“Bomb Iran” Plan Simply Won’t Go Away
By Pepe Escobar
July 31, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
-
"RT"
-
Even before the upcoming August recess on Capitol
Hill, the dogs of war, unleashed by remote control from Tel
Aviv, predictably are trying to tear the Iran-P5+1 nuclear deal
to shreds from all sides.
It does not matter that the
National Iranian American Council – which happens to be
widely respected in Washington itself – has forcefully come out
in defense of the deal. It does not
matter that the Obama administration can count on the combined
efforts of the so-called E3 ambassadors (Britain, France and
Germany) in Washington, who are exhausting themselves to explain
the obvious: This is an international treaty, already approved
by the United Nations, and not a parochial squabble decided in
Idaho.
On the other hand, it does matter that the
Obama administration has not been forceful enough to defend
its strategy as well as the result of such a long and
treacherous negotiation.
So there are now two narratives shaping the
battle ahead in Washington.
1) Iran is a rogue nation, an existential
threat to Israel, and it cannot be trusted. It will breach the
deal, so the deal must be rejected to the benefit of… perpetual
sanctions, or war.
2) Iran is a rogue nation, it cannot be
trusted, but we have all the verification mechanisms in place
and as soon as Iran “cheats” - as it will - we launch immediate
“snap back” sanctions.
No wonder, under these circumstances,
Washington simply cannot be trusted by Tehran.
Who’s really trustworthy?
Now for the other side of the narrative.
On July 18, four days after the deal was
signed in Vienna, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei – foreseeing
which way the D.C. wind would be blowing – went straight to the
point; his intervention delineated the parameters according to
which Iran would work to actively debunk a massive propaganda
machine that continues to demonize the Islamic Republic even as
it touts a victory for Western diplomacy.
The victory in Vienna was in fact for
diplomacy tout court – East and West working together.
Even before his speech, Khamenei had already
touched upon the key point when he sent a short
message to President Hassan Rouhani a day after the deal.
This is the money quote:
“…it is necessary to very carefully study the text that has been
prepared, so that it can then move in the legal direction that has
been determined for it. Then, in the case of ratification, it is
necessary to be on the alert for possible breaches of agreements by
the other side and the blocking of its path. You know very well that
some of the six governments in the opposite camp are not trustworthy
in any way.”
The E3 may not be entirely “trustworthy,” but here, it’s all about
business; there’s nothing Britain, France, Germany – and the rest of
the EU, for that matter – want more than restarting business with
Iran in the energy front and beyond.
The battle in Washington, on the other hand, will
be gruesome, even as the Obama administration remains confident the
dogs of war don’t have the necessary votes to block the
implementation of the deal, as Iranian diplomats confirmed to me in
Vienna during the negotiations.
In Tehran, on the other hand, the deal should
be approved by the Consultative Assembly with no problems.
The bottom realpolitik line, as defined by
Khamenei himself, is that the US/Iran Wall of Mistrust seems
destined to remain in place – far beyond the nuclear agreement.
Multiple Washington factions, not to mention the Pentagon, continue
to regard Iran as a “threat”, a rogue nation, or evil
incarnate, while Tehran sees Washington as
“the heart of global arrogance”.
So the geopolitical path ahead for Iran – whatever
happens after the deal is ratified in both capitals and the package
of sanctions starts to unravel by late 2015/early 2016 – is Eurasia
integration, as I outlined more
here.
That implies closer cooperation – and a three-way
strategic partnership - between Iran, Russia and China. And that
further implies the “Bomb Iran” dogs of war getting even more
bloodthirsty.
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for
Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a
frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US
to East Asia. Born in Brazil, he's been a foreign correspondent
since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles,
Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong.
