The dog that did not bark
When in November five
British yachtsman were apprehended by the Iranian authorities after trespassing
in Iranian waters, the bought and paid-for media scrambled in readiness for
another orgy of Tehran-bashing.
Yet something very odd
happened – or failed to happen. The British bulldog defied all
expectations and failed to bark. Indeed the BBC reported that for
the best part of a week the Foreign Office had tried to keep the whole business
under wraps. When it did finally come to light, Miliband just shuffled his
feet whilst the FO spokesman mumbled that, okay, the five might have “strayed
inadvertently into Iranian waters”.
The Iranians quietly dealt with the situation
caused by the yachtsmen’s gaffe, initially promising that serious measures
would be taken were the five proven to have acted with “evil intentions”.
When due investigation suggested that such was not the case, the strays were
promptly sent home. All the lads declared themselves to have been well treated,
with the mother of one of them offering “grateful thanks to Iran for seeing
it as it was – just a human error”. The hot story suddenly went cold and
the press slunk off.
So where were the headlines screaming about the “unjust
treatment” suffered by “our boys”? Where were the maritime maps “proving”
that the trespass “never really happened”? Where, in short, was all the
ballyhoo raised on at least two previous occasions, in 2004 and 2007, when
British servicemen got themselves arrested on Iranian territory? How are we to
account for this outbreak of grudging civility on the part of the
neo-colonialists of Whitehall?
To get a glimpse of what is really weighing
on British imperialist minds, we can do no better than to listen to Miliband’s
crass denials of the significance of this affair. “This is a human story of
five young yachtsmen,” he wittered. “It’s got nothing to do with
politics, it’s got nothing to do with nuclear enrichment programmes… it has
no relationship to any of the other, bigger issues.” Oh really?
Such denials serve only to draw attention to those
“bigger issues” which they would conceal. What has for the moment
brought imperialist arrogance and aggression up short is precisely the
firm and statesmanlike fashion in which Tehran has successively seen off the
foreign efforts to undermine Iran’s elections, the subsequent efforts to
overturn the results by funding yet another “colour revolution”, and the
most recent grandstanding at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and
Security Council over the non-existent “nuclear issue”. (The only “nuclear
issue” involved is the unpardonable interference of Washington, London and
Tel Aviv in the entirely proper efforts by the Tehran government to develop a
nuclear energy programme consistent with its need for national energy
security.)
It is this firm defence of Iran’s national
independence in the face of imperialist meddling which has taught Miliband
manners. The same thing also accounts for the failure of the bourgeois
scribblers and Twitterers to make very much of the opposition’s attempts to
hijack Students Day on 7th December.
After a couple of days of speculation about “thousands”
clashing with the police, backed up with some bile from Mousavi’s website, the
imperialist press gave up on the story as a non-starter. Perhaps they figured
that the real anti-imperialist significance of Students Day – the commemoration
of the slaughter of three patriotic students protesting at Nixon’s visit to the
Shah shortly after the overthrow of Mossadeq – was not a theme they should
invite people to think too much about. Iran’s official news agency IRNA aptly
summed up this damp squib as the “last nail in the coffin” of the
post-election protests.
As Washington and London continue to pile pressure
on the UN to intensify the economic war against Iran, on the pretext of her
supposed nuclear transgressions, Iran has shown herself unbowed. Faced with
the latest diplomatic provocation – an IAEA resolution denying Iran’s right to
enrich uranium and rebuking her for not giving advance notice of the enrichment
plant at Qom – Tehran has responded with characteristic vigour. Ahmadinejad
has declared the resolution illegal, and his vice-president has ordered the
construction of ten new nuclear plants, explaining that “We had no intention
of building many facilities like the Natanz site, but apparently the West
doesn’t want to understand Iran’s peaceful message.” Having thus removed
any further excuse to criticise Iran over the “secrecy” of her nuclear
energy plans, Ahmadinejad is spelling out in terms that even the dimmest
diplomat can grasp. As Al Jazeera reported him saying, “The Zionist
regime … and its … backers cannot do a damn thing to stop Iran’s nuclear work”
(3 December 2009).
Such determination in the face
of provocation stands as an example for all independent nations resisting
imperialist domination and, more than anything else could, strengthens the
prospects for peace in the region.