IPS COLUMNIST SERVICE, APRIL 2012 © IPS and the author
Editor’s note:
The overall picture has turned much worse over the last few months. In particular, the Western demands to Iran made public prior to the Istanbul consultations on April 14, bodes ill for the next round of talks in Baghdad. Everyone has stated views, used rhetoric and taken concrete steps that bring us all closer to the a and the tightening of sanctions that already suffocate Iranian society. It is believed – falsely – that sanctions are somehow “soft weapons”. In Iraq, with one-third of the population of Iran, Western sanctions caused roughly one million Iraqi deaths.
What is indicative of a will to promote future peace among the parties? Well, the following are not: pre-negotiation demands, threats to destroy, an oil embargo, sanctions directed at citizens, condescending rhetoric to and about a nation with one of the oldest civilisations in the world, murdering its scientists, providing military training to its dissident terrorists abroad, telling it to abstain from what you have yourself done and requiring inspections there but not with the nuclear-armed “other side”. These are methods to make Tehran consider obtaining nukes although Iran’s highest leader has pronounced repeatedly that nuclear weapons are haram, i.e. strictly prohibited according to Islam (a fact never reported in Western media).
The world needs conflict-resolution capacity, knowledge and training. Those who run these matters steer their policies like unlicenced drivers. Under such conditions, accidents will happen and people will die. There is a huge spectrum of options between doing nothing and smashing up countries by military means.
This article offers plenty of constructive proposals.
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Iran/Israel: What the West can and should do
By Jan Oberg*
LUND, Apr (IPS) The overall picture has turned much worse over the last few months. In particular, the Western demands to Iran made public prior to the Istanbul consultations on April 14, bodes ill for the next round of talks in Baghdad. Everyone has stated views, used rhetoric and taken concrete steps that bring us all closer to the abyss called ‘War on Iran’. While it is easy and dangerous to escalate a conflict, it is difficult without losing face to de-escalate and make peace.
Among these counterproductive steps are the Western halting of imports of oil from Iran on July 1, 2012 and the tightening of sanctions that already suffocate Iranian society. It is believed falsely that sanctions are somehow “soft weapons”. In Iraq, with one-third of the population of Iran, Western sanctions caused roughly one million Iraqi deaths.
What is indicative of a will to promote future peace among the parties? Well, the following are not: pre-negotiation demands, threats to destroy, an oil embargo, sanctions directed at citizens, condescending rhetoric to and about a nation with one of the oldest civilisations in the world, murdering its scientists, providing military training to its dissident terrorists abroad, telling it to abstain from what you have yourself done and requiring inspections there but not with the nuclear-armed “other side”. These are methods to make Tehran consider obtaining nukes although Iran’s highest leader has pronounced repeatedly that nuclear weapons are haram, i.e. strictly prohibited according to Islam (a fact never reported in Western media).
Military expenditure (MILEX) is the most reliable single indicator of who would be able to threaten or harm someone else should the worst happen. Iran’s MILEX is about seven billion dollars or about one percent of the U.S.’s military expenses. Israel’s MILEX is 13 billon dollars – with one-tenth as many inhabitants as Iran. The U.S. spends four percent of its Gross National Product (GNP) on the military, Israel 6.5 percent and Iran 2.5 percent of its GNP. Iran has not invaded other countries since India in 1738 and has no bases abroad. Israel and the U.S. are nuclear weapons powers and occupiers, Iran isn’t.
Thanks to the overall pro-Israeli mainstream media in the West, most people are made to believe that Iran is a threat to the world because basic figures like these are never mentioned in the press. Given these figures, it would be suicidal for Iran to start a war on anyone. And the leaders in Tehran are neither insane nor stupid.
What the West, including Israel, can and should do:
1. Begin negotiations that offer a relaxation and lifting of sanctions, trade and diplomatic recognition as quid pro quo for steps taken by Iran; and scrap every precondition before the meeting.
2. Israel should stop feeding its citizens horror stories about Iran.
3. Allow Iran to continue its uranium enrichment program, but under close surveillance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) according to an Additional Protocol.
4. Change focus from the present regime, (thereby leaving it up to the Iranians to decide their own leaders).
5. The U.S. should stop its coercion of the IAEA.
6. The US should apologise for its involvement in the coup d’état against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and for the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, which killed 290 passengers.
7. An apology for Western support to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war that cost one million lives should be considered too.
8. The U.S. and Israel should end the terrorist acts, stop killing Iranian citizens and stop cyber warfare exemplified by the Stuxnet virus.
Here is what Iran can and should do:
9. End its support of terrorist groups that attack Israel.
10. End its talk of hatred against Israel and make it clear that they will not attack Israel, except if attacked first by Israel.
11. Iran should accept a far-reaching Additional Protocol for the inspection regime of the IAEA; ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty, thus setting a good example for the U.S.
12. Iran should intensify the Dialogue of Civilisation project.
Other actors such as the United Nations, the European Union or single countries can and should work for:
13. Mediation, consultations, facilitation of any type of contacts between the parties.
14. Hearings in the EU Parliament and/or in the U.N. General Assembly where Iranian and Western representatives could tell the world about their goals, grievances and preferred future solutions.
15. Provide scholarships to Iranian students and promote all kinds of people-to-people contact.
16. Revive the agreement signed by Iran, Brazil and Turkey in 2010 according to which Iran sends enriched uranium to Turkey (perhaps these countries could still serve as mediators in some way?).
17. Speed up the accession process of Iran to the World Trade Organisation.
18. Send a delegation of former Nobel Peace Prize laureates on a dialogue mission to Tehran.
19. Take concrete steps to establish the Middle East as a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone.
In short, do just about everything else except what all the parties are doing now, that is, de-escalate the tension before it is too late.
Remember Pogo who allegedly once said: ” We have met the enemy and he is us.” The West seems unable to live without enemies and creates them by its own policies. It’s mind-boggling that suggestions such as those above hardly ever surface in the public discussion, journalists never raising them with decision-makers who advocate war again and again.
The world needs conflict-resolution capacity, knowledge and training. Those who run these matters steer their policies like unlicenced drivers. Under such conditions, accidents will happen and people will die. There is a huge spectrum of options between doing nothing and smashing up countries by military means.
Government mentality is unlikely to change course or introduce basic conflict and peace knowledge at this point. Therefore, it is of tremendous importance that citizens in the West, in Israel and in Iran use social media to link up with each other and strengthens the idea of citizens’ diplomacy. (END/COPYRIGHT)
(*) Jan Oberg is director and co-founder of the Transnational Foundation (TFF) in Lund, Sweden, PhD, peace and conflict researcher.
