Only a month removed from allegations of a stranger-than-fiction plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US, and less than two weeks after an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report all but accused the Islamic Republic of nuclear bomb-building since 2003, Iran is reeling from a new round of not-so-soft sanctions.
Friday morning, the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors passed a resolution censuring Tehran's clandestine nuclear ambitions by a vote of 32 to 2 (Cuba and Ecuador opposed and Indonesia abstained). Though non-binding, the board’s near unanimous decision - supported by all six of the big powers leading diplomatic efforts on the issue: the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany (P5 plus 1) - sent a clear message that the political will necessary for further punitive actions is building.
Later in the day, an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly adopted a Saudi-led resolution deploring “the plot to assassinate the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” condemning "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations" and strongly condemning “acts of violence against diplomatic and consular missions and representatives." While not explicitly accusing Iran of committing such crimes (since no determination has been made), the resolution does urge Ahmadinejad and company “to cooperate with states to bring to justice all those who participated in the planning, sponsoring, organization, and attempted execution of the plot to assassinate the ambassador.” Only nine countries in the 193-nation General Assembly opposed the measure; 40 abstained.
"No Single Evidence"
Dr. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, happened to be in New York on a related disaster - the GA human rights committee is drafting a resolution condemning Iran's human rights situation - and made himself available for comment.
He called the Saudi accusations and subsequent GA onslaught a “US plot to generate hostility in the region,” adding that “there is no single evidence for that case.”
The IAEA report “is a disgrace for the agency," he said. "There is no single evidence against Iran in concluding that Iran is pursuing a military objective in its nuclear program," for two reasons. First, he reasoned, “it doesn’t add to our security; our military muscle is a strong enough deterrence for any imminent threat. Secondly, [Ayatollah] Khomeini [issued] a fatwa twenty years ago that it’s against Islamic jurisprudence, against Islamic teaching, that a country should develop mass destructive weapons [sic]. So we don’t need it, we consider it immoral.”
All Geopolitics is Local
If things couldn't get any worse for Iran, its most powerful ally in the Middle East, Syria, is committing slow motion suicide. Absent a loyal Syrian neighbor, Tehran would be forced to rethink the logistics of funding, arming, training, and advising its next most powerful ally in the neighborhood, Lebanon’s party-cum-militia, Hezbollah, a strategic thorn in Israel’s side. Lacking a Lebanese check on its powerful Zionist foe, Iran may be all the more inclined to go on building the nuke it claims ignorance of. At least then it wouldn’t be so easy to push around on the international stage - which is exactly what the Washington, Riyadh and the IAEA fear.
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Isolating the Iranian Problem
November 20, 2011
Only a month removed from allegations of a stranger-than-fiction plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US, and less than two weeks after an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report all but accused the Islamic Republic of nuclear bomb-building since 2003, Iran is reeling from a new round of not-so-soft sanctions.
Friday morning, the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors passed a resolution censuring Tehran's clandestine nuclear ambitions by a vote of 32 to 2 (Cuba and Ecuador opposed and Indonesia abstained). Though non-binding, the board’s near unanimous decision - supported by all six of the big powers leading diplomatic efforts on the issue: the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany (P5 plus 1) - sent a clear message that the political will necessary for further punitive actions is building.
Later in the day, an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly adopted a Saudi-led resolution deploring “the plot to assassinate the ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” condemning "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations" and strongly condemning “acts of violence against diplomatic and consular missions and representatives." While not explicitly accusing Iran of committing such crimes (since no determination has been made), the resolution does urge Ahmadinejad and company “to cooperate with states to bring to justice all those who participated in the planning, sponsoring, organization, and attempted execution of the plot to assassinate the ambassador.” Only nine countries in the 193-nation General Assembly opposed the measure; 40 abstained.
"No Single Evidence"
Dr. Mohammad Javad Larijani, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, happened to be in New York on a related disaster - the GA human rights committee is drafting a resolution condemning Iran's human rights situation - and made himself available for comment.
He called the Saudi accusations and subsequent GA onslaught a “US plot to generate hostility in the region,” adding that “there is no single evidence for that case.”
The IAEA report “is a disgrace for the agency," he said. "There is no single evidence against Iran in concluding that Iran is pursuing a military objective in its nuclear program," for two reasons. First, he reasoned, “it doesn’t add to our security; our military muscle is a strong enough deterrence for any imminent threat. Secondly, [Ayatollah] Khomeini [issued] a fatwa twenty years ago that it’s against Islamic jurisprudence, against Islamic teaching, that a country should develop mass destructive weapons [sic]. So we don’t need it, we consider it immoral.”
All Geopolitics is Local
If things couldn't get any worse for Iran, its most powerful ally in the Middle East, Syria, is committing slow motion suicide. Absent a loyal Syrian neighbor, Tehran would be forced to rethink the logistics of funding, arming, training, and advising its next most powerful ally in the neighborhood, Lebanon’s party-cum-militia, Hezbollah, a strategic thorn in Israel’s side. Lacking a Lebanese check on its powerful Zionist foe, Iran may be all the more inclined to go on building the nuke it claims ignorance of. At least then it wouldn’t be so easy to push around on the international stage - which is exactly what the Washington, Riyadh and the IAEA fear.
