Al Shindagah

6 | Al Shindagah | Issue 136 POLITICS ©Shutterstock Iran’s declaration of war must not go unanswered he pretence has ended. The gloves are off. Iran’s Minister of Defence, Brigadier General Hossein Dehgan, has openly threatened to destroy the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the exception of Mecca and Medina if it “does something ignorant”. Can there be any statement more ignorant or more foolish than this when threatening Saudi equates to placing all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states as well as the entire Arab and Islamic world on alert? He must be the most intellectually- challenged man on the planet to underestimate the military and economic power of the GCC and to imagine that it would stand aside observing that scenario play out. Tehran would be the first city to be obliterated after firing its first missile or dropping its first bomb. The Ayatollahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are nothing but midgets poking a regional giant armed with some of the most sophisticated weaponry known to mankind. They must be inclined to suicide to warn a strong and stable nation like Saudi Arabia in this vulgar fashion. You would think Tehran has enough to worry about domestically without stirring an international hornet’s nest. Iranians are suffering from a depressed economy because the country’s wealth is being spent on weapons and Iran’s militant proxies. Human rights abuses, oppression of minorities, a virulent drug culture constitute a depressive environment that kills human dignity, free expression and hopes for a better life. Iran prefers to embrace terrorists and terrorist organisations in Lebanon and Iraq to further its territorial and ideological ambitions than nurturing its own citizens. This untenable situation is partly our own fault. We Arabs have been in denial for far too long. We have overlooked Iran’s verbal provocations, dismissing them as mere fiery rhetoric for domestic consumption. Even as Iran’s tentacles tightened around Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, we permitted the mullahs to believe they are powerful enough to threaten us and get away with it. We should have discontinued all diplomatic relations, trade agreements and bilateral meetings years ago. The former US President Barack Obama’s administration and its P5+1 partners must also accept their share of the blame for negotiating a narrow nuclear deal that was not conditional upon an end to Iran’s regional aggressions. I was appalled to see Iranian President Hassan Rouhani revelling at European red carpet receptions when Tehran’s Lebanese ‘mini-me’ Hezbollah was engaged in slaughtering Syrians and Iranian weapons were being despatched to Houthi murderers in Yemen. Conversely, US President Donald Trump warned Iran that “there is a new Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor • Published in the media on 10 May 2017 T ©Shutterstock