
Faced with the rising threat of Islamic fundamentalism and
terrorism, Jordan, is becoming increasingly outspoken about
Tehran’s meddling in Iraq and campaign to silence
independent, non-sectarian Iraqis. During a joint meeting of
members of the European and Jordanian Parliaments on
December 17, the majority of the Parliament of Jordan
declared its support for the residents of Ashraf City,
according to a statement released by the Friends of a Free
Iran, an EP group.
The Jordanian statement called for continued protection of
Ashraf city, home to members of Iran’s main opposition
People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), by the U.S. military. The
statement stressed that Ashraf’s residents are protected by
the Fourth Geneva Convention and should enjoy the stipulated
protections.
Clearly, the regional and nuclear threats posed by Tehran
are unwelcome in Arab capitals. It is also clear that the
“tough diplomacy” the president-elect has talked about can
be successful only when the Arab states of the region are on
board. Judging by the declaration of the Jordanian
parliamentarians, they would welcome meaningful, practical
steps by the next administration to flesh out the “tough
diplomacy.”
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a FOX News Channel Foreign Affairs
Analyst and the author of "The
Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear
Crisis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Jafarzadeh has revealed Iran's terrorist network in Iraq and
its terror training camps since 2003. He first disclosed the
existence of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the
Arak heavy water facility in August 2002.
