{"id":8266,"date":"2010-10-06T12:25:20","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T20:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=8266"},"modified":"2010-10-06T12:25:20","modified_gmt":"2010-10-06T20:25:20","slug":"wednesday-iran-talking-points-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/06\/wednesday-iran-talking-points-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday Iran Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog<\/a>: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for October 6th, 2010:<\/em><\/p>\n

Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em>: John Hopkins professor Fouad Ajami defends the whole of the Iraq War and addresses concerns that the country is subject to undue Iranian influence. He acknowledges that many commentators see evidence of Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence in the election last March \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and the ongoing jockeying for power \u00e2\u20ac\u201d in the role of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his exile in Iran. Ajami, who holds positions at the neocon Middle East Quarterly journal<\/a> and the hawkish United Against a Nuclear Iran<\/a>, credits Iraqis, especially Shiites, with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153healthy fear of Iran and a desire to keep the Persian power at bay.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He thinks al-Sadr\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defection to PM Muri al-Maliki\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s re-election camp is because of the cleric\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153access to state treasure and resources\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that Iraq needs \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pax Americana\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153craft a workable order in the Persian Gulf\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in order to flourish.<\/p>\n

Commentary<\/a><\/em>: J.E. Dyer, in the Contentions blog, claims to have found evidence that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to lead an invasion of Israel. Or, as Dyer phrased it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plant the Revolutionary Iranian flag in Jerusalem.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d On Ahmadinejad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s visit to Southern Lebanon next week, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to appear before a model of the holy city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s al-Aqsa mosque flying an Iranian flag. Dyer views the move as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a symbolic announcement that the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrace to Jerusalem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is on.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Insisting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[t]his is not meaningless symbolism,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blatant signal is something Ahmadinejad should be prevented from sending,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and wants the United States to pressure Lebanon to do just that.<\/p>\n

Foreign Policy<\/a><\/em>: The American Enterprise Institute<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Roger Noriega claims his research reveals Venezuela has been pursuing a nuclear program for the past two years with Iranian assistance. Noriega says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153documents suggest that Venezuela is helping Iran obtain uranium and evade international sanctions, all steps that are apparent violations of the U.N. Security Council resolutions meant to forestall Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s illegal nuclear weapons program.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Even more conspiratorially, he adds that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153other documents provided by sources within the Venezuelan government reveal a suspicious network of Iranian-run facilities in that South American country that could contravene Security Council sanctions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Noriega concludes that Venezuela\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nuclear program and participation in sanctions busting trade with Iran should lead the U.S. and the UN to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153challenge Venezuela and Iran to come clean and, if necessary, take steps to hold both regimes accountable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Tablet Magazine<\/a><\/em>: In looking at the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah, visiting Hudson Institute<\/a> fellow Lee Smith<\/a> backs up his belief that the formation of Hezbollah had nothing to do with Israel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 18-year occupation of Southern Lebanon. For him,\u00e2\u20ac\u009dHezbollah is a projection of Iranian military power on the Eastern Mediterranean.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He adds, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is nothing Lebanese about Hezbollah except the corporal host; its mind belongs to the Revolutionary Guard.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As proof, Smith points to captured Hezbollah documents show telltale signs of having been translated from Farsi into Arabic. This runs counter to other perspectives, including Ehud Barak\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s understanding of Hezbollah: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was our presence [in southern Lebanon] that created Hizbullah.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s account of history removes all Israeli responsibility for the growth of Hezbollah and shifts the focus to Iran \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a variation on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reverse linkage<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d argument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for October 6th, 2010: Wall Street Journal: John Hopkins professor Fouad Ajami defends the whole of the Iraq War and addresses concerns that the country is subject to undue Iranian influence. He acknowledges that many commentators see evidence of Iran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s influence in the election last March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8267,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8266\/revisions\/8267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8266"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}