Attack on Iran could backfire, Petraeus says

Chief of US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus says any military action against Iran could backfire by increasing “nationalist tendencies” in the country.

"It's possible (a strike) could be used to play to nationalist tendencies," Reuters quoted Petraeus as saying on Wednesday.

"There is certainly a history, in other countries, of fairly autocratic regimes almost creating incidents that inflame nationalist sentiment. So that could be among the many different, second, third, or even fourth order effects (of a strike)," he added.

Claims by Petraeus comes amid the fact that the US has been the prime sponsor of many autocratic regimes, especially those in the Persian Gulf region, despite its promotion of democracy and freedom in selected countries.

Observers also reiterate that the US has been the biggest exporter of weapons for the past two decades, with most of its customers in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region. They add that the United States has used Iran as a sort of a “boogie” to market and sell its weapons in the region.

In a Tuesday meeting with Qatar's crown prince, President Ahmadinejad expounded on efforts by the US and its allies to enhance its presence in the Persian Gulf. “The Westerners cannot bear the thought of security and solidarity among regional countries,” he said. “They have survived largely by sowing discord and inciting instability in the region.”

Petraeus also rectified his earlier remarks in which he had claimed that the US is beefing up missile defense installations of its Persian Gulf allies as part of sharpening of US messaging about the diplomatic stalemate with Iran.

Of the defensive capabilities he had previously described being deployed in the Persian Gulf, he emphasized that they had been built up over years -- "not something sparked by events in Iran in recent months," Reuters reported.

"This has been built up over years of inflammatory Iranian rhetoric, alarming Iranian activities and Iranian provision of arms, money, training, explosives and direction in some cases to a variety of different extremist elements," Petraeus claimed.

The provocative claims by the American General and the recent US buildup in the Persian Gulf comes at a critical time in Tehran-Washington relations. Last Thursday, the US Senate passed a bill advocating tough sanctions on any entity, individual, company or even country, which deals in refined petroleum with Iran.

Pro-Israeli lobby groups in Washington are known to be the primary force behind all the congressional legislations against Iran. Organizations such as American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) regularly and proudly boast their influence in anti-Iran legislations as the result of their lobbying among both Republicans and Democrats in congress.

AIPAC, along with other major Israeli lobby groups in the US, such as the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy have been reported to submit drafts of anti-Iran bills to relevant committees in the US Congress for speedy passage and floor vote and with little, if any debate.

Washington accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and has for years applied sanctions as a prime strategy to force the Tehran government into halting its nuclear energy program.

As the sanctions have proven futile, observers say, the US seems be following the Israeli example of engaging in a media propaganda blitz, beating on their drums of war and making provocative comments to destabilize the region.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117810§ionid=351020101.