I went back to the dictionary with Iran and the issue of its nuclear program, to look up the meaning of an expression in English. If I had translated this expression literally, it would mean “horse trade”. While in Arabic this may carry a negative meaning, I found it to mean “bargaining”, or “negotiations accompanied by mutual concessions and shrewd bargaining” to reach a deal. I even found in the Thesaurus after the previous definition some examples of the expression's uses, including “talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians”. I will leave the cause for its own people today, however, and will focus instead on Iran. What is happening these days in this issue is nothing more than a horse trade, where the Iranian nuclear program is probably the least important item that the relevant parties want to barter. Of course, what is on offer here is not horses or even donkeys, but the interests of entire populations and their future. In this vein, I want to make the following commentary: - Iran made a five-page offer to the six negotiating countries entitled “Cooperation, Peace and Justice”, which touched on all possible topics except its nuclear program. There were subsequent comments about this that Iran is stalling and avoiding this issue. This is true. However, Iran had noted down in its offer what it considers important and not what the West is interested in; as such, Iran is willing to trade its nuclear program for a share of influence and hegemony in the Middle East, at the expense of Arab Countries, especially the ones neighbouring Iran. - The United States in these negotiations is representing Israel before any other interest it may itself have. This is because Iran poses no threat to America's security or economy neither today nor in a hundred years. While Iran has practically closed the door for any negotiations related to its nuclear program, the Obama administration said that it is still willing to give priority to dialogue, and that both the U.S and Israel are willing to share their influence in the Middle East with Iran. However, this can only happen once again at our own expense, while Turkey will also have a share of the sway. - In the meantime, the United States wants to sell us more weapons, and since the Arab nations that have the means to purchase them are far from Israel, then the Obama administration is instilling fears in those countries about Iran and its ambitions. In this vein, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates informed these States, through the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, that the United States is ready to sell us advanced weapons, including missile systems. The United States is the largest arms exporter in the world, and hogs alone two-thirds of the global arms trade. It has sold us in recent years about a hundred billion dollars worth of weapons systems. - Israel meanwhile is the fictional tail that wags the dog: While the United States, the Arabs and the rest of the world are saying to Benjamin Netanyahu “Palestine first”, he replies “Iran first”, and barters the one issue with the other. He then secretly travels to Moscow (or maybe did not travel to Moscow), then lies as usual, but this time to the Israelis. Israel then claims that it fears a country that wants to wipe it off the map, although the latest U.S. and Israeli intelligence reports are asserting that Iran will not have the capacity to produce a nuclear weapon before 2011 or 2015, with the likelihood of the latter date being the most accurate. - Russia does not support any new sanctions on Iran, while it is quite likely that the Chinese position is also opposed to the sanctions. The reason behind this, however, is not that the Russian intelligence or the Chinese intelligence has different information at its disposal that contradicts the Americans and Israelis. Rather, the reason is that each of these two countries has business interests, i.e. oil interests in Iran. They are thus constantly bartering this silence with these interests, not to mention the fact that Russia too has something to trade its interest in Iran for other interests in Central Europe, if the U.S. should accept this swap. - Meanwhile, the entire Iranian domestic situation is horse trade, while the actual dispute there is over posts and personal interests, and definitely not about the identity of the Iranian revolution. As such, the demonstrators chanted “God is Great!” on the street, from the windows, and from the rooftops. Also, the entire country, including the most moderate elements, supports the continuation of the nuclear program. What is up for bargain there, thus, are the shares in power between the government and the opposition figures, and within the same team sometimes, and whether the lion's share should remain in the hands of the Supreme Leader, or whether the president should start competing with him, and what this or that official will receive in return for their support. - After the above, a coalition of fools has been established, if not a coalition of the insane. As such, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited Iran and forged an alliance with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announcing that he supports its nuclear program. He also said that he would request assistance from the Iranians in developing a Venezuelan nuclear program, in exchange for 20 thousand barrels of fuel per day supplied by Venezuela to Iran. To dismantle this alliance aimed at the United States basically means that the Obama administration must pay a price in Latin America or the Middle East. I thus argue in the end that in this current lucrative horse trade, we are the goods and not the buyers or the sellers.
