24 - 30 January 2002
Issue No.570
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 24 - 30 January 2002 Issue No.570 |
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Return to sender
Following the interception of a mysterious ship in the Red Sea and an Iranian warning, Israel raised the flag of war against Iran. Azadeh Moaveni reports on the reaction in Tehran
When former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani casually interrupted his Friday sermon in mid-December to issue an ominous warning to Israel, little did he know his rhetoric would trigger an alarming escalation in Israel's efforts to depict Iran as a leading terrorist threat to the West.
A few weeks later, Rafsanjani's comment, along with allegations that Iran was smuggling arms to the Palestinian Authority, led Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to publicly declare the possibility of a state of war between the two countries. Sharon claimed that besides inciting Hizbullah to fire Katyusha missiles across Israel's northern border, Iran was opening a new front from which to undermine Israel by forging an alliance with the Palestinian Authority. " [This] leaves no room for any doubt as to Iran's hatred of Israel and its declared goal to destroy it," said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
Rafsanjani's comment consisted of a warning that if Israel expanded its nuclear arsenal, "it would lose and be destroyed." The office of a high-level state committee, the Expediency Council, issued a clarification, saying that Rafsanjani had merely "sought to advise Israel not to get into an arms race because this would only be to the detriment of Israel itself."
Even in Tehran, the statement made waves. Ardently pro-Palestinian Iranian officials like Hizbullah founder Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour were irked by Rafsanjani's gaffe, which they said gave Israel a dangerous pretext to launch a global smear campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Anxiety spread in Tehran when it appeared that US President George W Bush had uncritically accepted Israel's spin on the ship with a cargo of arms incident, and stepped up his own criticism of Iran. Bush recently accused Iran of harbouring Al-Qa'eda operatives who had slipped across the Iranian border and of seeking to undermine the interim government in Afghanistan. Though his own original comment had helped provoke the storm, Rafsanjani took offence at the American allegations: "How can they give themselves the right to speak so rudely and impudently to a revolutionary nation?"
Iranian analysts are divided over the issue of the weapons-laden boat, the Karine A, which was seized by Israel in the Red Sea while allegedly en route to delivering its cargo to the Palestinian Authority. Israel put the ship's captain before the cameras, and claimed that there was considerable evidence linking the shipment to Iran. While some analysts do not rule out the possibility that elements within the Revolutionary Guard acting with the Supreme Leader's approval ordered the shipment, others doubt that Iran's senior leadership would permit reckless adventurism at such a highly sensitive time. The Karine A allegations were categorically denied by officials. Iranian Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani told the Islamic Republic News Agency, "The Islamic Republic has had no military relations with Yasser Arafat, and no steps have been taken by any Iranian organisation for the shipment of arms to the mentioned lands."
Iran's Foreign Ministry also denied the allegations, and spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi called the whole affair an Israeli set-up to distract attention from the Intifada.
The Islamic Republic is an active supporter of Palestinian radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which vie with the Palestinian Authority for influence among the Palestinian people. At a summit in support of the Intifada in Tehran held last year a representative of the Palestinian Authority attended, but relations between the Islamic Republic and Arafat have been strained for years. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced Arafat as an "Israeli lackey" for signing the Wye Accords in 1998. Since the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Palestinian officials have accused Tehran of fomenting upheaval in the West Bank and Gaza by instigating competition between Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and directing the expansion of Hizbullah activity into those areas. Analysts in Tehran characterise such claims as Palestinian disinformation intended to deflect Israeli criticism of Arafat for failing to curb suicide attacks against Israeli targets.
While the truth of Iran's involvement in the Intifada, and for that matter its involvement in the Karine A affair, remain subjects of debate, the view in Tehran is that these are pretexts used by Israel to justify smashing any possibility of a rapprochement between the US and Iran. Whether those efforts prove successful remains to be seen, but for now it appears unlikely that the United States will be provoked, even by its close ally Israel, to make serious moves against Iran.
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