A Purim Thought: Is Iran the New Persia?

    "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", wrote George Santayana (1863-1952). But does that mean that those who do remember history will not repeat it? Not necessarily. Two modern cases in point: The rebirth of Israel as the historic Jewish homeland after two thousand years of exile, and the re-emergence of Persia (Iran) as a potential empire for the first time since the fall of the Sassanid Empire to the Muslim invasion in 651.

   Lt. Col. (Res.) Dr. Rafael Ofek, an Israeli expert in the physics and technology of nuclear power, wrote this week in Israeldefence.com, “… even under the reign of the Shah Iran aspired for the status of a regional superpower, and made no attempt to conceal its aspirations. However, since the Khomeini revolution of 1979, Iran has become the flag bearer of Shia Islam worldwide, and has positioned itself as the sworn enemy of the USA and the West”. 
   To expand its power regionally, Iran created Hezbollah as a militia which is now the dominating force in Lebanon. It also allied with the Shia related Alawite regime in Syria. 
   Following the US pullout from Iraq, Iran absorbed that country into its ever growing sphere of influence, making sure that a pro-Iranian Shiite majority government is in power.
    But Iran wants more: It wants to control the oil and minerals of the Arabian Peninsula. 
  In an article published in the newspaper Makor Rishon last December, Mideast expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar told of a meeting a few years ago in Tehran between a Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation and current Iranian president Rouhani, then Chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Rouhani made it clear to the Kuwaiti delegation that in his country’s opinion, the entire western coast of the Persian Gulf was Iranian sovereign territory that Iran will dominate when the time comes.
   Iran also plans to dominate Afghanistan. In a recent meeting in Tehran, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iranian President Rouhani signed an agreement to enhance “regional security” opposite the America’s efforts to persuade the Afghanis to agree to an extended Statement of Forces Agreement (SOFA). 
   What the Iranians really want is control of Afghanistan’s yet to be exploited vast deposits of oil and gas reserves, as well as rich deposits of various metals and minerals.
   According to Dr. Kedar, in 2006 Karzai rejected any attempt by Iran to intervene in Afghanistan. Today, however, in view of the fact that the US armed forces will pull out in about a year’s time, and his belief that the USA is about to abandon him to the Taliban, he feels he must yield to the empire-building ambitions of Tehran. No wonder Karzai is so far rejecting the agreement that would allow American military bases to continue to operate in Afghanistan.
  Dr. Kedar explained in his article why Tehran wishes to prevent Afghanistan from allowing foreign troops to remain on her soil. Firstly, Iran wishes to demonstrate that it is the “landlord” in central Asia and the Islamic world. In Iran’s view, driving the USA out of the region will be celebrated as a victory of Shia Islam over the infidels, including Sunni Islam led by Saudi Arabia. The other reason, according to Dr. Kedar is that US bases in Afghanistan will be used by American intelligence for monitoring communications and sending agents, especially against the Iranian nuke program.
  Dr. Ofek notes that terrorism has been a primary instrument employed by Tehran for the purpose of promoting its objectives around the world. While these activities focused primarily on “soft” Israeli targets, there were others, like the attempt in 2011 to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the USA.
  But the “crown jewel” of the Iranian regime is the establishment of a pretentious technological infrastructure, with the emphasis placed on the nuclear program and the space program. The world has not been convinced yet that these programs are intended “for peaceful purposes”, as Tehran proclaimed. The Geneva agreement may slow down Iran’s nuclear weapon program, but it is reasonable to assume that once Iran’s economy has recovered, it will revert to its plans and speed up its military nuclear program.
   The weak resolve of the West in the recent Geneva agreement will just increase Iran’s appetite for dominating its neighbors. One country Iran is eying is Pakistan, with a sizable Shiite minority and a considerable nuclear arsenal which the Iranians would like to control before some of it is transferred to Saudi Arabia and other Sunni countries.
    As Dr. Ofek notes: “If the world fails to stop Iran, then in a few years’ time it will expand further and further, and we might, heaven forbid, once again witness a Persian Empire extending “from India even into Ethiopia” (Esther 1, 1), as in the days of king Ahasuerus (Xerxes)”.  Only this time with nukes – and no shortage of Hamans...
   It looks like our memory of the past is not preventing a repeat of it. 
    Agree or disagree, that’s my opinion.