The US and other Western powers have imposed sanctions on Iran not because it poses a serious threat but because a weak economy would keep Iran under control of the international community, Caleb Maupin, an International Action Center organizer, told RT.
RT:Washington has renewed what it calls 'a state of emergency regime' with Tehran. How significant is that?
Caleb Maupin: Well, it’s really outrageous. Iran has made clear for the last several decades that it has absolutely no intention of developing nuclear weapons, that it only seeks to develop peaceful nuclear power and it has abided by every single requirement of it with the International Atomic Energy Agency under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and yet this propaganda continues to go out claiming that there is some kind of Iranian threat to world peace. Well the reason that the United States, Israel, France, and countries like that are threatened by Iran is not because Iran is aggressive or anything like that. They’re threatened because Iran seeks independent economics. In the Iranian Revolution of 1979 the people of Iran rose up, they overthrew the Shah – who was a brutal US-backed dictator – and they began a course of independent economic development. The profits from Iranian oil go to the Iranian economy. They don’t go to the bankers on Wall Street, they don’t go to the London Stock Exchange, they go to the people. They go to the Iranian economy. And they don’t want independent economic development and that’s what the aggression against Iran is all about. And Iran has been more than accommodating, it’s made clear it has no desire for aggression. When President Rouhani was at the United Nations he made clear that he was talking of a world against violence and extremism and making clear that Iran is not aggressive, Iran does not want violence. But it’s clear that the Wall Street bankers and the corporations and the US government which represents them is very very committed to hostility toward Iran and that’s what we’re seeing with these new sanctions.
RT:Surely they’re missing a trick here then. If they get economic independence, then surely that opens up massive trade opportunities - which is presumably what Britain now sees because it has renewed diplomatic relations.
CM: But it’s about control. It’s about economic control. The western powers are very threatened by the fact that around the world – it’s not just Iran, there’s a whole network of countries that are not under its dominion. Whether it’s China, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria - these are all countries that are defying the will of the western financial institutions and have set up their own kind of economies that serve themselves rather than serving the West and that’s something they simply can’t stand for. That’s what this aggression is about.
RT:There’s going to be a next round of talks - do you think they will be derailed? Or will they be successful?
CM: My hope is that they can be successful because it will be good for everyone in the world if there is more peace and more diplomacy between Iran, the United States, and Israel and countries around the world. If there was more diplomacy things would be better but it’s the commitment of Wall Street and the war-makers and the profiteers, it’s their commitment to aggression and hostility toward Iran that is causing the setbacks we’re seeing. Iran is no threat to its neighbors it’s no threat to the United States. It’s the United States and Israel that are threatening the world with their military aggression.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.