Lieberman is wrong - main problem in Middle East is Israel not Iran

By Vahid Jafarian, Editorial Board Member

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has claimed that the main threat in the Middle East is Iran, which he believes tramples upon the entire region with its nuclear ambitions.

“The three main problems, with which we have to deal, are Iran, Iran, Iran,” the TASS news agency quoted Lieberman as saying.

According to the Israeli Defense Minister, the first challenge is Iran’s nuclear ambitions; the second challenge is Tehran’s efforts to undermine stability in every country in the Middle East, including Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and, the main goal of Iran today – Saudi Arabia; and the third challenge, according to him, is creation of allied groups such as Hezbollah Shiite movement by Iran.

The claims by Lieberman come as the state of Israel, not Iran, has violated many international laws, including United Nations Resolutions and the Laws of War and Occupation as stated in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The fact of the matter is Israel is a leading violator of human rights—along with its closest ally, the U.S., which facilitates its crimes and affords it impunity.

Israel habitually acts impetuously and unilaterally, with little to no international approval and support, often in complete violation of international law (once again, just like the U.S.). Israel is indisputably an apartheid state that has tortured the indigenous Palestinian population for three-quarters of a century.

Further, Israelis have all sort of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, but they maliciously claim that Iran’s peaceful nuclear ambitions are a threat to Middle East, regardless of the long years that Iran has been trying to reach a nuclear deal with western powers.

At the same time, even if we assume that the Iran nuclear deal is inherently flawed (as the Israelis claim), the state of Israel is under no international supervision over its military and nuclear programs.

On the other hand, the groups that Iran sponsor do not conduce any attacks in the West. Iran does not sponsor extremist preachers that preach hate in mosques in the west, nor any religious ideology even remotely similar to what supposed allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar are doing.

So for these reasons and the others which are beyond the scope of this article, Israel undoubtedly is the Middle East’s foremost problem.

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