25 Feb, 2015 17:21

Netanyahu is a warmongering fanatic: Leaked spy cables on Iran prove the point

Richard Sudan is a London-based writer, political activist, and performance poet. His writing has been published in many prominent publications, including the Independent, the Guardian, Huffington Post and Washington Spectator. He has been a guest speaker at events for different organizations ranging from the University of East London to the People's Assembly covering various topics. His opinion is that the mainstream media has a duty to challenge power, rather than to serve power. Richard has taught writing poetry for performance at Brunel University. Richard Sudan is a London-based writer, political activist, and performance poet. His writing has been published in many prominent publications, including the Independent, the Guardian, Huffington Post and Washington Spectator. He has been a guest speaker at events for different organizations ranging from the University of East London to the People's Assembly covering various topics. His opinion is that the mainstream media has a duty to challenge power, rather than to serve power. Richard has taught writing poetry for performance at Brunel University.

Netanyahu is a warmongering fanatic: Leaked spy cables on Iran prove the point

Leaked international intelligence service cables have provided telling insights into the reality of Iran's civilian nuclear program-an issue which has been continually hyped up and distorted by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

In September 2012 Prime Minister Netanyahu - echoing fellow war criminal Tony Blair's infamous lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in the run up to the 2003 invasion - claimed that Iran was on the verge of creating a nuclear bomb, suggesting that the country was on the cusp of enriching uranium to levels sufficient enough to produce a weapon. A picture was painted by Netanyahu at the UN in his speech, which to take seriously was to buy into the notion that Iran was on course to induce a Middle Eastern apocalypse.

However, the cables between Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and South Africa conceded that Iran was "Not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons.” There it is, in plain English, Netanyahu contradicted by his own intelligence services.

The lie about Iran's nuclear intentions has been peddled by many in the media and still is. Iran which hasn't attacked any nation for hundreds of years is presented as an existential threat to Israel and to world peace. It is often claimed falsely, that the Iranian leadership has previously expressed the desire to “wipe Israel off the map,” another dangerous untruth which persists, despite the fact that it is the US, Israel's financial and political backer, not Iran, which has actually dropped a nuclear weapon in the past - created one and then pulled the trigger so to speak.

The espionage cables leaked to Al Jazeera and shared with the Guardian underscore what we knew all the time: that the so-called threat from Iran is false. The leaks perhaps don't tell us anything we didn't already know, but when we consider that in truth, it is Israel which presents a threat to peace in the region, itself boasting hundreds of nuclear weapons, while refusing to sign the non-proliferation treaty (which Iran is a signatory of) it's clear that in the on-going war of information these facts are important.These are the facts which cannot be highlighted enough. Until the threat posed against Iran diminishes they must be highlighted.

The wars in the very recent past, which we have been made to believe were justified, were all based on fiction rather than facts. From Iraq, to Libya, to the attempt to make a case for Syria, in each instance false claims were made , which were then drummed into the minds of the public, by large sections of the media.We were told that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction; Gaddafi plans to massacre his own people to remain in power and so on and so forth.

This cannot and must not be allowed to happen with Iran.In March, when Netanyahu is expected to address the US Congress, he will in all likelihood use the platform to ramp up the hyperbole against Iran, especially given that diplomacy between the US and Iran - which had been icy for many years - began to thaw in recent months.

A general view of the Bushehr main nuclear reactor. (Reuters/Raheb Homavandi)

Netanyahu doesn't want negotiations over Iran's civil nuclear program to make progress, and will do everything possible to prevent Iran from continuing what it absolutely has every right to do.Pursue a peaceful civilian nuclear program.All the hype isn't really about preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, as if they or any other nation should they even obtain one and actually use it: they would be annihilated by the world’s biggest superpower in no time at all and everybody knows it.

This is about power, and reducing the influence of Iran. Why is it then, that two strong secular Arab states, Iran and Syria, are constantly demonized in the media, while low and behold, the Arab states we sell weapons to which they then use to brutalize their own people are given a free pass to continue, and which are never mentioned in the media? ISIS makes the headlines, but not head-choppers in Saudi Arabia. Nor do we hear about the crimes against the people of Bahrain, or Qatar for example. This double standard underpins the real state of play in politics, and explains the witch-hunt Iran has been subject to for many years: sanctions and malicious lies.

The reality is that Iran is a stabilizing force in the region, one of the only true democratic forces in the Middle East preventing the further military occupation of its neighbors, by supporting resistance to imperialism throughout the region.Were it not for Iran and indeed Russia, it’s hard to imagine that a full throttled invasion of Syria, with boots on the ground, wouldn't have already happened.

For those who are aware of the history of Netanyahu ramping up the propaganda against Iran, and who have followed the revelations of the Snowden leaks, these spy agency files, some of which Al Jazeera say they have yet to release, don't tell us anything new.

But in today's world, with one illegal war following another, it’s fair to say that the case for such wars depends largely on public opinion being swayed via lies in the media.In this context, the files which have been released are crucial in making the argument to others, as to why the aggressive policies of sanctions and the distortions about Iran's nuclear program are unjust, dangerous, and must stop.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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