Iran issues warning to the USA
By Wahied Wahdat-Hagh
Iran is calling on the new American president to change his policy on Iran. An attack by the USA will be met by terrorist actions
On 29 October, the president of Iran’s pseudo-parliament himself, Ali Larijani, warned the USA that Iran would respond with terrorist actions should the country be attacked. He said, ‘The weakness of the USA and the Zionists is their lack of Mujahid forces, of Holy Warriors, and of forces prepared to martyr themselves.’ The military experiences of recent years have shown that what is decisive is not a strong military machine but rather the ‘willingness to take risks and a strong will’, in the interpretation of the ‘martyrs’. Larijani also said that, ‘America must be careful not to throw its gigantic body against the faces of those Mujahideen who are prepared to die as martyrs.’ Larijani, regarded as a moderate politician, is thereby threatening the USA with terrorist attacks.
Khamenei, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Leader, also dashed the hopes of those wishing to see a US embassy open in Tehran, which appears quite possible. As reported on his official website on 29 October, Ali Khamenei said in connection with the Iranian-American confrontation, ‘The West’s propaganda machines, particularly the American ones, act as if an end to the confrontation would mean a dead end for the Iranian people and a success for America. This is a pure lie. Because the end of this path entails a dead end only for the arrogant American regime.’
Exchange of verbal blows between NATO officer and Iranian military
A NATO officer and the Iranian military engaged in verbal blows on the day that Barack Obama was elected the next president of the United States. On 6.11.2008 the Iranian newspaper Etemaad reported that Italian vice admiral Maurizio Gemignani had said Iranian threats to blockade the Persian Gulf were merely a ‘fantasy’.
On the same day, General Masud Jasaeri of the Iranian Army’s Propaganda Department warned of further provocations by the USA, criticising the fact that American helicopters had flown near the Iraq-Iran border in recent days. He said there was the danger of helicopters encroaching on Iranian territory and warned of the possibility that the USA would carry out an attack, which it had recently undertaken in Syria, on Iran as well. The American helicopters in question had attacked an Al-Qaeda base in Syria.Jasaeri also warned that, should Iran be attacked, it would have no problem blockading the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
New military base
On 27 October 2008 Iran did indeed establish a new military base at the harbour of Jask, situated in the eastern part of the Strait of Hormuz. During a military manoeuvre performed in Jask on this day, Iranian general Seyyed Abdolrahim Mussawi warned the USA, ‘It is only in the interest of the enemies if they bend to the will of the people.’ He continued, ‘They have paid a high price for their effronteries up to now.’ With this, he was referring to the high cost of the war in Afghanistan and Iran, reported the state news agency, IRNA, on 27.10.2008.
The Etemaad newspaper reported that there was a background to the military base in Jask being constructed just before the US presidential election. In July of this year Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, stated that he would take steps to control oil exports from the Persian Gulf Region in the case of an attack against Iran.
It was then that Jafari threatened, ‘Considering the length of the Iranian coast on the Strait of Hormuz and its special geographic position, thanks to the provision of its armed forces, Iran has a natural opportunity to close the strait for an unspecified length of time,’ as the Etemaad reported on 6.11.2008. In mid-September the Revolutionary Guard received orders that they were to be solely responsible for control of the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. The newspaper emphasised that General Rahim Safawi, current military advisor to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Leader, Ali Khamenei, did indeed warn that the range of Iranian missiles covers at least the entire Persian Gulf area, thereby ‘gravely’ threatening all of the US Army’s 200,000 armed troops in the region.
As a geo-strategic region, the Strait of Hormuz is very important for the global economy. Approximately 90% of Iranian imports and exports pass through this strait.
China, Russia and Iran united against the USA
The Etemaad, regarded as a ‘moderate’ newspaper, has written in an editorial that three new powers, China, Iran and Russia, have been disrupting U.S. interests in Asia. The newspaper reports, ‘In the case that China, Iran and Russia reach out to each other, the greedy Americans will be given major problems. Because these Asiatic powers will not allow some governments from the other side of the world to behave like colonial powers in the affairs of this part of the world.’ For this reason, it is said, Obama has understood that the USA must withdraw from the ‘Iraqi quagmire’ as quickly as possible.
Afghanistan is said to be a similar case. The attempt ‘to install Mahmud Abbas as the representative of all Palestinians’ has failed. The situation there is said to be out of control. This newspaper’s anonymous commentator agrees with Obama that the time for major changes has arrived, but concludes that these changes will only affect those states which are among the USA’s supporters. For this reason one has to ‘expect waves of unrest in states whose governments are administered by the USA.’ In other words – as the moderate Iranian newspaper Etemaad writes – those states which rely on the USA will have to reckon with major crises.
There will be problems again sooner or later
The moderate newspaper Kargozaaran writes that the new American president has become acquainted with good experts in the past few years, such as Parag Khanna and Rashid Khalidi. These people, as his advisors, could soon help define American foreign policy. The paper writes, ‘The Obama period may mean that Iran can take the opportunity to address its own issues without foreign influence.’ It was acknowledged, however, that after a few months Iran will ‘certainly be given new problems with the USA,’ Kargozaaran reported on 6.11.2008.
Ahmadinejad congratulates Obama
Ahmadinejad also warned Obama to rectify the USA’s domestic and foreign policy. He says this is the will of all the peoples of the world, and of the American people. The Iranian president naturally objected to the USA’s ‘warlike’ policy and to the situation of the Palestinians. Ahmadinejad advised Obama that he must follow the ‘path of God’, hoping that thanks to God one day the world will be governed by love, fairly, and without violence.
This just raises the question of why the Iranian government has been attacking its own people with totalitarian violence for just over 30 years now?
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Wahied Wahdat-Hagh is a Senior Fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy in Brussels.
