Persian speakers can find the published version of V.Alvandiour’s interview with me at http://www.siasatrooz.ir/vdcfjjdc.w6d0cagiiw.html
Below is the English version.
1. First of all, would you please tell me what your overall view about Iran is? I want to know how Iran is pictured in your mind. What is its role in current international politics?
Iran is not just a remarkable modern nation-state. It is also one of the world’s oldest and most impressive civilizations. I think Iran’s greatest contribution to world history is the way it accepted, democratized and enriched Islamic civilization. By “democratized” I mean that Iran was in the forefront of a movement, during the first few centuries of Islam, to hold all believers equal, as scripture insists. This was the beginning of Iran’s history of Islamically-inspired struggle against injustice, which continues today. Also, Iran played a major role in turning Islam into the leading current of global civilization, by bringing earlier civilizational heritages into Arabic and Islamic culture.
When I think of Iran, two things come to mind: First, the outstanding Iranian contributions to Islamic civilization in the way of philosophy, theology, and literature; second, Iran’s insistence on principled anti-imperialist policies since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
2. What is your judgment about Iran’s nuclear program? And why has it become a ‘crisis’ in the western world?
The state causing the “crisis” is not Iran, it is Israel. The invasion, occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine by fanatical Zionist invaders is the root cause of most of the problems afflicting the Middle East. The Israelis are bellicose, paranoid, and determined to maintain their own regional nuclear monopoly. Since Iran is not building nuclear weapons, and would not be a first-strike threat even if it did, the whole crisis is mostly the product of the deranged Israeli imagination. But Israel has managed to inflict its paranoia on the whole West, by way of a massive public relations campaign whose crown jewel was the 9/11 false flag operation. So the West views Iran as a threat primarily due to the monopolization of Western media, and domination of Western finance, by Jewish Zionists. Additionally, Iran’s Islamic Revolution frightens the West, since it offers a model that could be used by other Middle Eastern countries to escape Western domination. Western relative economic and technological power is declining, so some in the West are paranoid about this “decline of Western civilization” and fearful that the Islamic world will provide an alternative civilizational model that could threaten to replace it. Iran is the one country in the Islamic world that has reclaimed its full independence and embraced an alternative civilizational model that actually works.
3. Why do Europe and many other countries obey America’s orders on sanctions against Iran so readily?
I am not sure whether it is Europe obeying America’s orders, or both Europe and America obeying Zionist orders. Zionist power, based in media and banking as well as political finance and organized crime, is very strong in Europe as well as the USA.
4. According to your opinion, why have Iran and 5+1 talks come to a deadlock?
The key difference of opinion is that Iran (and Brazil and Turkey in the May 2010 Tehran Declaration) believe that Iran has the right to nuclear technology for peaceful and research purposes, including fuel cycle enrichment, while the West sees that technological mastery as a potential threat.
5. Is the West a trustworthy partner in the nuclear negotiations with Iran?
The West is not entirely trustworthy, but it occasionally does keep its agreements, such as the 1962 US agreement not to invade Cuba in return for the withdrawal of Soviet nuclear missiles. If a West-Iran agreement could be reached, and its terms were absolutely clear and undeniable, the West might actually live up to it. (Israel, on the other hand, is completely untrustworthy, and not worth negotiating with.)
6. What would you do about nuclear crisis if you were in Iranian officials’ shoes?
I would launch an ambitious effort to convince the world to re-examine nuclear technology. I would try to position Iran as a world leader in calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons everywhere, and for re-thinking the question of whether even nuclear power technology is really safe and desirable. For example, Iran could host a conference on nuclear disarmament dedicated to the vision of President John F. Kennedy (a fierce opponent of the early Israeli nuclear program) and a conference on Fukushima and Chernobyl. If Iran were seen as seeking moral leadership on these issues, while the Supreme Leader continues to insist that nuclear weapons are haram (forbidden), it might shift world public opinion in a desirable direction and help the world see that Iran is an idealistic, moral state, not a rogue state.
7. How much do Western people know about Iran_5+1 negotiations? How much are they concerned with this issue?
Average Westerners are confused by the complex details of this issue. Some accept the Israeli propaganda line that Iran is a threat; others (probably the majority) are undecided; and a few (like Flynt and Hillary Leverett) have come around to the view that Iran is not a threat and the whole Western position is misguided.
8. You know the US intelligence services have repeatedly announced that Iran has no intention to produce a nuclear weapon. Being aware of this announcement, why do Western powers insist that Iran wants to make a bomb? Why don’t the major Western media pay attention to this important announcement?
The Western media are owned by Zionists, who do not want Westerners to know about the US intelligence estimates.
9. What do the majority of people in the US and other Western states think about Iran? How much do they know about Iran as a country?
There has been non-stop propaganda against Iran since 1979, but it has not really succeeded in completely demonizing Iran in the eyes of average people. When I tell people about traveling to Iran, they are curious and open-minded.
10. What is your idea on Iran-US direct talks? Is it beneficial for Iran? Does the American government have enough authority to decide about starting serious negations with Iran, or is it within Congress’s jurisdiction? And, is there any real will for conducting these negotions on the US part?
I think direct talks with the Obama administration would be worth a try. Obama doesn’t have to face re-election, so he might be able to take a relatively independent position. Also, Obama does not like Netanyahu, so he (and his “realist” advisers) might really want to find a solution.
11. What do you suggest to Iranian officials for getting rid of the nuclear crisis and its consequences (sanctions)?
Continue to push “soft power” strategies. The bans on Press TV and international Iranian media show that Press TV is having an effect.
Revisit the Tehran Declaration and unilaterally export LEU to Turkey, or otherwise find a “solution” with BRIC countries that can be unilaterally imposed – call it a good-will gesture.
12. The US and its European allies always shout slogans on ‘human rights’. But why don’t they do or at least say anything about crackdowns in countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, etc.? What do they say to their people about this double standards?
The West has always been hypocritical on human rights, but it got much worse after the September 11th 2001 coup d’état. Now they are just using “human rights” as a weapon to bash their perceived enemies, while ignoring the issue in countries they dominate.
13. We know your ideas, or in fact revelations, about September 11th. As you and your colleagues have disclosed, the US government’s role in this terroristic disaster is obvious. But why don’t the majority of people in the US react to this fact? Do they think that the government was clean? Can’t they understand your and others’ explanations which suggest a government role? If it had happened in another country, people would have overthrown the whole political system. Do Americans completely trust the government, or are they just passive?
The biggest problem is that people have not realized how completely corrupt the mainstream media is. That realization is slowly sinking in. Every year more people get their news from the internet, which makes it harder and harder to hide the truth about 9/11, the Boston bombing, and similar events. But the mainstream media still has enough residual credibility to stop the truth movement from overthrowing the government.
This shows how powerful media is. Iran should take note and continue to promote Press TV, Al-Alam, and the rest of the Iranian-based global media.
14. The Western powers overtly support the fundamentalist rebels in Syria. Are Western people aware of the horrendous brutalities like beheading and corpse eating of these fanatic rebels? If so, what do they think about their governments which support these barbarians? Why don’t they protest against this support?
Western people do not support the Syrian rebels. The polls show that a strong majority of Americans does not want to intervene in Syria. The brutalities, especially the cannibalism incident, have had an impact.
15. As you know, Bashar Asad’s government is secular and most of the rebels are Islamist fanatics. Why do the US and Europe, who are pro-secular, support Islamist terrorists there? How they justify this paradox?
Most of them do not even try to justify it. A few absurdly pretend that the Western support is going to the “nice, secular, democratic rebels” not the “mean, nasty, corpse-eating al-Qaeda rebels.”
16. What do you think about Syria situation? Will there be any end to the bloodshed there?
I think it is like the Iran-Iraq war, when the Zionist-led West tricked Iraq into attacking Iran in order to get Israel’s two biggest enemies fighting each other and draining their resources. Now they have tricked many Sunni Islamists into fighting the Syrian government, for the same purpose.
The long-term solution to these problems is Islamic, anti-imperialist, and anti-Zionist unity.
17. What about Egypt. How do you analyze its events? How do you judge Morsi’s measures and his expulsion (considering that the US had supported him completely)?
I think Morsi was “set up to fail” by the Egyptian deep state and its Western supporters. He did make many mistakes, especially taking IMF money, closing Gaza, and supporting the Syrian rebels. But the anti-Morsi forces are worse. I have written about this, and you are welcome to quote my articles:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/07/312644/egypt-coup-another-antiislam-psyop/
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/09/312936/new-world-order-kills-democracy-in-egypt/
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/04/312153/egypt-needs-real-islamic-revolution/
18. What is your analysis of current international coalitions and oppositions? I mean how do you interpret the world’s power alliances and rivalaries? Does Russia have the power to stand against the US and Britain? Where does Europe stands? What about a China and Russia alliance against west? Where are South America and India in these confrontations?
The West is in the process of declining from the position of world domination it held during the 19th and 20th centuries. The West’s proportion of global GNP is expected to decline from over 50% today to around 15% by 2050. China, Russia, Iran, and the BRIC countries are leading global resistance to the Western financiers’ attempt to impose a one-world dictatorship while they still have enough power to do it. I expect this resistance will be successful.
19. Considering your speeches and books on the US and Israel governments’ role on September 11, do you feel safe in the US? Is there any threat to your safety and security?
I have suffered a certain amount of harassment, including not-very-credible death threats. But the US government usually deals with peaceful dissidents by attacking, ignoring, marginalizing, and impoverishing them, not by killing them. Only the really successful and ultra-charismatic dissidents, like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Paul Wellstone, get assassinated. I have not been that successful, so I feel reasonably safe at this point. But one never knows.