Het hek is van de dam...

[Herman Beun]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Na het "succes" van de oorlog in Irak is het hek nu blijkbaar echt van
de dam. De neo-conservatieven in het Pentagon lijken hun ogen nu op Iran
hebben laten vallen. Nog even, en een oorlog "voor de democratie" lijkt
de democratie die zich autonoom in dat land aan het ontwikkelen is naar
de prehistorie te bombarderen.

Zo mogelijk nog cynischer is de Koude-Oorlog-manier waarop het Pentagon
begonnen is bondgenoten te verzamelen. Hooggestemde conservatieve
idealen ten spijt blijkt democratie in Iran verspreid te moeten gaan
worden door een marxistisch-islamitische terreurgroep die gesteund werd
door, jawel, Saddam Hussein, en de zoon van een rasdemocraat als de
voormalige Shah van Perzië.

Ben benieuwd of de nieuwe Nederlandse regering ook deze oorlog
politiek-maar-niet-militair gaat steunen ...

Zie verder het bericht uit de Financial Times hieronder.

/Herman

==============
Financial Times, 9 mei 2003:
US hawks eye unlikely allies on Iran
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: May 8 2003 23:01 | Last Updated: May 8 2003 23:01

Donald Rumsfeld has said he does not do diplomacy. But some of the
neo-conservatives in the Pentagon, emboldened by victory in Iraq, are
trying to construct an improbable alignment of interests to effect
regime change in neighbouring Iran.


The Defence Department is trying to muster support both from exiled
Iranian fighters of the People's Mujahideen Organisation (MKO) and from
Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah of Iran who ruthlessly suppressed the
MKO before his own downfall.

The Pentagon's decision to negotiate a ceasefire with MKO members in
Iraq, who were previously designated by the US as terrorists, has
alarmed State Department diplomats and the British Foreign Office.

In late April, the US military forged a deal with MKO militants in
eastern Iraq, allowing them to keep their weapons and uniforms. Weeks
before, US bombers had blasted their camps.

The MKO, backed by Saddam Hussein, has fought the clerics ruling Iran
since the early 1980s when the two sides fell out in the power struggle
that followed the 1979 revolution. Before that, the MKO, with a potent
mix of Marxism and Islam, killed US military personnel and civilians in
Tehran and backed the 1979 takeover of the US embassy there.

Not only did the ceasefire alarm the ayatollahs in Tehran, it also
shocked Colin Powell, secretary of state, who was kept out of the loop.
Now the neo-conservatives in the Pentagon who authorised the truce are
rustling up support for the MKO's former enemy, Mr Pahlavi.

Mr Pahlavi's backers believe he could play the same role in Iran as they
hope Ahmad Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress and another
Pentagon favourite, will play in Iraq. "The shared objective is regime
change in Iran, so they don't see the contradiction," said one analyst.

Hardline Iranian newspapers have used the issue to stir up anti-American
sentiment. One claimed MKO troops in US uniforms were policing the
border with Iraq. Iran's state news agency quoted the UK foreign office
as saying the MKO would not be allowed to operate inside Iraq and that
US forces were bringing the group under control.

According to Iranian government sources, Saddam Hussein tried in
negotiations with Iran to use the MKO as a bargaining chip, offering to
hand them over as part of a broader deal.


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Herman Beun                       http://www.hermanbeun.info/
Herman.Beun at yucom.be                      Brussel, Vlaanderen
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*representative democracy is a contradiction in 4 year terms*
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