Robert Fisk: "Iran deal – America has taken Iran's side – to the fury of Israel and Saudi Arabia" [View all]

[Surya Gayatri]

Astute opinion piece by the always-interesting Fisk. He even manages to put his anti-Obama bias on hold until the very end.

However much Bibi Netanyahu of Israel and the Gulf sultans rage at the Vienna agreement, the Arabs at least will suspect the truth: that the Americans have taken the Shia Muslim side in the Middle East’s sectarian war.

That’s not how it was represented by the great and the good, of course. The headlines were simple. The Iranians agree to jam the breaks on their nuclear programme, pack up their centrifuges for a decade and cut back their uranium stockpile. All this in return for an end to the sanctions, financial goodies and bank transfers that Washington, the EU and the dear old United Nations had variously imposed on and witheld from the nation which that bearded old prelate Ruhollah Khomeini founded as an Islamic Republic 36 years ago.

Goodbye, therefore, to the overwhelming influence of the Sunni Muslim nations which gave their sons to the 9/11 crimes against humanity and provided the world with Osama bin Laden, which supported the Taliban and then the Sunni Islamists of Iraq and Syria and – finally – goodbye to those emirs and princes who support Isis. Washington is sick and tired of the decrepit princes of the Gulf, their puritanical lectures, their tiresome wealth (unless it’s paying for US weaponry) and their grotty civil war in Yemen. Shia Iran is now the good guy on the block.

Of course, appearances can be deceptive. The raving loonies among the Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, the raving loonies in the Israeli cabinet and the raving loonies in the US Congress will try to gum up the works. But here’s a thought. John Kerry – not, to be sure, the brightest of US secretaries of state – has spent more time at the Iran talks in Vienna – eighteen days – than any of his predecessors have passed in one place since the Second World War. I guess poor old Edward Stettinius had to spend nigh on two months at the San Fransisco Conference to create the UN Charter. Yalta lasted only eight days, Potsdam 17 days. No wonder Netanyahu is furious.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iran-nuclear-deal-however-the-great-and-good-represent-it-america-has-now-taken-the-shia-side-in-the-middle-easts-sectarian-war-10388940.html

______________________

Isis, of course – horrible, bloodthirsty apocalyptic Sunni Muslim Isis – will be almost as appalled as Netanyahu at Iran’s new deal.

...

Wow. To have Bibi and the lads from Isis on the same page – however briefly – is definitely one for the books.