To those who think that the news stories talking about fears over Iran’s short and long-term goals are just smoke-and-mirrors put out by people for political reasons, think again:
TEHRAN, Iran – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Wednesday that Israel is a “disgraceful blot” which should be “wiped off the map” — fiery words that Washington said underscores its concern over Iran’s nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad’s speech to thousands of students at a “World without Zionism” conference set a hard-line foreign policy course sharply at odds with that of his moderate predecessor, echoing the sentiments of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution.
And keep this factoid in mind: many of the post-911 books on local and international terrorism seem to have Iran as a kind of a behind-the-scene, shadowy suspected player — at the least, an enabler; at the most, an instigator. Ayathollah Khomeini is generally credited with linking his country up to political forces that embraced and actively used terrorism. Then, in recent years, Iran’s well publicized cooling-down period began. Now, it’s red-hot again:
The United States said Ahmadinejad’s remarks show that Washington’s fears about Iran’s nuclear program are accurate.
“I think it reconfirms what we have been saying about the regime in Iran,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters in Washington. “It underscores the concerns we have about Iran’s nuclear intentions.”
Indeed, we’ve said it on this site often: watch Iran. Just note his ominous comments about neighboring nations that don’t seek to eradicate Israel:
Ahmadinejad also condemned Iran’s neighbors which seek to break new ground in their relations with Israel. “Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,” state-run television quoted him as saying.
Relations between Israel and several Persian Gulf states have been thawing amid Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in September. Bahrain announced in September it was ending a decades-old law banning trade ties with Israel. In October, Qatar said it was donating $6 million to help build a soccer stadium for a mixed Arab-Jewish team, the first such financial assistance by an Arab state for any town inside Israel..
Referring to Palestinian suicide bomb attacks in Israel, Ahmadinejad said: “there is no doubt that the new wave in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot from the face of the Islamic world.”
Ahmadinejad’s speech came hours before a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the Israeli town of Hadera, killing five people. Iran aids several militant Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, with support and training through proxies among Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
“Ahmadinejad has clearly declared the doctrine of his government,” said Mohammad Sadeq Hosseini, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. “He is returning Iran to the revolutionary goals it was pursuing in the 1980s.”
So: he is returning Iran to the old, revolutionary goals. Is this going to be just in rhetoric? Or will he seek to take a proactive approach….enabling…or instigating? No matter what, Iran remains a genuine concern.
UPDATE: The American Jewish Committee responds:
Let there be no further doubt, if ever there was, about Iran’s intentions,” said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee. “The Iranian president has made clear his views of Israel. In doing so, he has reaffirmed longstanding Iranian policy. Will the world react or turn a blind eye? Let’s hope the Iranians get the right message, and fast.”
AJC asks all countries of good will to condemn immediately and without reservation these outrageous comments.
In every capital where there is an Iranian embassy, we call on the host country to summon the Iranian ambassador and make unequivocally clear that the views of the Iranian president are totally unacceptable.
We urge nations to consider what concrete actions in the bilateral and multilateral spheres, in addition to statements of condemnation, should be taken to underscore to Tehran that “business as usual” cannot be expected.
We specifically ask the United Nations to review the president’s remarks and take appropriate action against Iran, a UN member, for openly calling for the destruction of another member state, Israel.
And we remind those countries that have chosen to support, minimize or ignore Iran’s nuclear program that the consequence could be the development of weapons designed to put into action the chilling words of the Iranian leader.
UPDATE II: France responds:””We have noted these press articles reporting the comments of President Ahmadinejad. If these comments were indeed made, we condemn them with the utmost firmness,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.