Iran.and Political Hallucination!

by Tariq Alhomayed

 

In one of his speeches in Isfahan, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that the attacks launched by America and it’s military allies over the past few years on some countries in the [Middle East] region are based on religious grounds and that “their motive for carrying out these attacks that they did not make public is that they know that there will come a day when a man descended from Prophet Mohammed, may peace be upon him, will appear in this region and he will eliminate all the wrong-doers in the world. The Iranian nation will be among the supporters of this divine man.” Ahmadinejad continued and confirmed that “Iran has the documents to prove this.” And of course that’s not all; Ahmadinejad added, “The first task for Iranian officials is to build [up] Iran and their second task is represented in preparing to enter the administration of world affairs.”

Is there a better example of political hallucination? The question here is that if talk such as this works on the supporters of the Iranian regime and its president, how can Tehran’s ideas and political projects be marketed in the Arab world? [How was it sold to] some of the cultural and political elites, especially those that engage in politics and particularly Arab nationalists who used to describe some Arab regimes as backward? How have they i.e. some nationalists today become theorists of the Iranian hallucinations?

This is not the first time that Iranian politicians have used such political hallucinations. Ahmadinejad claimed that a halo was shining on him when he was in New York around two years ago. Also, it was not long ago that we heard that the authority of the Iranian [Supreme] Guide is derived from the authority of God. Therefore, it is clear that Tehran uses this method to play on emotions and of course, what’s hidden is even worse.

All of those hallucinations are coming out and almost half of the Iranian nation was, and still is, divided over its regime, and the proof of this is the magnitude of threats issued by the regime as a continuous warning to the Iranian opposition, not to mention cutting off internet access in Iran and [other] methods of communication with the outside world.

When we say political hallucination, then what Ahmadinejad is doing and saying might please some of his supporters; however he will lead Iran to an inevitable and upcoming disaster if the chain of escalation with the international community that we are seeing from Iran continues, especially with regards to the nuclear file. The nuclear file is an issue for which Iran uses all our regional issues and fronts such as Gaza and Lebanon. There is information that there is a state of panic within Hezbollah and many people in Lebanon are very concerned that the Lebanese front might open suddenly in a new war with Israel.

What we want to say is that as long as this is the logic in Iran and this is the way Tehran deals with political issues then this makes us pessimistic about solving the Iranian nuclear file or pending regional issues with Tehran – whether in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen or with regards to interference in the Palestinian cause – in a rational and peaceful manner, as long as Iranian policy is based on hallucination. How can it not [be based on hallucination] when Ahmadinejad is saying that he has documents proving that America targeted regional states because it knows that a man will be sent down [by God] to save the region from oppression.

 

Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Al-Awsat, the youngest person to be appointed that position.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.