Division of US Elites on Iran Relations over Means, Not Ends
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An American political analyst said there is an apparent division of US elite on the question of relations with Iran, stressing that this split is over the means and not the aims.
“To be sure, the division is one of tactics, and not strategic objectives - they all agree that Iran, and the rest of the planet, must be subservient to the needs and wants of global capital. But some among them seek to accomplish this without a war, while others will accept - even prefer - a war,” Don DeBar, an American political analyst and radio host in New York, told Tasnim on Wednesday.
“In the aftermath of the P5+1 agreement with Iran, the latter of those may well be behind this incursion in a hoped-for provocation that would inflame tensions,” he added, speaking of the ten US Marines who on Wednesday trespassed on Iran’s territorial waters and were taken into Iranian custody.
DeBar further described the US trespass as “one in a long line of aggressive acts taken by the US against the Islamic Republic.”
Referring to Iran's firm and calm response to this incursion and later release of the sailors, he said, “Imagine what the response would be from Washington if a dozen armed members of Iran's military showed up on Long Island claiming they were lost. The knowing gazes from the know-nothings in Congress would be the face of the media hysteria certain to follow the Iranians ashore.”
“The historical context for the US incursion is obviously quite different from that imagined Iranian one: Iran never overthrew a duly elected US government. Iran never installed a blood-thirsty, brutal dictator in Washington. Iran never imposed decades of sanctions in reply to the American Revolution. Iran never sent a proxy neighbor to fight a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Iran hasn't placed the US on a hit list. Iran has no military bases near the US. Iran has no nuclear weapons. And Iran has never used nuclear weapons,” DeBar concluded.
On Wednesday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Public Relations said in a statement that the sailors were freed following an apology from the US and after technical and operational investigations indicated that the intrusion into Iranian territorial waters was unintentional.
The two American combat vessels, with 10 armed sailors on board, had entered Iran’s territorial waters near the island of Farsi on Tuesday.
