Israel Matzav

Iranian strategy for capitalizing on Olmert's stupidity

Iran will now try to blow up Olmert’s words as part and parcel of Israel’s “massacre” of Shiites in Lebanon, continuing assaults on the Palestinians and “existential threat” to Iran. The “Israeli menace” to regional security will be turned round to deflect the unease felt by the Shiite regime’s Sunni Muslim neighbors over its nuclear program.

In Riyadh on Dec. 10, six oil-rich Gulf nations announced they will seek nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. While expressing concern over Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment in furtherance of its nuclear ambitions, the GCC also demanded that Israel be forced to sign the Non-Proliferation Treat and expose its nuclear installations to inspection.

While such reports are routinely published in Israel, Tehran’s media censor references by Gulf nations to its nuclear activities. This time, the GCC’s decision to seek nuclear energy for peaceful purposes was highlighted, an attempt to harness it as an engine to promote Iran’s purportedly peaceful program while enlisting the Muslim world to combat Israel’s capabilities.

The Iranians have called up a small echo.

In Cairo, Mohammed Sobeih, the Arab League’s assistant secretary general in charge of Palestinian affairs said Wednesday, Dec. 13, that the 22-member organization must exert pressure on Israel through the International Atomic Energy Agency to open its nuclear facilities to inspection.

No word of approval was forthcoming on Iran’s program. That remains elusive despite Tehran’s efforts.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt anyway raises Israel’s nuclear capabilities in talks with Olmert, vice premier Shimon Peres and every Israeli leader he meets. So does King Abdullah of Jordan.

Hoping for better results, Tehran is deploying “ideological agents” in Muslim nations outside the Middle East, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Azerbaijan, and parts of Africa, with files loaded with anti-Semitic poison, accusing “international Zionism” and its aspiration for world domination - as cited in the fabricated “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” - as the object of Israel’s nuclear bomb.

Iran’s clerical rulers have directed the country’s preachers to deliver extra-inflammatory sermons condemning the Jewish state as a nuclear threat in the mosques next Friday. [I assume this means tomorrow. CiJ]

Iranian diplomats will also busily propagate this message in Arab and Islamic capitals, Latin America – especially Caracas – South Africa and the Third World nations.

About a year ago, Israel tried posting a message to Tehran to deter its quest for an N-bomb to “wipe Israel off the map.” Even if subjected to an Iranian nuclear attack, said the message, Jerusalem retained a second-strike capability in the form of German-made Dolphin submarines armed with nuclear warheads which could reach Iran.

According to DEBKAfile’s sources in Tehran, this caution had little effect. Heads of the Islamic regime calculated that a nuclear strike would hurt Iran but not threaten its survival, whereas a single Iranian nuclear bomb would fatally paralyze the tiny Zionist state.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:42 AM