By Phyllis Bennis.
Regarding Iran, the State Department made odd allusions to facts about the crisis of which nobody else in the administration seems to be aware.
The State Department, reporting on the latest U.S.-Israel “Strategic Dialogue,” was very proud of the “productive, wide ranging discussion of issues of mutual concern.” (Apparently the recommended legalization of all the illegal and expanding settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory is not an issue of “mutual concern” to the U.S. deputy secretary of state and his Israeli counterpart).
No, the focus was only on the regional situation. Regarding Iran, the State Department made odd allusions to facts about the crisis of which nobody else in the administration seems to be aware. To begin, State noted that the U.S. and Israel had addressed their concern that Iran is engaged in a “continued quest to develop nuclear weapons.” There was no explanation of why the conclusion of this U.S.-Israeli dialogue seems to fly in the face of the US intelligence agencies’ actual position with regard to Iran’s nuclear program, which is that Iran not only does not have any nuclear weapons, and is not building a nuclear weapon, but that Tehran has not even made the decision about whether to build a nuclear weapon.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asked his own rhetorical question about Iran: “Are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon?” He then answered with an unequivocal “No.”
It was General James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, who made clear that the U.S. does not even know “if Iran will eventually decide to build” a nuclear weapon.
Is that what a “continued quest to develop nuclear weapons” looks like? Or is State running its own intelligence agencies these days?
And then they discussed Syria. Of course it’s widely known that the Syrian regime has assisted Hezbollah, a political and paramilitary organization that happens to be the strongest party in Lebanon’s parliament. But State’s view, following its strategic dialogue with Israel, is apparently the other way around – that it is Hezbollah that is somehow shoring up a reprehensible neighboring regime. And apparently, the reprehensible killings it is assisting in that neighboring state are being carried out by a heretofore unknown regime led by someone named “Asad.” Perhaps State’s note meant to reference the regime of Bashar al-Assad, the brutally repressive government that has reigned over Syria for the past 12 years. But we can’t be sure.
When dangerous regional escalations are at stake, when Israel is threatening war against Iran, and the U.S. and its allies are threatening to join and thus further escalate the civil war in Syria, one would hope for a bit more consistency in U.S. policy – whether or not policymakers are talking to Israel. Not to mention a bit of attention to spelling.
Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and co-author with David Wildman of the new Ending the U.S. War in Afghanistan: A Primer.