Iran - The Puppet Master In The Middle East

In Middle East: Pull Down Facades

by Amir Taheri

• The state-controlled media in Tehran are advising the "authorities" in Beirut and Baghdad to crush the popular uprisings "by all means necessary". One of Tehran's Iraqi propagandists even advised Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi "to kill leaders of sedition (fitna)" who had gathered in a restaurant in Baghdad.
  
  
• In building their empire, the mullahs made a big mistake: they prevented the emergence of genuine local authorities, including national armies that could hold things together in a semi-autonomous way.
  
  
• The Houthis, the Assad clan, Hezbollah, PMF and kindred groups are puppets in a surrealistic show scripted by faceless puppet-masters in Tehran. That they, in turn, hide behind secondary puppets, playing president and/or prime minister, makes for an even more absurd flight into fantasyland. Just over 1,000 years ago, Nizam al-Mulk noted that what appears legal is not necessarily legitimate and that being in office but not in power produces the worst kind of tyranny.
  
  
  
  
  For the past two weeks or so, the state-controlled media in Tehran have been wondering how to cope with news of popular uprisings in Lebanon and Iraq.
  In the first phase, the official line was that the protests reflected anger at poor economic performance and defective public services. The narrative echoed media coverage of last year's popular protests in Iran itself. It was inconceivable that "the people", always an abstraction, might not appreciate the blessings of the system, let alone revolt against it.
  
  
  In the second phase, the protests were portrayed as indicative of the failure of the authorities to respond to popular grievances. In the third and current phase, the uprising was depicted as the result of sinister plots by "enemies of Islam", including the usual "Zionist" suspects and "agents of the American Great Satan."
  Thus, Tehran media are advising the "authorities" in Beirut and Baghdad to crush the popular uprisings "by all means necessary". 
  
  
  One of Tehran's Iraqi propagandists even advised Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi "to kill leaders of sedition (fitna)" who had gathered in a restaurant in Baghdad. The daily Kayhan, believed to reflect "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei's views, started calling for "strong action" against protesters in Lebanon days before units of street-fighters from Hezbollah and Amal attacked the protesters' base in Beirut.
  
  
  
  
  Anyone following the state-owned media's coverage would detect a sense of panic in Tehran. What if we were witnessing a version of peripheral revolts that shook the Soviet Empire in its satellite territories in Eastern and Central Europe?
  
  
  
  
  Like the scared Soviet Union, the Khomeinist regime may try to stop the march of history by force. If so, it will fail just as the USSR did in its satellites. However, positive change may well become more possible if those who form the facade of power in the countries concerned find the courage to step down and let Tehran's surrogates assume responsibility commensurate with the real power they have behind the scenes.
  
  
  
  
  The Houthis, the Assad clan, Hezbollah, PMF and kindred groups are puppets in a surrealistic show scripted by faceless puppet-masters in Tehran. That they, in turn, hide behind secondary puppets, playing president and/or prime minister, makes for an even more absurd flight into fantasyland. Just over 1,000 years ago, Nizam al-Mulk noted that what appears legal is not necessarily legitimate and that being in office but not in power produces the worst kind of tyranny.