These were also my thoughts upon reading the Times article. I
was thinking of the Bush years and how they had tried to push that angle – Iran
and al Qaeda – and how it repeatedly came to nothing.
It's not unheard of for Iran to give shelter to Salafis –
which usually are sworn-to-death enemies of the Shia. The Afghan mujahideen warlord
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (who later allied with the Taliban) took refuge in Iran in
the mid-to-late 1990's but his stay was hardly cordial. Tehran (which was
strongly opposed to the Taliban and its persecution of Afghani Shia)
contemplated using Hekmatyar but never did.
But generally speaking the story (if true at all) would mark
more of an exception than a rule. But it certainly makes Iran look bad – which
I'm afraid is probably the goal.
And there's also this:
It's curious that the Kurds are generating a military
response just now. Generally speaking the Kurdish factions in Iran are not very
active. Almost all the attention is usually focused on the Kurds of Iraq and
Southeastern Turkey. The timing is interesting in light of the current 'buzz'
or chatter concerning plans for a Trump-Netanyahu strike on Tehran.
There's also talk of the US hitting the Iranian nuclear
facility. The US is trying to hype Tehran's activities – which wouldn't even be
happening apart from Trump's scrapping of the JCPOA (The Iran Nuclear Deal) in
2018. Some of Iran's activities are also attempts at reconstructing facilities
that have been destroyed by means of sabotage – undoubtedly at the hands of the
Mossad, CIA, or both. Sabotage and assassinations have been occurring at a
pretty regular pace for some time now. Their rebuilding of sabotaged facilities
is being touted as 'aggressive upticks' or 'expanding activities' – which
actually isn't true or rather is only true if one ignores the destruction of
said facilities – which is exactly what Western media is doing.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is also making the rounds
at the moment. Some are calling it his farewell tour. Is it? Or is it a
planning session? While visiting places like the Friends of Zion Museum
(largely devoted to Christian Zionists) he made a provocative trip to the West
Bank and Golan Heights. One is reminded of Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple
Mount that sparked an intifada. Trump for his part is happy to burn the house
down as he leaves. Pompeo who has further political ambitions should (by most
estimations) be a little more cautious.
And there is the other elephant in the room – Lebanon and
with it Syria. The US has its interests in these countries and both (via Assad
and Hezbollah) are tied in with Iran.
Let's hope cooler heads prevail but the Trump is administration is sending some disconcerting signals.
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