Iranophobia at Work Again

 Iranophobia is again at work in the United States. Last week, once again the U.S. and the world media witnessed a political thunderstorm against Iran. Breaking news of different T.V. stations pointed to a very serious event unfolded about another foiled attempt to commit an act of terrorism on American soil. Al-Qaeda was not the culprit this time. Rather, Iran was named by American officials as the responsible party attempting to use Mexican drug dealers to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in Washington. The U.S. Attorney General first disclosed the "plot" trying to give credence to it.

Immediately after the news came out, President Obama and Secretary Clinton threatened Iran with more and toughest sanctions. Obama talked to world leaders explaining "the Iranian conspiracy" to commit terrorism in America. Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador at the United Nations briefed her counterparts on the issue in order to prepare the ground for the Security Council to adopt further sanctions against Iran. And American Ambassadors across the globe were instructed to brief their hosts on the subject in order to garner support for the American position. All these efforts were made in a matter of a few days.

The U.S. Administration needs to make it clear why it was so much in a hurry to raise the issue at the highest level, make a lot of fuss about it and seek support from their friends and allies to punish Iran for what it called "Iran's pattern of dangerous and reckless behavior".  Is there an ulterior motive behind such a hasty behavior?

There are a number of unresolved questions surrounding this case.

1.   The main suspect arrested is an Iranian-American who has a poor bill of conduct in the United States including spending some time in jail. Why should Iran capitalize on such a person to recruit criminals to assassinate the Saudi diplomat in the U.S.? Wasn't it better to leave the job to a non-Iranian?

2.   What was Iran's motivation to kill the Saudi ambassador in the States? Is the Ambassador a key figure in U.S.-Iran or Saudi-Iran relations whose demise would be beneficial for Iran?

3.   If Iran wanted to hit Saudi Arabia, why did it choose to do that on the American soil knowing the sensitivity of the Americans for such an action and the possible negative consequences for Iran including a military response against it?

4.   Why didn't the U.S. Administration raise the matter, through regular Swiss channel, with Iran without public fanfare in the first place and leave the public announcement to a later stage when faced with possible Iranian filibuster?

The continued sensationalism in the United States about the so-called Iranian plot is a calculated move by the White House designed to generate political gain for a president who is in dire need of a boost for his performance in the next year's presidential election. In the coming months, the U.S. will do its utmost to impose more sanctions against Iran unilaterally as well as at the U.N. Next month's meeting of IAEA Board will be another opportunity for the U.S. to put more pressure on Iran on the nuclear issue.

President Obama should realize that seeking confrontation with Iran in an election year is a risky business. Past attempts by previous U.S. presidents in this regard have not been fruitful. The U.S. is well advised to seek cooperation instead of confrontation in resolving the issue of the assassination plot. Iran, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. can jointly address this issue and go to the bottom of it in order to establish the facts.