Published: February 10, 2009
Middle East Times
BEIRUT -- In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Tehran it is business as usual. Statements and attitudes of Iranian officials and Iran's proxies in the Middle East seem to be deep-rooted in pre-Obama templates.
Neither the U.S. president's inaugural 'new way forward' he seeks with Muslims, nor his 'Americans are not your enemy' first-interview-message seem to have been noticed by the conservative Iranian establishment or at least noticed enough to reply positively.
To the contrary, U.S. 'hope' to change Iran's attitude and bring it to act more responsibly was dimmed by Iran's "hope," a satellite recently sent into space, using same long-range ballistic technology that is used for launching warheads. This makes Iran the ninth nation to successfully register its name in the orbit.
Adding pure insult to injury, Iran refused to issue visas for an American badminton team that was supposed to participate in an international tournament in Tehran.
But why the big fuss?
Granting the visas won't have meant that change is in the wind. In fact the United States has sent 32 athletes to Iran under a sports exchange program launched in 2007, and 75 Iranian athletes and coaches have visited the United States, as State Department data reflects. Since then, it is worth noting, Iran advanced its uranium enrichment process going from 164 centrifuges to 5,000 it claims are spinning at the moment.
Akin to 'hope,' the term 'new,' in current Iranian political lingo, is merely a metaphor. It is almost exclusively linked to war and confrontation.
Talking to Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal last week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei emphasized the importance of keeping the resistance fist 'clenched.' He called on the Palestinians to remain vigilant and be prepared for "new" attacks that could come at any time.
A Cyprus-flagged ship, Monchegorsk, sailing from Iran to Syria, docked off the Mediterranean island shore proves Khamenei is a man of his word. Washington, whose navy earlier boarded the ship in the Red Sea, said weapons were found on board.
A Western diplomatic source told Reuters that U.S. Navy inspections had found arms-related material including propellant and other casings for artillery and tank rounds, as well as shell casings, which Israel suspects were being carried to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
In the same vein, Hezbollah, Iran's most lethal proxy, is improvising, and building up a new case against Israel as a pretext to the coming "new" war. In a recent press conference Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah cited three reasons why his organization is keeping fingers on pistols triggers.
First, "there are still the remains of 350 Arab and Lebanese martyrs' in Israel," he said, talking to reporters via a huge screen.
Second, he touched on the issue of four Iranian diplomats who went missing in Lebanon in 1982, claiming that they are held in Israeli prisons. Though the Christian-dominated Lebanese Forces, and a now Hezbollah tough foe, were held responsible for kidnapping the diplomats, Nasrallah, surprisingly enough, said that this is an unconvincing Israeli story, keeping the focus on Tel Aviv.
It is worth noting that the top security commander at the time of this incident was the late Lebanese Forces lieutenant Elie Hobeika who enjoyed close contacts with Hezbollah for the most part of the period since 1992 till he was killed in a car bomb near his residence in east Beirut on Jan. 24, 2002.
Third, Nasrallah assured his audience that revenge will be taken for the killing of Hezbollah premiere militant, Haj Radwan, better known as Imad Mughnieh, who was assassinated in February 2008 in a tightly secured zone in Syria.
These are just the latest signals of how defiant Iran is and how far it is willing to go to preserve what it sees as the nation's dignity.
In the meantime the P5+1 gathering granted Barack Obama's administration great powers' support for its willingness to engage in direct talks with Iran and help it break out of isolation over its internationally disputed nuclear program.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that "if Tehran does not comply with United Nations Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency mandates, there must be consequences." For a person whose verbal toughness record is as vast as hers, she sure can talk the talk; however, the administration is rather expected to prepare for walking the walk when the moment arrives in the not very far future.
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Nadim Koteich is a political analyst and host of "Studio 24", a daily prime time news analysis show that airs on the pan-Arab Future News channel, headquartered in Beirut. His e-mail is nkoteich@gmail.com
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