Iran's lack of Diplomacy Mimics Iraq's Past
16 January 2024 By Abiodun Kareem Giwa
President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran (Courtesy: Britannica)
The Houthis' navigation disruption on the Red Sea and allied powers' response draw attention. What direction does Houthis think they are starring the organization - death or what? And this is mainly about Iran as its sponsor. Haven't Iran leaders learned any lesson from Iraq's encounter with the United States? Do they plan for Iran to suffer the same fate as Iraq?
Observers believe if Saddam Hussein wanted to survive, he would have avoided the foolishness of challenging a power he knew was more potent than his country. Some observers blamed the U.S. for the failure to fully establish the existence of weapons of mass destruction before descending on Iraq. In contrast, others say Hussein was more culpable in his display of a lack of diplomacy.
Iran and the U.S. have not been best friends since Reza Pahlavi's dynasty terminated in the Gulf state and the Ayatollahs' leadership emergence. The Ayatollahs tend to want to make Iran a leader in the Gulf region, making its presence felt in every crisis in the hemisphere. It has vowed to end Israel and gives Hamas the support for the job.
It is behind Hezbollah in Lebanon, just as it is behind Houthis in Yemen. People ask why Iran, as a financier of all these terror organizations, does Iran not call them to order. Have they become so powerful beyond their benefactor? Instead, Iran encourages them when they act against humanity.
What is Ayatollah's gain in extending Iran's control beyond its borders and establishing terror organizations to achieve its objectives? First, it wants to counter foreign countries it considers strangers in the Arab hemisphere. Using terror organizations, it believes the purpose is achievable through terror. That is seeking overt power and control through an illegitimate avenue. It is an abandonment of a core conservative idea that Islam teaches.
It accuses foreign powers of being hawkish but has become a hawk like the powers it has condemned. It seeks nuclear power, while Iranians need welfare. The death of Quasem Soleimani and Seyed Razi Mousavi seems insufficient as lessons to the Ayatollahs. They threaten a reprisal all the time than to meditate and be orderly. They seem to be driving toward a more catastrophic occurrence.
Observers believe Iran will become the Allied powers' target if it fails to control its belligerent organizations. They think if the organizations are deaf to reason, their financier will be at fault. If its terror outfits become uncontrollable, the source of the organization's powers becomes vulnerable.
Trita Parsi, writing in Responsible Statecraft, says Israel either killed Mousavi as a warning to Iran — given Tehran's support for the Houthis' attacks on ships in the Red Sea — or as a provocation to beget an Iranian response that would give Israel the pretext to enlarge the war, or as a preparatory move to widen the war regardless of Iran's reaction. Either one points to trouble.
In another vein, he says the action preceded U.S. airstrikes in Northern Iraq that killed several Shia militants linked to Kataib Hezbollah, a Shia armed group and its affiliates, presumed to be backed by Iran. The strikes, ordered by Biden, were in retaliation for an attack on U.S. troops there that led to the injuries of three American service members, including one in critical condition, according to the Pentagon.
The Houthis activities in the Red Sea affecting international navigation and the Hezbollah's threat to Israel are the arrowheads bringing Iran into the center against more powerful nations. Why the attack on American service members? Doesn't Houthis and its paymaster know the navigation on the Red Sea should not be tampered with?
Has America ever allowed any power to play a chess game with its service members' lives without retaliation? Lately, Iran has enjoyed unmerited acts of friendship and love from the American power, beginning with the Barack Obama administration. Donald Trump put Iran back in the shadow and placed the Houthis on a terror organization list.
Joseph Biden renewed the act of love and friendship by restoring the money seized by the Trump administration to Iran. The Biden administration recently began to consider returning Houthis to the terror list, meaning a loss of favor Iran has enjoyed under Obama and Biden.
American leaders are not warmongers. Hussein would have been alive and Iraq a regional power in the Gulf if Hussein had acted as a responsible leader whose focus was Iraq's welfare. Haven't the Ayatollahs not learned a lesson from Iraq's experience and that the Iranians' welfare should be their central focus?
Observers believe if Saddam Hussein wanted to survive, he would have avoided the foolishness of challenging a power he knew was more potent than his country. Some observers blamed the U.S. for the failure to fully establish the existence of weapons of mass destruction before descending on Iraq. In contrast, others say Hussein was more culpable in his display of a lack of diplomacy.
Iran and the U.S. have not been best friends since Reza Pahlavi's dynasty terminated in the Gulf state and the Ayatollahs' leadership emergence. The Ayatollahs tend to want to make Iran a leader in the Gulf region, making its presence felt in every crisis in the hemisphere. It has vowed to end Israel and gives Hamas the support for the job.
It is behind Hezbollah in Lebanon, just as it is behind Houthis in Yemen. People ask why Iran, as a financier of all these terror organizations, does Iran not call them to order. Have they become so powerful beyond their benefactor? Instead, Iran encourages them when they act against humanity.
What is Ayatollah's gain in extending Iran's control beyond its borders and establishing terror organizations to achieve its objectives? First, it wants to counter foreign countries it considers strangers in the Arab hemisphere. Using terror organizations, it believes the purpose is achievable through terror. That is seeking overt power and control through an illegitimate avenue. It is an abandonment of a core conservative idea that Islam teaches.
It accuses foreign powers of being hawkish but has become a hawk like the powers it has condemned. It seeks nuclear power, while Iranians need welfare. The death of Quasem Soleimani and Seyed Razi Mousavi seems insufficient as lessons to the Ayatollahs. They threaten a reprisal all the time than to meditate and be orderly. They seem to be driving toward a more catastrophic occurrence.
Observers believe Iran will become the Allied powers' target if it fails to control its belligerent organizations. They think if the organizations are deaf to reason, their financier will be at fault. If its terror outfits become uncontrollable, the source of the organization's powers becomes vulnerable.
Trita Parsi, writing in Responsible Statecraft, says Israel either killed Mousavi as a warning to Iran — given Tehran's support for the Houthis' attacks on ships in the Red Sea — or as a provocation to beget an Iranian response that would give Israel the pretext to enlarge the war, or as a preparatory move to widen the war regardless of Iran's reaction. Either one points to trouble.
In another vein, he says the action preceded U.S. airstrikes in Northern Iraq that killed several Shia militants linked to Kataib Hezbollah, a Shia armed group and its affiliates, presumed to be backed by Iran. The strikes, ordered by Biden, were in retaliation for an attack on U.S. troops there that led to the injuries of three American service members, including one in critical condition, according to the Pentagon.
The Houthis activities in the Red Sea affecting international navigation and the Hezbollah's threat to Israel are the arrowheads bringing Iran into the center against more powerful nations. Why the attack on American service members? Doesn't Houthis and its paymaster know the navigation on the Red Sea should not be tampered with?
Has America ever allowed any power to play a chess game with its service members' lives without retaliation? Lately, Iran has enjoyed unmerited acts of friendship and love from the American power, beginning with the Barack Obama administration. Donald Trump put Iran back in the shadow and placed the Houthis on a terror organization list.
Joseph Biden renewed the act of love and friendship by restoring the money seized by the Trump administration to Iran. The Biden administration recently began to consider returning Houthis to the terror list, meaning a loss of favor Iran has enjoyed under Obama and Biden.
American leaders are not warmongers. Hussein would have been alive and Iraq a regional power in the Gulf if Hussein had acted as a responsible leader whose focus was Iraq's welfare. Haven't the Ayatollahs not learned a lesson from Iraq's experience and that the Iranians' welfare should be their central focus?
HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
