Sunday, December 5, 2010

Why Iran loves Wikileaks

"... Most striking were the leaks regarding Arab concerns about Iran’s aspirations for regional hegemony and its nuclear programs. According to the documents, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia exhorted the United States to cripple Iran’s nuclear programs with air strikes, urging us to “cut off the head of the snake.“ While some hard-line analysts and pundits are relieved to find the Arabs “on our side” and feel that this disclosure will help us form a stronger alliance against Tehran, it’s more likely that the leaks will simply raise Iran’s prestige by adding to the persistent overestimation of its influence and abilities.
 
More troubling, the leaks will reduce the candor of American dialogue in the region and elsewhere. Arab leaders in particular will now think twice before either speaking honestly or telling American visitors or diplomats what Washington wants to hear..
In addition, Arab rulers, despite all the weapons their states have bought from America and elsewhere, again find themselves exposed to their own people as impotent to handle a serious regional problem. They appear totally dependent on the United States, a country that is deeply unpopular among Arabs for its policies in the region, to take care of it for them....."

2 comments:

Guthman said...

The regime of the Wilayat al-Fakih doesn't like Wikileaks and doesn't want to benefit from them. In fact, an adviser to Ahmadinejad has just given an interview to Der Spiegel, where he claims that the US government is behind Wikileaks, and that the aim of the release is to falsely portray Iran as facing a united front of US client states. That shows how limited the upside is with the Iranians.
(And the regime still gives interviews to Bednarz and Follath after all the smears!)

Anonymous said...

Why do the Americans believe everything their Middle Eastern satraps tell them. I wonder if the Saudis and the others are saying this to the Americans because it is what they (the satraps) think the Americans and their bosses, the Israelis want to hear. Anything to buy all those lovely weapons.