It would be a sad day
On the Islamic Republic's desire to join the Arab
League
December 2, 2003
The Iranian
The Islamic Republic has decided that Iran should join the Arab
League. Sadly this is not a joke. Apparently, some
time ago, the leaders of the Islamic Republic decided that it would
be a good thing for Iran to become a member of the Arab League. So,
they quietly made an application to become a member, albeit as
an observer without the right to vote.
Now according to the
spokesman of the Foreign Ministry of the Islamic Republic, Iran
is eagerly awaiting the response of the Arab League. It appears
that this has been a longstanding wish of the Islamic Republic,
which has hitherto been met by indifference by the member states
of the Arab League.
Now though we are told by Mr. Asefi (the
spokesman) that things might be different because Amr Mousa, apparently
a friend of the Islamic Republic, has become the Secretary General
of the Arab League and so maybe, just maybe, if all goes well,
Iran can become a member.
What, one may ask, has possessed the leaders
of the Islamic Republic to take this momentous step? Well,
their obsession with the Palestinian question for one. The
leadership of the IRI has calculated that it can be more effective
in sabotaging any chance
of peace in the Middle East by being physically present in the
seat of Arab leadership.
It is a good bet that the other
objective of the IRI is to sufficiently ingratiate itself to sundry
corrupt Arab dictatorships in order to be able to form "strategic
alliances" such as the one it has with Syria, to counter the
influence of the United States in the region.
Of course this is only the latest sad episode in Mr. Khatami's
inexorable descent into wretched disgrace. The erstwhile
champion of transparency has taken one more step in his total submission
to the criminals who exert the real power in Iran.
There
has been no discussion, no debate, no real publicity about Iran's
desire to join the Arab League; just a decision made in wherever
decisions are made in Iran. Was that because people in charge
of IRI were afraid of the public reaction to such a significant
move?
It would be truly a sad day when Iran's membership to the Arab
League is accepted. It would be sad because Iran would be
joining after a long period of lobbying which was met with Arab
indifference.
It would be sad because Iran is trying really
hard to join a group of states whose regimes enjoy tenuous legitimacy
with their peoples and have one of the most impressive records
of collective ineptitude and ineffectiveness fuelled by petty jealousies
of the various potentates and their delusions of grandeur. It
would be sad because even if Iran were successful in its bid, the
Arab states would still look at Iran as an outsider and proceed
to do their best to ignore it.
It would be sad because it
is a fairly illuminating demonstration of how little the current
leaders of Iran, whether reformist or not, care about Iranian identity. That
distinct identity is what gives Iran its voice and any weight it
has in the international arena. That distinctness will be
neutralized by being enmeshed and trapped in the overwhelming Arab
identity around it, and so will Iran's voice in global politics. The
Iranian people deserve better.
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