Iraq Caught in
Middle as U.S. Asserts Iranian Murder Plot
"Iraq
will not participate directly in the anticipated outbreak of violence with
Iran. But that won't help allay fears for Iraqi security when the protagonists
take to the field to settle their accounts. Without a doubt, the situation will
bring yet more suffering to the Iraqi people."
On Thursday October 13, President
Barack Obama called for “tougher sanctions” against Iran on the basis of
evidence that Iranian officials were involved with a plot to assassinate the Saudi
ambassador in Washington, Al-Jubeir. Meanwhile, Tehran has quickly dismissed
the charges, describing them as “baseless and false.”
American statements on the
case support the story of an Iranian conspiracy: Two Iranians named Gholam
Shakuri and Mansour Arabsiar colluded with a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate
the Saudi ambassador, and are said to have been behind plans to bomb the
Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington. This has resulted in a strong
reaction against Iran in the Saudi media and backing of American assertions in the
case.
Within the context of its
latest campaign to impose harsher sanctions on Iran, the U.S. administration is
striving to avoid unilateralism by working to win the support of allied
governments. This is especially true after the mushrooming of global suspicion
about the veracity of such claims and the belief that they are being
exaggerated to isolate Iran politically, economically and diplomatically.
But U.S. efforts to confront
Iran will prove unpersuasive if based solely on the sketchy and confused
evidence so far made available. And doubts are circulating even within U.S.
quarters where there is an interest in the matter. Tougher sanctions against
Iran require the U.S. government to work urgently on persuading Russia, China,
some European countries and India why it is in their interests to give up the
economic benefits of trading with Iran. Without conclusive evidence to prove
U.S. claims and a suspicion that the story may have been concocted to further
American interests in the region and world, it is unlikely that these nations
will cut their ties with Iran.
This raises the persistent
question about whether the U.S. is using Saudi Arabia as a tool to internationalize
tensions with Tehran, thereby justifying a continued U.S. military presence in
the region. This appears particularly urgent after Washington's failure to
diminish Iranian influence in Iraq, which the U.S. sees behind Iraq's recent
decision not to allow American forces to remain in the country.
In light of this turn of
events, the U.S. administration will employ all means possible to see that Iran
is condemned internationally for attempting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador
to Washington. This is an effort to secure its continued military presence in
the region under the umbrella of Saudi public support for confronting the
Iranian threat.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Of course, Iraq will not
participate directly in the anticipated outbreak of violence with Iran. But
that won't help allay fears for Iraqi security when the protagonists take to
the field to settle their accounts. Without a doubt, the situation will bring
yet more suffering to the Iraqi people.
These concerns are shared by the
speaker of Iraq's Council of Representatives. In an interview with the BBC
during a visit to London, Speaker Usama Al-Nujayfi said, “The conflict between
Iran and Saudi Arabia has an impact on sectarian tensions in Iraq. … Iraq
suffers from the interventions of other nations in its internal affairs, which
makes it vulnerable to becoming an open field for Middle East sectarian
conflict.”
