The empire strikes back - why Neocons are building case against JCPOA?

New US president, Donald Trump’s quixotic decision to place Iran on the list of countries whose nationals are to be denied entry visa, is an indication of the Neocon mentality governing the Republican Administration, whose hawks are trying to build a case against the JCPOA on the Islamic Republic’s peaceful nuclear programme worked out by Tehran and the 5+1 group of countries.

Following is an analysis by Middle East expert Catherine Shakdam titled “The Empire Strikes Back - Why Neocons Are Building Case against JCPOA?”

We have noticed how very different the Middle East looks and feels today, now that Syria has regained its sovereign footing against Daesh Wahhabi hordes, and thus taught the world a brilliant lesson in resistance. We also have noticed that as the Levant breathes a sigh of relief due to the coordinated efforts of Hezbollah, Iran and Russia, certain elements from within the world political scene have lobbied Washington, calling for vengeful retributions against Tehran, so that its rising traction would be smothered, never to take flight.

Let me tell you of the Nocons’ new siren song. Let me tell you of this new narrative the likes of Riyadh and Tel Aviv would like to weave around your ears so that they alone would tower over world politics and manifest into existence the balkanization of the Middle East, while cornering those nations that still dare to stand free and resolutely independent.

Amid all the tumult that is the Middle East, one agenda has echoed loudest of all: the remapping of the region along ethnic and sectarian lines. As the old adage reads: “divide and conquer”, whether we care to admit it or not every war and every crisis that has befell the region – from Libya to Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Yemen has been devised, engineered and carried out to explode borders, disappear national sovereignty and isolate communities in fear and exclusion. Such is the name of the game!

But how does this relate to Iran’s nuclear deal?

I would say that just as Aleppo proved to be the battle which will determine the war against Daesh, the JCPOA will determine how Tehran will relate, move and engage with the United States of America.

Now, it is important to understand such dynamics with both pragmatism and objectivity. When I speak of engagement, I am not referring to subjugation as US experts have been so keen on postulating, based on the premise that the US sits king over all nations of the world. Iran does not need to befriend the US to achieve socio-political or economic empowerment. Iran can and has proven time and time again that its institutional model, the very foundation upon which the Islamic Republic has anchored itself, is in fact immovable since inspired by that which sits beyond the political. Maybe it is time we consider the dynamic concept of Wilayat-e Faqih or Governance of the Supreme Jurisprudent, in all its magnitude and appreciate that its model, has allowed for Liberation and Allegiance to be reclaimed away from imperialism and objectification.

From where I’m sitting, the JCPOA is really a bridge back to political normalization in between Washington and Tehran – so that bygones would be bygones and a new chapter opened. Iran’s nuclear program and the validity of its claim to develop such technology to serve its civilian needs was never really a matter of contention, merely a means to a very political end.

Let me be brutally honest! The US needs Iran more than Iran needs the US. The US is running out of political, diplomatic and economic breath. I would argue that the US stands a dying imperial dinosaur in need of an organ transplant should it make it passed the next decade as a relevant super-power. I may sound harsh but truth often is. However shiny the United States may appear from afar; its reality is unravelling at the seams. The US’ socio-political, economic and military powers are spent and it cannot possibly further expose itself to the military whims of Neocons.

If US politicians are still willing to speak wars, Washington needs peace. If America politicians still waive sanctions as one would a weapon, the US needs Iran’s large untapped market space.

Not all is in fact as it seems. In this equation of power, Iran has the upper-hand. But back to the war narrative, and how individuals and groups are attempting to plead war to better promote peace and prosperity, all the while feeding Daesh’s radical monster. With the Middle East slowly coming out of the terror-big freeze, Neocons are looking for an enemy to pin on their board, and thus justify their ambition of perpetual military interventionism. When powers can only exist in a state of belligerence, one needs to have enemies to fuel one’s political dynamics. The US Neocons cannot fathom a world without mortal enemies, and so quite often it has to invent them. I believe that Iraq’s phantasmagorical weapons of mass destruction stand testimony to that.

Today, the Neocons fear two powers most of all: Russia and Iran – the former for the diplomatic traction it has secured in terms of promoting stability and cooperation, and the latter for the socio-political model it has offered not only to the Islamic world but to nations in general.

And yes, I’m referring to Iran’s very own institutional model, such as incepted by the Late Imam Ruhollah Khomeini – that is Wilayat-e Faqih or Governance of the Supreme Jurisprudent. We might as well learn to say the name since Neocons are losing sleep over it.

Iran’s nuclear power, or Iran’s position towards Syria, Iraq, Yemen or even Bahrain has nothing to do with anything. The US Neocon establishment fears the revolutionary model and institutional set up Iran breathed back into existence since 1979 for it offers a working alternative to the western institutional set up – that which the world calls democracy.

And so Iran needed to be discredited … The issue with such campaign is that so far it has failed to make any real mark.

With European capitals quite determined to ignore the American Neocons’ barking over Iran’s nuclear deal, the US is sitting an island onto itself … whatever will it do to rally the troops around its waning banner?

Neocons are now moving to argue Iran’s institutional legitimacy by questioning: One – the implementation, terms, and reach of the JCPOA, and Two – challenge Iran’s governing institutions by playing into dangerous intra-sectarian dynamics.

What is interesting with this development is that lines are being clearly drawn in the sand.

Iran’s nuclear deal is being made to look merely like a cover for a far more sinister narrative. It is Iran’s Islamic Republic right to be that really sits at the core of this rising debate Neocons are slowly building a case against.

You will hear, no doubt soon, experts, intellectuals and maybe even religious figures propose we look beyond Iran’s political stance vis-à-vis the nuclear deal to dissect those principles the Islamic Republic rests upon to better appreciate what “dangers” may lay ahead … all for the sake of political and intellectual advancement of course … NOT!

What the Neocons ultimately ambition to do is tear a hole in the rising Resistance Movement Iran inspired. That is what the Neocons fear most of all! Now listen to their echo chambers work their chatter, it will get louder now with Donald Trump’s already at the Oval Office.

AS/ME