WikiLeaks and Arabs’ Hypocrisy
A panel on WikiLeaks and its interconnection with Iran’s foreign policy was held by Iranian Diplomacy on Wednesday, 29th of December, with contributions made by Dr. Naser Hadian (US affairs analyst and former lecturer at Columbia University), Dr. Hadi Khaniki (deputy minister of Higher Education in Khatami’s government) and Mohammad Farazmand (Iran’s former ambassador to Bahrain) as keynote speakers. Sadegh Kharrazi, Iran’s former ambassador to France also gave a talk on the topic, which is highlighted below.
The securitized post-9/11 world bears witness to a serious challenge between social actors and politicians. A conscious form of information dissemination by free thinkers in West is observed, one that takes aim at the US military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, or the violence afflicting the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
The big question for Muslim and Arab intellectuals is, why are their ruling elites indifferent to the fate of al-Quds and Palestine, and why are they apathetic toward Israel’s atrocities while at the same time they are intriguing foreign powers to attack Iran?
Today, a fundamental challenge is taking shape in the West: on the one hand we have intellectuals and elites who believe in democracy and on the other hand, there are their governments imposing strictures to ensure security.
During his second term, former US President George W. Bush said security overrides freedom. This is against the opinion of many decision-making political elites in the United States who believe that democracy and freedom supersede security. Today, WikiLeaks can be considered a manifestation of this challenge of dualities.
The dependence and inclination of Arab countries and some other Muslim states on and toward global powers is not what their populations demand. Today, there is a gap between free thinking Arab intellectuals and their regimes. In the Arab World and in the Muslim world, we are facing public opinion as our audience. This also includes Islamic movements and intellectuals. Unfortunately, the present orientation in our diplomatic apparatus prevents us from approaching these movements. In spite of all the fiery rhetoric, our diplomatic body’s inertia and its indifference toward the reality of WikiLeaks will not create an opportunity for serious study of the released documents. WikiLeaks will leave its trace on diplomatic and domestic affairs across the world. One who has monitored the free circulating media in the EU and the US or other countries, can observe how the opposition is using these documents as a powerful lever against the ruling party. Middle Eastern affairs have also been affected by WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks may also relate to Iran’s internal affairs in the near future. There is still a free-thinking movement inside our country which may question why Iran has acted passively vis-à-vis Arab countries. Our policy which tended to attract Arab countries has actually backfired. Instead of de-escalating tensions, it has aggravated mistrust. The deterrence policy followed in the Ninth and Tenth administrations [of Ahmadinejad] have also been ineffective.
The grudge at the heart of Arab states is no less than their hatred for Israel. Meanwhile, we see the strong presence of extraregional forces and NATO in Iran’s neighborhood, from the Persian Gulf to Central Asia, from the Caucasus to our eastern borders (Pakistan and Afghanistan). The arrangement formed around Iran proves the Arabs’ provoking policies and their counter-productive role, similar to the one carried out by Saddam Hussein and his allies in past. This evinces that our policy of appeasement with the Arabs was ineffective, and it seems that our Arab policy in the early days of the Revolution –which frightened the Arab states of the region- was more efficient.
Today, the key intelligence bases of Western countries are hosted by the UAE. Several thousand intelligence officers are tracing Iran’s political developments in this country. In this aspect, UAE has even surpassed Israel, another intelligence base for West. Today, it is not the Western countries, but the UAE and some other regional states that are Iran’s primary security threats. We can move toward a shared discourse with Western countries, one which is based on common threats and interests. What counts at the moment is the Arab hypocrisy manifest in the behavior of Abu Dhabi’s rulers. WikiLeaks has clarified that many Arab states are seeking the overthrow of Iran’s political system.
The blissful ignorance of our diplomatic body is what we suffer from most today. Iran’s diplomatic apparatus has actually turned into the “ministry of pomp and circumstance”. I hope that innovation and courage replaces shortsightedness in the new era [after the dismissal of Manouchehr Mottaki].
Our diplomatic apparatus has spent all its energy on issues like the Holocaust, and put the eggs of our national interests in a basket that does not even belong to Iran or Islam. But when it comes to the WikiLeaks phenomenon, it suddenly turns silent. This shows how priorities have changed. We need a redefinition of our priorities.
With WikiLeaks, the Iranian government and the entire political system should wake up to reality. There are those who pretend to be Iran’s friends, while they are not, and there are threats that we mistakenly believe to be our major security threats, while the threats actually lie in another place.