(Photo Credit: DoD photo by Cherie Cullen/Released)
During overlapping visits to Afghanistan today, Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused each others’ governments of playing “double games” in Afghanistan.
Rhetoric aside, the visits highlight the regional competition between the two countries as the United States continues to seek support for additional sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Gates is now in Saudi Arabia, where he is warning Iran that its nuclear ambitions are leading the United States and its Arab allies to build up their defenses and increase security cooperation. Gates’ comments echo arguments made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her tour of the region last month.
– Ben Katcher
NIAC hosted a panel discussion yesterday in Washington, DC (video here: http://niacblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/niac-2010-conference-video-iran-at-a-crossroads-niacs-conference-on-capitol-hill-featuring-panel-discussions-q-as-and-members-of-congress-niacounci/
Juan Cole claimed that Iran and US were cooperating behind the scenes in small ways in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
That cooperation may be at some operational level. Certainly at the public, political, strategic level, Gates is carrying out the goals and wishes of the MIC to sell sell sell weapons to wealthy sheikhs to keep Bethesda’s defense lobbyists happy, and to keep employment statistics tolerable for the majority of congresspersons whose districts rely on defense contracts strategically distributed to maintain this or that party majority in a district.
You never know koosh – when your “friends” treat you like a dog turd stuck to your shoe – 1600 times in one day – one can only hope even the most stupid will soon realise they’re being taken for idiots.
Change that everyone can believe
Iran policies contrary to US interests, Obama says
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120561§ionid=351020101
“Gates is now in Saudi Arabia, where he is warning Iran that its nuclear ambitions are leading the United States and its Arab allies to build up their defenses and increase security cooperation.”
Well, at least that’s good for business. Fear sells.
Russia to lose ‘billions’ if S-300 missile deal with Iran scrapped
Russia will sustain significant losses if it decides to tear up a contract to deliver S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, an unnamed defense industry official said on Wednesday.
“The fulfillment of the contract to deliver S-300 complexes to Iran fully depends on the country’s leadership,” he said.
Russian military expert Konstantin Makiyenko previously said the decision not to go ahead with the contract would cost Russia about $1 billion in lost profits plus $300-400 million in fines and penalties.
The defense industry official stressed that the S-300 systems were defensive weapons.
“They are not under any embargo, and Russia is free to make its own decision on whether or not to supply them to one country or another,” he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20091021/156546612.html
Iranian missiles pose no threat to U.S. and Europe – Lavrov:
“It is evident that Iran currently poses no threat to the U.S. and European countries.
At the moment, Iran has no missiles capable of striking Europe, let alone the U.S., and is unlikely to develop [such missiles] in the foreseeable future,” Lavrov said.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100310/158151243.html
Stability in Afghanistan can not be achieved without a good deal of help from Iran. The US goes out of its way not even to acknowledge Iranian efforts to help the Afghan people resist the Taleban.
“Critics could question Clinton’s credibility — asking, as one student did Tuesday, why the United States opposes nuclear weapons in Iran but does nothing about Israel’s nuclear stockpile.”
And Arab commentators could note the irony of Clinton warning of a rising military dictatorship in Iran on a day when she hopscotched from one autocratic regime, Qatar, to another, Saudi Arabia.
Already, many commentators have been quick to seize on that point.
“If Iran is indeed becoming a military dictatorship, this probably qualifies it for American aid and hugs, rather than sanctions and threats,” wrote Rami Khouri, editor at large of Beirut’s Daily Star. “The United States has adored military dictatorships in the Arab world, especially states dominated by the shadowy world of intelligence services.”
“Why is it that those who say they want to fight terrorism are never successful?”
“I think it is because they are the ones who are playing a double game”
Ahmadinejad said.
“They are the ones who set the terrorists on their course and say: ‘Now we want to fight them’. Well they cannot, it is impossible”