U.S.
Ambassador Nikki Haley’s grandiose performance in front of the UN
on December 15 should send shivers down the spines of those who
remember Colin Powell’s equally disturbing performance in the
months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This is just the
beginning of the a new media campaign against Iran with regime change
as the end goal.
by
Darius Shahtahmasebi
Part
4 - The U.S. demonization of Iran
In the
meantime, the U.S. needs to do its utmost to garner international
support for a war with Iran. The alleged nuclear threat held by Iran
has almost completely been taken off the table, in light of the fact
that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) formed in 2015
has largely worked to quell any international fears about Iran’s
nonexistent nuclear weapons. The Trump administration is
singlehandedly attempting to derail the deal, against the better
judgment of even Trump’s most anti-Iranian advisors.
Enter
Nikki Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the UN. Haley’s grandiose
performance in front of the UN on December 15 should send shivers
down the spines of those of us who remember Colin Powell’s equally
disturbing performance in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion
of Iraq.
According
to Haley, the U.S. has “concrete evidence” of Iran’s weapons
proliferation, citing missiles that she alleges are Iranian-made and
subsequently transferred to Yemen to be used against Saudi Arabia.
Just a
few days later, Haley came out with another attack on Iran, this time
in reference to a UN report on Iran’s compliance with Resolution
2231. “This is the Secretary-General’s fourth report on the
Iranian regime’s lack of full compliance with Resolution 2231,”
Haley said, referring to the UN resolution that codified the nuclear
deal. “And it is the most damning report yet. This report makes
the case that Iran is illegally transferring weapons.”
Never
mind that Saudi Arabia is the only country using its missiles to
great effect to commit countless war crimes against the people of
Yemen. The fact remains that evidence regarding Iranian involvement
in the Yemen conflict is still not established, even to this day. As
explained by Common Dream’s Reza Marashi:
Haley
cited a UN report in her claim regarding Iranian missile transfers to
the Houthis. Of course, the UN has reached no such conclusion.
Instead, a panel of experts concluded that fired missile fragments
show components from an Iranian company, but they have ‘no evidence
as to the identity of the broker or supplier.’
Asked
about Haley’s claim that Iran is the culprit, Sweden’s ambassador
to the UN said, ‘The info I have is less clear.’ Analysts from
the U.S. Department of Defense speaking to reporters at Haley’s
speech openly acknowledged that they do not know the missiles’
origin.
Perhaps
most surreal is the very same UN report cited by Haley also says the
missile included a component that was manufactured by an American
company. Did she disingenuously omit that inconvenient bit from her
remarks, or fail to read the entire UN report? The world may never
know.
In
January of this year, a panel of UN experts stated that:
The
panel has not seen sufficient evidence to confirm any direct
large-scale supply of arms from the Government of the Islamic
Republic of Iran, although there are indicators that anti-tank guided
weapons being supplied to the Houthi or Saleh forces are of Iranian
manufacture.
What
those UN experts did find, however, was mounting evidence of Saudi
Arabian war crimes in Yemen. To paint Iran as the aggressor in Yemen,
while Saudi Arabia continues to openly decimate Yemen’s civilian
population, is astounding to say the least. In our recent history,
there is only one recorded instance of Iran firing a missile into any
other country — that being Syria, in response to an ISIS-inspired
attack that occurred on Iranian soil. Iran’s strike on Syria was
done in accordance with its various defense agreements with the
Syrian government; meaning it is unlikely that Iran violated anyone’s
sovereignty in carrying out such a strike (unlike the U.S., which has
no such justification to bomb Syrian territory).
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