Bogus accusations against Iran as a manufacturer of nuclear arms. The Israeli government fears Iran may change the balance of power in the Middle East, compelling it to respect the rights of Palestinians.

The Iranian nuclear question is again dominating the international political scene. It has obscured the deep crises in Syrian, Yemen and Libya, countries devastated by arms coming from all parts that have spread destruction and chaos and brought the Arab world to its knees for the past seven years.

This chaos follows a well-defined plan: to remodel this strategic area rich in resources and a nerve-centre from the geo-political point of view.
The USA, with the assistance of its most faithful allies, is the artificers of this plan with the intention of reinforcing its hegemony in the region and preventing the formation of other powers.

Russia and Iran have succeeded in spoiling this plan. It is not by chance that Western embassies have, for some years, been engaged in a diplomatic and mediating war regarding these two nations, especially Iran. In this country, guided by the Ayatollahs, there is a hybrid political system, a mixture of representative democracy and autocracy, that has foiled various attempts at regime change, one of which was the “coloured revolution” in 2009.

Paradoxically, the chaos favoured the affirmation of Iran as an uncontrollable regional power, which gives the USA and Israel great cause for concern. For many years, Israel has been trying to persuade the American government to intervene militarily in Iran but the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 between Teheran and the five members of the security council renders a war against the Persians most unlikely. However, the Israeli establishment has never given up and has succeeded in persuading President Trump to exit the accord on 8 May last. A few days earlier, the Israeli premier had shown on worldwide TV the “proof” that the Iranians were manufacturing nuclear arms.

The material shown by Netanyahu demonstrates nothing. The UN International Atomic Agency has, on many occasions, stated that Iran is respecting the norms of the 2015 nuclear deal. Besides, Iran is a signatory of the nuclear arms non-proliferation treaty and has demonstrated to the Agency that its nuclear centres are operating only for peaceful purposes. According to Netanyahu, «Iran is lying».

Why all this fury? If nuclear arms are the problem, we must point out that the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear arms is Israel which is outside the jurisdiction of the Agency as it never ratified the treaty of 1957. The point is not the nuclear capability of Teheran: Tel Aviv has always feared that the 2015 agreement would allow Iran to lessen the effects of the sanctions imposed on it by the West and to increase its economic and military influence in the Middle East (its political influence is taken for granted as shown by the recent elections in Lebanon and Iraq, won by political forces close to Teheran).

Israel must resolve a serious problem, that of the Palestinians. It fears that an influential Iran may change the balance of power in the Middle East. That would oblige Israel to respect the rights of the Palestinians as sanctioned by the UN. Israel’s fear of Iran is to be seen in this context.

Mostafa El Ayoubi