Tuesday Iran Talking Points

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for February 1st, 2011:

The Wall Street Journal: Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Max Boot writes, “[I]t does scant justice to the complexity of the situation to claim that Mr. Mubarak was a superb ally, or to imagine that we can manage an easy transition to a post-Mubarak regime.” Boot uses a series of quotes catalogued by the controversial Middle East Media Research Institute showing “rabid anti-Semitism and anti-Westernism that polluted Egypt’s state-controlled news media.” Boot doesn’t find Mohammed ElBaredei to be an attractive alternative to Mubarak because “[h]e called the Gaza Strip ‘the world’s largest prison’ and declared that it was imperative to ‘open the borders, end the blockade.’ Boot adds, “Mr. ElBaradei also spoke glowingly of Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has assailed Israel in harsh terms and voted against United Nations sanctions on Iran.”

The Wall Street Journal: Ronen Bergman, an intelligence analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli daily, draws lessons from the fall of the Shah in Iran that apply to the current situation in Egypt, and recommends that the U.S. stand by Mubarak or risk repeating the mistakes that led to “the establishment of an Islamic regime in Tehran that has been no friend to the U.S.” Bergman concludes, “Past experience suggests that if Mr. Mubarak’s regime is toppled, not only will American interests suffer, but the cause of freedom in Egypt could be set back dramatically. And the U.S. will have contributed to a Middle East that is less stable and more dangerous than it is today.”

AOL News: The American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Rubin opines that the Obama administration must be careful to avoid an “Iran-like tragedy in Egypt” but Mubarak might not be the lynchpin to maintaining U.S. interests in Egypt. “The true value of Egypt was its peace treaty with Israel, an event that predated Mubarak’s rise,” writes Rubin. “Many analysts see the shadow of Iran’s Islamic revolution in the Egyptian chaos. One parallel is certain: Should Mubarak flee, it will be the end of the beginning rather than the beginning of the end,” he warns. Rubin concludes, “If the White House is to avoid an Iran-like tragedy, it must stay one step ahead of the Brotherhood, refuse to be a populist foil and guarantee the September elections, and bestow legitimacy only upon those groups that eschew violence and abide by the Egyptian constitution.”

Author: Eli Clifton

Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service's Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.

2 thoughts on “Tuesday Iran Talking Points”

  1. MMMMMM……….. Yeah…………. DANGER…!!!!! it could end UP…..like IRAN……………. And well it may..

    Is the lesson : `"Make SURE another paid PUPPET of IsraeloAmerican masters is installed pronto and cajole the angry mobs back into docile subservience……. or is it…. Here is what happens when the longtime puppet stays too long without the consent of his people, just as in Iran……….

    How long did the wink and nod Neocons think they would be able to run that part of the world expressly to ensure the hegemony of their 5 million acquisitive co-religionists there…??

    It is nice to see Egypt live in peace with Israel, though it rankles half the people on the planet to witness the Israeli holocaust against the hapless Palestinians and the Lebanese…. Didn't the Wikileaks show that Murr and Suleman conspired THROUGH the American ambassador Jeffrey Feltman for Israel to attack Lebanon: so they could kill 13OO Lebanese citizens..wreak havoc on the Lebanese Nation, and leave 3OOOOOO cluster bombs and or bomblets to kill the children and make the land fallow for generations to come…. They're only Goyem and their lives aren't worth much to their "superiors" In the end Egypt needs to have a Egyptian/Muslim/(Copt) Christian centric policy, NOT a policy based on subservience to the 5OOOOOO Isreali Citizens.. The Israeli goal to scare their neighbors with nuclear threats and deadly attacks will eventually end with a nuclear conflagration and tens of thousands or worse dead, because one of the states there has decided to annex the land of other states… It's the story of the abused becoming the abusers..and a braindead ego driven game of nuclear chicken……….turbocharged with old white guy send the young to fight testosterone….

  2. People: what is happening in Egypt is yet another orchestrated police and secret service Mubarak thugs whom are attacking people.., if you want to do something about it call the White House and demand from President Obama to act and cut off the aid to Egypt until Mubarak is out.., this has been the demand by the people of Egypt and thus far is been a peaceful demand. For democracy to flourish democracy needs to help democrats’ whom demands are based on the principals in democracy, helping Mubarak is helping his thugs.., so where is that democracy that US is talking about. plz call Obama's hotline 202-456-1111.

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