Iran

For the first time in a thousand years, the Fertile Crescent is no longer Sunni. This, of course, serves the hegemonic interests of Iran.

In days past, the demographic question was perceived as the key to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Everyone remembers the words of Yasser Arafat, who said the womb was the Palestinian national weapon to facilitate a majority between the river and the sea and the end of Israel. Those days have long passed, however, and it appears the Jewish majority is stronger than ever, among other factors because of immigration from Russia and Ethiopia, and rising birth rates in the Jewish sector.

The Biden administration’s Iran policy appears to be quite simple: keep negotiating with the ruling mullahs and offering concessions to revive the 2015 nuclear deal and eliminate the Iranian regime’s threat.

The nuclear deal reached in 2015, however, had already proved that it did not eliminate the Iranian regime’s threats. After the agreement, access to the considerable funds freed up by the deal had the reverse effect: it allowed Tehran to pour ever greater sums into the coffers of groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthis. Nations such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were largely ignored by the Western powers, despite their clear concerns over the direct threat that enriching these groups presented.

In the wake of the largest seizure of arms and fuel from Iranian terror groups to date, the Biden administration has remained silent.

The US Department of Justice announced on December 7, 2021 the successful forfeiture of two large caches of Iranian weapons. The weapons reportedly included advanced arms such as “171 guided anti-tank missiles, eight surface-to-air missiles, land attack cruise missile components, anti-ship cruise missile components, thermal weapon optics and other components for missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles [drones]”. The U.S. Navy also seized Iranian petroleum products from “four foreign-flagged tankers in or around the Arabian Sea while en route to Venezuela. These actions represent the government’s largest-ever forfeitures of fuel and weapons shipments from Iran.”

“The greatest achievement of Imam Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution!”

This is how the daily Kayhan in Tehran, believed to reflect the views of “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei, describes what it labels a “Resistance Front” led by Iran.

The paper’s editorial does not say why it needs to raise the controversial issue at this time. One possible reason may be a behind-the-scenes debate about the need for reviewing a policy that has cost Iran billions of dollars over the past decades.

Israel’s military is preparing a possible strike against Iran, the country’s media has reported citing defense and diplomatic sources. Tel Aviv has already notified the US of its plans, facing “no veto” on such preparations.

Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about preparations for a potential military strike against the country’s arch-nemesis Iran during his visits to the US, multiple Israeli outlets reported Saturday. Gantz met top US officials, including Lloyd and the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Thursday.

On the eve of the resumption of the Iran nuclear talks in Vienna, Arabs have again warned the Biden administration against being duped by the mullahs of Tehran.

The Arabs, who share Israel’s concern over Iran’s accelerated efforts (and deceptive tactics) to achieve nuclear weapons, also warned the Biden administration against reaching a temporary deal that would give Iran more time to proceed with its disastrous and dangerous plans.

Israel has carried out three major operations over the last eighteen months against Iran’s nuclear sites. These attacks involved as many as a thousand Mossad personnel and were executed with ruthless precision using high-tech weaponry including drones and a quadcopter — and spies within Tehran’s holy of holies, its nuclear program.

While Joe Biden’s nuclear negotiators try to snatch catastrophe from the jaws of defeat in Vienna, Israel is taking things more seriously.

The Israeli and Western reference to Iran focuses on three main issues: Iran’s military nuclear project and rockets; expansion of Iranian presence (direct and indirect) in Arab states, mainly Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen; and the Ayatollahs’ regime. Occasionally, there is an allusion to the Iranian economic situation and its COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Rarely, do political, military or editorial elements address the Iranian population which in general is referred to as “The Iranian People.”

That is precisely the point. There is no such People. What exists in Iran is a population half of which is Persian, and the other half a large number of “non-Persian peoples”: Azeris (in the northern part, south of Azerbaijan), Arabs (in Al-Ahwaz overlooking the Persian Gulf east and north), Kurds (north-west), Turkmans (north-east) and many other smaller groups: Lurs, Kashkais, Caspians, Mazendaranis, Gilyaks and others.