Iranians & Arabs

Whether it is envy or threat that feeds into Arab fear of Iran, but the pathological insistence of reducing Iran into an emotive adversary whose behavior is solely shaped by Shiite doctrine, as done by some Arab news outlets, points at a high degree of “envy” . Some of Iran’s virtues, Arab literature would like to have credited Arabs with, seems reason enough to constantly attack and ridicule Iran and Iranians with, amongst them that plural source of self-regeneration and self-belief. The lack of which is not an Iranian problem but an Arab problem. The pages of “some” Arab dailies have for sometimes been drumming up public hysteria over the Iranian nuclear project. For instance the ‘Al-Sharq Al-Awsat’ (Arab Paper) has been itching for a war with Iran for some time. By deploying a psychology of fear and ‘demonization’, These Arab war-mongers impel their audiences toward a stand-or-die attitude in the defense of entrenched and often mindless positions. To this end, some hawkish voices risk mortgaging Middle Eastern and World futures to yet a new war in the region. As if Iran, Israel, the Arab world and Western countries need another conflict! Seeing things through a Sunni-Shiite lens or an Arab-Persian prism would only bring to the fore what has been seen for centuries.(a British generated policy of divide & Rule) Deeply etched in Persian memory is the Arab-Muslim conquest that prevailed over the Persian and Zoroastrian Sassanid Empire in the mid-seventh-century AD. However, the Persian nation’s line of defense became cultural and epistemological, fending off ‘Arabization,’ The Arab literati are well aware of their debt to Persian philosophy, architecture, arts and administration. As do the ‘grammarati,’ the debt to the remarkable Persian scholar “Sibuyeh” who codified Arabic grammar in the mid-800s.

It was the Shah and not the Islamic republic that initiated the quest for a nuclear project in the mid-1970s. The road to nuclear science know-how, human resources and capabilities amassed today has been long, arduous and challenging. Since 1979, following Iran's revolution, Iran has been surviving against all odds. Partly, this is owed to Iranian astuteness, secrecy, and intelligent diplomacy, which has set out to diversify economic partnerships with the outside world, in the face of many restrictive sanctions. Partly, Iranian tenacity and patience which reflects a cultural trait of a meticulous and elaborate carpet-weaving work ethic. This steadfastness is an admirable fixture of the Iranian persona. Note the many crises that have marred Iranian-Western relations since the late 1970s. Each presented Iran’s Islamic revolution and its leaders with challenging obstacles. Thus far Iranians seem to have passed each with flying colors. True the latest sanctions are debilitating and are starting to bite inside Iran. However, the fact remains, that as the world shuts the doors of trade and banking in the face of the Islamic republic, the more Iranians search deep into their local resourcefulness to surpass the tests thrown at them. Politically, the day Baghdad fell in 2003, Iran finalized its revenge on Iraq and its supporters who helped fund a costly and damaging war to both Iraq and Iranians. March 2003 was the real date of the Iran's triumph in the region. Iran has been the biggest beneficiary of the change of regime in Iraq. Technologically, Iran today boasts more than 5000 scientists, making the country’s nuclear programme largely an indigenous achievement. Diplomatically, A series of stand-offs beginning with the US freeze of assets following the US embassy hostage crisis (in 1979-80 and beyond) through Martin Indyk’s misguided 1993 ‘dual containment,’ and up to the cumulative regime of sanctions have not weakened Iranian resolve on the path to going nuclear. Iranians seem to be astute diplomatic players on the big stage of ‘high’ politics. They know how to defend their interests, define what they are, and pursue them with skill, guile, cunning, and resolve. By contrast, the pan-Arab sub-system in the surrounding region has been gradually crumbling. The Iranians have been busy engineering not only the building blocks of nuclear energy, but also a network of ties, liaisons, and relations that collectively serve and safeguard Iranian interests.

Their tentacles spread from Peking to Gaza and South America. One notes in amazement how whilst Arab regimes are easy targets of international interventionism, the Iranians are exactly the opposite. By war, international courts, UN Security Council sanctions, big power play and diplomacy, Arab states all seem to be more amenable to control. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Jordan next to all Arab, Persian Gulf states are one by one tamed and kept in check. The easy dismissal of Iran in some Arab quarters as simply the bedrock of Shiite heretics is facile. The Iranian threat, factual or imagined, is not going to be resolved through the emotive deployment of the Shiite-Sunni, us-them rhetoric and 'clash.' The means of Iranian self-regeneration are deeply rooted in an ingenious culture and civilization. It is wrong to assume that ingredients of Iranian steadfastness and astuteness are solely embedded in the treatises of Shiite doctors in the thousands of seminaries dotting this vast land or in the fables of Karbala and the martyrdom of Hussein (680 AD). Iran’s own self-understanding and self-belief derive meaning, meaningfulness, identity, and self-empowering creativity from both monotheistic as well as Zoroastrian and even animist sources. It is wrong to conceive of Iran as a fixed, single and mono-cultural entity. It is this plurality that enriches Iran and equips it with the means to stand up to the world, and, seemingly, succeed. Iranians celebrate the martyrdom of Hussein but also with equal zeal and passion celebrate nature, spring, and flowers - for example Sizdah-Bedar and Nowruz. Isfahan is their 'nesf-e-jahan,' half the word, Shah Abbas's masterpiece city of beauty and learning tells another story of how Iranians see their place in the world. In Hafez [1317-1390] (incidentally a Sunni ;)) they have a quasi Persian Prophet who celebrates Islam and the union with the divine through beautiful prose and poetry. So be wise and quit the blind Iranophobia , give and volunteer Iran the respect it deserves or risk an unhappy, uncertain future…... Iran shall prevail, with or without your press neutrality/support. (some excerpts from Dr Saddighi)