Press Interpreter

10/28/05 -- Iran was not in need of new problems before the fiery speech presented by its new president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in which he called for "the elimination of Israel from existence." And corresponding to the admiration deserving of that headline, he was chosen by the Islamic Committees for Students of Religious Schools in Iran to deliver his speech at its conference, entitled "The World Without Zionism," based upon that creed as practiced by radical right-wing Zionist extremists in Israel, a racist and wicked dogma which encourages the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity with respect to the Palestinians, and the call of President Ahmedinejad for the elimination of Israel from existence is a call that no country is prepared to respond to now or in the foreseeable future. And for Ahmedinejad and the other great Iranian leaders, who the world considers speak with him, hearing the vocal protests, especially from Western leaders, realize that the call of Ahmedinejad was just that, despite what he said, merely heated empty words, which may well yield Iran disastrous consequences.

Many years ago, it now seems, the Iraqi president at that time Saddam Hussein stood up, threatening to destroy "half of Israel" with a chemical weapon if Israel reckoned with his country, and so the West and Israel rose up and Saddam did not back down, raided Kuwait on August 2, and began bombing Israel with rockets which did not kill a single Israeli, but Israel used it as a pretext to obtain new weapons as well as renumeration from the United States in exchange for its noninterference in the coming war and, led by the United States, the Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait. And Iraq was resisting even earlier on June 7, 1981, when an Israeli air raid on his nuclear reactor "Tammuz" at "Ozirak", manufactured by the French, which led to its destruction. In the end, the days of the rule of Saddam and a submissive Iraq are under American occupation and, in a sense, Israeli as well, regardless of the fact that the greatest agitators of the most recent wars were from among American neo-conservatives, known to be supported by Israeli power, and their attention to its interests.

Indeed, the Iranian nuclear program is obviously not pleasing to the Israelis or the Americans or the West generally. Despite the fact that Israel is a nuclear state, Western countries do not demand the imposition of inspections of its installations or its arsenals or the means of its nuclear weapons transport, waste, and discharge capabilities by plane, and its intercontinental ballistic missiles, modern German submarines, and so on. It is not possible to explain the inability of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect Israeli nuclear installations while the IAEA insists on imposing its controls and inspections on Iranian installations which Iran pursues for a peaceful objective, that of the production of an electrical grid. Three European countries - Germany, France, and Britain - who serve as intermediaries between Iran and the United States on the nuclear issue, do not approve of Iran progressing in the production of uranium and they want Tehran's arms and nuclear program to be subjected to continued international control for a guarantee that it will not transition to the production of nuclear weapons.

President Ahmedinejad gave Israel a shameless excuse which it will use to justify striking the Iranian nuclear program no matter what its purposes are, and perhaps strike Iranian military bases and factories and weapons depots. And if that happens, the Israeli leadership will say that Iran threatened the existence of their state, and that it represents an existential danger to the Israelis, and if this happens, and this is only a scenario but a very likely one, Americans will not only not rein in Israel but they might also assist it with aid and bombs and missiles capable of devastating and destroying the areas surrounding the nuclear installations, and President Ahmedinejad will have rendered a service free of charge to the enemies of his country.

The Iranian president has kindled with his speech at the conference of students new possibilities which were unlikely if he had thought about it carefully. His intent was not intimidation, for what might be the Israeli reaction to it, in view of the fact that Iran possesses many means for vengeance and retaliation. But what was intended was a warning, that a battle is not a necessity for now but that the door remains open, in this calamitous region of ancient unrest.

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[This article appeared in Dar Al-Hayat, a Saudi-financed London daily.]

By Maher Uthman

--Translated by Andrea Turpin

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http://www.daralhayat.com/opinion/10-2005/Item-20051027-334dbd97-c0a8-10ed-002d-80aebfb62acd/story.html