Hezbollah leader & Gamal Abdel Nasser ... mullahs reap the benefits

Not that we did not warn in these pages before, but it now appears official. The recent turn in public and now official opinions in the Arab world concerning the upheaval in Lebanon, where now the Hezbollah leader's (Sheik Nasrallah) photo is shown in demonstrations with that of Nasser- the Egyptian leader whose pan-Arab stand made him a darling of the Arab world and eventually led to the 1967 Arab-Israel war, speaks volume to how the Iranian mullahs have engineered and managed this whole affair (New York Times, July 28, 2006, " Changing Reaction: Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah.") No, we're not talking about the "vaunted" Arab street here. That's for the pundits to write worthlessly on.

We're referring to how the Iranian mullahs, faced with huge presssures from within and without, engineered a de-facto coup de'tat in Lebanon, paralyzed Israel and with it the US, made the inititally preceived "only a Shiite Lebanon" problem- in the form of Hezbollah-Israel fight- into a regional manifesto for hegemony. A look at the timeline reveals how carefully this fire has been set: On July 11, the Iranian nuclear negotiator, Larijani, who's also the spokesperson for the regime's National Security Council, told the EU representative, Mr. Solana, in Belgium that Iran did not have anything additional to say or give in return for the June 2006 offer of nuclear incentives- see previous posts. Larijani was accompanied by the head of intelligence of the regime's feared Revolutionary Guards. Immeadiately, the couple flew to Syria to discuss their next move with the Syrians and, of course, the Hezbollah. The next day, Hezbollah in a blitz military move, seized two Israeli soldiers and killed several more. The backdrop for all of these was the annual G8 meeting.

Now, the Iranian mullahs knew full well that the Russians were hosting this event and were confident of their resurgent role in the world's politics and they knew also that they had the US, via their proxies in Iraq, the Hakim-led Badr and Sadr shock troops, in a tumble. Little wonder, that Iraq prime minister, Nouri Maliki, who was groomed in Iran in the early 80's during the Iran-Iraq war and was later transferred to Syria to open the new front in the war with Iraq, would come to the US (July 25, 2006) and call for the condemnation of Israel and support for the Hezbollah. It is precisely here that those in the know, recognize the long-hand of the mullahs in orchestrating the affair.

The initial mostly Sunni Arab reactions, including their fearless leaders, were mixed to lukewarm, but as the conflict drags on, it's becoming more like the Arab-Israel conflict again, and those initial thinkings, albeit true, that the Shiite Iran was at fault, are now turning to the killing of Arabs in the hands of Israel. It is this effect, more than anything else, that the Iranian mullahs want. It occupies the world's attention on the petrol keg that is the Middle East, but away from their nuclear ambitions. Soon, the mullahs hope to have wished away the "Shiite crescent" motto that was beginning to evolve in the Middle East, so that they could continue their nuclear and hegemonic ambitions.

It is time for the US to unleash the Iranian opposition and allow them in turn to unleash the Iranian people's wrath on the murdering mullahs.

prisoner swap... mullahs as hostage takers

The escalation of warfare between Israel and the mullahs' shock troops in Lebanon is producing a flurry of "diplomatic" inititatives. We use the word with caution, as it appears, that the mullahs' top "diplomat", Mr. Mottaki, their foreign minister, has enterd the fray, by visiting his old pal in Syria to broker a "deal" What deal you may ask; "... there can be a cease-fire followed by a prisoner swap," (Wall Street Journal Online, July 17, 2006). Yes, the Hezbollah takes hostage, hands them over to their puppetmasters, the Iranian mullahs, and they orchesterate a "prisoner swap" for Hezbollah comerades in the hands of Israelis. This is not the first time, just as surely it won't the last time. In the 1980's, the mullahs and their proxies in Lebanon perfected the art of foreign hostage taking and exchanging them for "favors", e. g. guns and TOW missiles, and "incentives".

At the end of the day, unless the history does not repeat iteself- and we very much hope it does not-, the Iranian mullahs emerge as saviors. Just as in Iran, a judge is the jury, the prosecutor and the judge, all wrapped up in one, the mullahs in their dealings with the world, are hostage takers, negotiators, and deal makers.

Hezbollah's action ... mullahs' message

Thursday's (July 13, 2006) damage to an Israeli naval ship off the coast of Lebanon, apparatently by an Iranian-made radar-guided C-802 missile, launched by the Hezbollah forces, has received little attention outside its news worthiness. Its importance is twofold: the Hezbollah can now be regarded as having remote target capabilities and the implicit message this action carries for the US.

In some respect, Hezbollah's fighting with Israel is a showcase and proxy war; one that Hezbollah is fighting not only at the bequest of its paymasters in Tehran, but one to show what would be coming down the pike in the event of a US-Iran war. The devious mullahs in Tehran are sending a message, albeit indirectly to the US that in the event of military hostility, they have developed remote target low-altitude capabilities. This is certainly not lost to the US military planners and all of it is happening in the G8 "background" in St. Petersburgh.

The charge by Israel that Iran has sent more than 100 soliders (more likely, revolutionary guards shock soldiers) to Lebanon should taken as another sign of the widening of the battle field and the proxy nature of this conflict.

"Hezbollah's timing is no accident"...

The above quote is from the economist.com (July 13, 2006) article titled, "A crisis widens", referring to the unprovoked attack on Isreal by the Hezbollah and Israel's military attacks on Lebanon. Two Israeli soldiers were taken hostage and several others were killed. A rising score of civilans and combatants have died in Israeli bombings.

The day before the hostage-taking by the Hezbollah, the Iranian mullahs' chief nuclear negotiator, Larijani met with EU's representative, Solana, to deliver the news that Iran would not have a response to EU+US offer of nuclear inducement (see previous posts). Iran's henchman, the mullahs' president, said, "our answer to the P5+1 package is clear, the Iranian nation abides by international laws and regulations but will not abandon its obvious right to obtain nuclear technology," . Yesterday (July 12), the UNSC permanent 5 + 1 Germany asked the Security Council to intervene and enact sanctions against the mullahs (Reuters).

It may come, to some, as coincidence that Iran is referred to the UNSC and on the same day its proxy shock organization in Lebanon, the Hezbollah, enters a campaign against Israel. It is plausible to contemplate that the Israeli soldiers in the hands of the Hezbollah may find their way to Tehran- remember Hezbollah and mullahs hostage takings in the 1980's. The creator of the Hezbollah and its idealogical benefactor and chief financier is the theocratic regime in Iran.

Past actions by the Iranian mullahs have demonstrated time and again that this is a regime intend and dependent on instability and coersion. In 1982, it created the Hezbollah in Lebanon as a counterweight to Israel and the US and for eventual control in Lebanon. The October 1983 destruction of the marine barrack in Beirut was orchesterated and financied by the mullahs and carried out by a Hezbollah suicide bomber. The many western hostages that were taken on the orders from Tehran became innocent paws in the Iran-Contra debacle, in which the prime beneficiary was the Iranian regime and the prime victimes the hostages and the Iranian people.

This time around, the Iranian mullahs will try to use the middle east imbalances and the inaction by the western powers to exact huge benefits for themselves. Let us hope that the Iranian people are not losers again.

The answer from the mullahs... not so soon!

Now, we have it. The Iranian mullahs have confirmed today (Reuters, July 10, 2006) that they won't be forthcoming with an answer for the EU and the United States vis-a-vis the nuclear inducement package which was offered to them last June. The EU, via their ever brave Mr. Solana, had expected a "substantial response" from the Iranians, but instead he has heard that "... we will not give a definite answer. We will only discuss questions and ambiguities regarding the offer,". Now, that's mullahs' speak for stonewalling. The ever optimistic Mr. Solana is not deterred, even though the regime foreign minister, Mottaki has said that the G8 members "should not take decisions that could harm the current positive atmosphere in efforts to resolve the issue." (Reuters)

Your guess is as good as this author, that the new-found boldness and courage by the Iranian mullahs, in the face of the international onslaught, is reflective of the mullahs' strategy in Iraq. Suffice to say, that according to a retired US four-star general , despite the eight thousand British troops in the region, “the Iranians could take Basra with ten mullahs and one sound truck.” (The Iran Plans, New Yorker, April 17, 2006).

EU has now a deadline for the mullahs? It’s tomorrow! No wait, maybe next month…

Nearly a month after submitting a pacakge of "incentives" to the Iranian mullahs- the mouth-watering proposal of commercial and security measures intended to buy the Iranians into giving up their nuclear ambitions, the EU and the US are still waiting to hear from the mullahs. After numerous utterances from the regime, including the ones coming from Ahmadi-nejad in front of his Chinese friends in Shanghai last month, giving August 22 as the time for a mullahs' response, and those coming from the regime's foreign minister, Mottaki- and the head executioner, Khamenei, the EU is now mad. German foreign minister, Frank-Wlater Steinmeiser, said on June 26 (Reuters), "They have had the offer for two weeks already," after meeting with his Iranian counterpart. It is not obvious whether this was meant to scare the mullahs into action, or he was simply whining. A "knowledgeable" western diplomat was quoted in the Financial Times on June 27, as saying "if they are just playing for time, that's unacceptable." The Europeans are onto something here!

In a flash of courage that would put Neville Chamberlain to shame, the EU's version of a foreign minister, Mr. Javier Solana, will meet with the Iranian foreign minister tomorrow to elicit a response. One could even imagine the line of discussion, "come on my dear and truthful friend, Manoucher, you know that next week is the G8 meeting in Russia. Without a response, and hopefully one that says that yes, we will suspend and stop all nuclear-related activities, the G8 meeting will not be much fun. After all, we postponed the meeting so that you will have more time for a response"- the truth is that the meeting dates were pushed back so as to not clash with the football world cup in Germany, but the mullahs should not have to know that!

The fact of the matter is that unless, the EU grows spin and the US acts as the actor that pushes Europe toward a forecful policy- much the same way it did in Europe in the 40's and 50's, the mesage to the Iranian terror mongers, we're afraid, is that we're afraid of you. The same way that non action to the Iranian growing terror onslaughts in the 80's and 90's, both within and without Iran, made them bodler and more precise in their deadliness, appeasement today will bring about a more deadly Iranian regime. A regime that will not hesitate to flex an even more muscular strategy in Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere.