A NUCLEAR PHYSICIST , 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by two motorcyclists who attached an explosive device to his car. He is the fourth nuclear scientist to have been assassinated in this way, and their deaths were meant to deter other scientists from partaking in Iran’s attempt at creating a nuclear device.
The West has been threatening Iran for years over its nuclear ambitions. The UN has also made its demands upon president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resist making an atomic bomb of some description. Economic sanctions have been tried, and are about to be enlarged.
The timeline is familiar to the way the modern West behaves toward its enemies. I remember the same threats and actions being taken against Saddam Hussein who we believed was also in the process of manufacturing a weapon of mass destruction. But for years, under president Clinton’s leadership sanctions, and an unworkable no-fly zone were about as far as the West were prepared to go, until George Bush Jnr. appeared on the scene.
The trouble with using sanctions is that they only effect the ordinary people of the country that has had them imposed upon it. Saddam Hussein cared little for his people’s welfare. He in fact used their suffering to point the finger at the West for imposing their sanctions; and his propaganda ministry inflated the numbers of his people who were dying because of them: and there were many people in the West that were all to ready to believe that such sanctions had been responsible for well over 100,000 deaths among Iraq’s women and children.
The West gives one the impression that by imposing sanctions, it does not have to contemplate military action. We have known for years about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but have never confronted them, other than by sanctions that Ahmadinejad, like Hussein, can brandish before his people as an attack by the West on them.
Now Iran threatens the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It is my humble view that Ahmadinejad has calculated correctly that if the West was going to act militarily, it would have done so by now. So he is upping the ante, so to speak, by threatening such a closure.
If he miscalculates, then it is the West who has helped him miscalculate by their pusillanimous behaviour. If Ahmadinejad had believed that the West were ready and willing to act militarily, he would not have threatened the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
ISRAEL, ON THE OTHER HAND, has been eager to act militarily against any Iranian nuclear threat, knowing that they would be the first port of call, for Iranian vengeance. But, no doubt America has been involved in persuading Israel to stay its hand, by promising America’s total support if they are attacked by any of their enemies in the region. I cannot think that the Israeli prime minister would have been persuaded, unless, that is, Obama made such a promise.
This however, does not mean that Israel has had its hands tied. The latest assassination has many in the West believing that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad were responsible for Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan’s killing, as well as the other scientists.
If Israel were behind such acts, then they acted in appreciation of their own people’s need for survival. Israel, unlike the West has a more, shall we say, realistic attitude to the Arab world than, for instance, does our own Foreign Office ( and yes, I do know that Iranians are not Arabs).
Iran, as well as all the other Muslim nations see Israel as their enemy, followed by the Western infidel. While many Muslim countries have a moderate interpretation of the Koran – Iran certainly does not. But despite this, it is my guess that when push comes to shove, the whole Muslim world will prefer to give their loyalty to a Muslim country, rather than to the West - including those Muslims that have taken up residency in the West.
IF ISRAEL WERE NOT behind this latest scientist’s assassination, I would be much surprised, indeed, disappointed. This man knew what he was taking on and what it could have meant for him; and what it could have meant, did indeed happen. He was as aware as those of his colleagues who suffered his same fate. Which means that he was no ordinary unbiased scientist, but one who (unless he was a scientific mercenary ) believed fully in Iran’s ambition to destroy the state of Israel.
Long may such assassinations take place. For sanctions are almost meaningless, and the West are loath to intervene militarily. So Israel must do what she has to do to keep the Jewish state fully functioning. Israel will do whatever is needed to protect its survival; just as would America. While, on the other hand, the European nations care little for their national sovereignty.
Israel must do whatever she sees fit to do in order to defend, not only her boarders, but the very existence of Israel itself. If this includes targeted assassinations of scientists prepared to further the nuclear ambitions of Iran - then so be it.
Scientists can be as driven by a particular political ideology or religious faith, as the rest of us. Being academically inclined does not make them immune from the assassins grip.
Iran has chosen its fate as far as the West is concerned. She seeks to take on the Western world in order to impress the Muslim world and gain its support regardless of nationality or religious sect.
Everything Iran dose is directed toward the Muslim world and those Muslims living in the West. Iran also seeks to usurp Turkey’s throne. Turkey has, to Iran’s thinking, betrayed the Koran. Turkey is a Muslim nation that has worked tirelessly to integrate itself into Western civilisation.
As far as Iran is concerned such an effort amounts to a heresy, if not a betrayal. Iran seeks the premiership of the Muslim world and it will probe and challenge, at every opportunity, what they believe to be the West’s Christian hegemony over the Muslim world.
If as seems likely, Mossad is behind this series assassinations in Iran, then they should be given a nod and a wink by the West, and, if not openly encouraged, then at least not discouraged.
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