Rafsanjani delivers nuclear threat to Israel

Iran: Rafsanjani warns of high cost of US support for Israel

12/15/2001 BBC Monitoring
[With thanks to Mewnews http://www.mideastweb.org ]

Source: Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, in Persian 1130 gmt
14 Dec 01/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC

Chairman of Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani has warned the USA
not to get the wrong idea from Taleban's swift defeat and try using force to
get rid of other governments it dislikes. Delivering Tehran Friday prayers
sermons at Tehran University on 14 December, Rafsanjani added: "But, such
calculations about Afghanistan cannot work in other places." The following
is an excerpt from a recording of the first sermon of the prayers, broadcast
by Iranian radio on the same day; subheadings inserted editorially: In the
name of God, the merciful, the compassionate... In response to your demands
I will dedicate the first sermon to the Palestinian issue and the events in
the world of Islam. I will use the second sermon to deal with other matters.

First, I have to thank all the good people who have made an effort to
participate in the Quds rallies. In many streets I saw their ranks moving
towards the university. This reflects the vigilance, the awareness, the
faith and the dependable character of our good people. I hope similar
support for the Palestinians is being expressed throughout the world.
Palestinian issue

The Palestinian issue, and the formation of the state of Israel, is among
the worst periods of our contemporary history. I don't know of any similar
tragedy. In the fifty years that this pseudo state has been formed, and in
the several decades before it, when fighting was going on, hundreds of
thousands of holy people shed their blood, millions of people lost their
homes, millions of people were injured, tragedies resulting from these
events constitute the greatest encyclopedia of crime committed by the World
Arrogance. History will not forget these things. In my sermon I would like
to discuss some 30 points about the history of these events. I think it may
be possible to speak about them in a single discourse and I would like to
refer to the important points of this history.

First, this is the most misfortunate, tragic and bitter colonial event.
Secondly colonialism, lead by Britain and then America, and supported by the
United Nations and other sections of the World Arrogance are responsible for
these crimes. If in the future an international court is formed - and this
is my third point: a court will be formed sooner or later - and if those
responsible for these crimes are put on trial many bitter truths will become
known in the court. We should follow up this idea and we should ask just and
knowledgeable judges to look into these crimes.

The fourth point is that the engine for this disaster is international
Zionism. Zionism is a political party which was created some 100 years ago.
It is named after the devotees of Zion, a hilltop in Bayt al-Maqdis. This
party is not purely Jewish and not all Jews are Zionist. There are many Jews
who don't believe in Zionism. There are many Jewish scholars in America who
have been active against the these events. They are also present in other
parts of the world. Not all the members of the party are Jewish. There are
distinguished Western politicians who were Zionist, such as Churchill,
Eisenhower, Kennedy, etc. Of course, I am not an expert in this field and I
don't want to put any names in this list but those who are interested can
find out the names of the well known Zionists. This party is still very
active around the world and it is the engine for important events connected
to Israel, and the Arab and Islamic world. This was my fourth point.

The fifth point is that the loss suffered by the formation of the pseudo
state of Israel went beyond Palestine. The Jewish people themselves
suffered. This is so because the Jewish people were settled in many
countries. In our country, Iran, they were getting on with their life. They
were engaged in business. They were rich. They enjoyed influence and a good
life. This [Zionist] movement provoked many Jews, on the basis of their
devotion to a religious state of their own, to take a wrong posture. They
were put under pressure. There was an exodus and many of them became
homeless. Now they have to live in those territories. I will discuss the
living conditions in this country if I have the time. But they now have to
wait for a possible reverse exodus because finally one day, this tumour in
the body of the Islamic world will be removed and then millions of Jews who
have moved there will be homeless again. When will this happen? We have to
discuss this point on another occasion.

Formation of Israel

This [formation of Israel] was also to the loss of the region. The region
suffered a great loss. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on
armament and war. This is beside the acts of injustice committed against the
people of Palestine. So who has benefited from the situation? This is my
sixth point: The root of the problem is colonial. As traditional form of
colonialism came to an end the colonialists sought new instruments [of
influence]. One of these was to impose lackey governments in the previous
colonies. The other was to create many military bases across the world, in
the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and other sensitive
regions of the world. Costly military colonial posts on land and sea. But
the most important objective was to create governments which were totally
dependent on colonialism and the best case was that of the Jews - the
Zionist government in the Palestinian land. This base was to serve several
objectives.

Firstly, it was aimed at getting rid of Zionism in the West, which had
become a real nuisance to governments and great powers. It was causing
trouble. They threw them out and brought them to Palestine. Secondly, they
made Zionism and the Israeli government dependent on themselves to make sure
that they would be a tool in their hands. However, the opposite is true as
well. They have lobbies which take advantage of colonialism to ensure their
own survival. However, colonialism is the main factor. Later on, it was
transformed into imperialism because colonialism did not officially exist
any more. That was how it manifested itself.

Thirdly, they did that to cause insecurity and threaten other governments
and force them to become dependent on imperialism. Then they could sell them
arms and do other military things as well. This deeply affected the lives of
the people and government of the region and Muslims because they needed
particular Western and imperialist products.

There was constant warfare and regional countries became insecure and there
was an attempt to prevent their economic and technological growth. We can
see this happening and one does not need to explain it in detail. You can
see all these things. Therefore, that is the important point. Please do not
forget that point until the end of our discussion. Then we can see how much
we can count on that when we are analysing the situation or when we are
making predictions about the future. The Israeli government was established
to act as a guardian, protector and gendarme that defends the interests of
imperialism. I have already mentioned several points with regard to that
issue.

The Israeli government itself, be it when it was in its embryonic stage or
in its present shape, has been hanging from the umbilical cord of
colonialism. It has been feeding off it. If the imperialists stop supporting
it, it will be in trouble. Thus there is no independent government in Israel
in the true sense of the word. It is totally dependent. Now, the Americans
are officially contributing 4bn dollars a year to it. There is also the
unofficial contributions made by Jewish communities and others. It is a lot.

US-British support for Israel

It is also supported politically in the United Nations and many other
places. They also contain Islamic and Arab governments. Israel needs all of
those things and the Americans and Britain are meeting its needs. Therefore,
we should consider it to be an outgrowth of colonialism and a multi-purpose
colonial base. That is where we should start discussing the next point. So
the survival of Israel depends on the interests of imperialists and
colonialists. So they go together.

The colonialists will keep this base as long as they need it. Now, whether
they can do so or not is a separate issue and this is my next point. Any
time they find a replacement for that particular instrument, they will take
it up and this will come to an end. This will open a new chapter. Because
colonialism and imperialism will not easily leave the people of the world
alone. Therefore, you can see that they have arranged it in a way that the
balance of power favours Israel. Well, from a numerical point of view, it
cannot have as many troops as Muslims and Arabs do. So they have improved
the quality of what they have. Classical weaponry has its own limitations.
They have limited use. They have a limited range as well. They have supplied
vast quantities of weapons of mass destruction and unconventional weapons to
Israel. They have permitted it to have them and they have shut their eyes to
what is going on. They have nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and
long-range missiles and suchlike.

If one day - [changes thought] Of course, that is very important. If one
day, the Islamic world is also equipped with weapons like those that Israel
possesses now, then the imperialists' strategy will reach a standstill
because the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy
everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world. It is not
irrational to contemplate such an eventuality. Of course, you can see that
the Americans have kept their eyes peeled and they are carefully looking for
even the slightest hint that technological advances are being made by an
independent Islamic country. If an independent Islamic country is thinking
about acquiring other kinds of weaponry, then they will do their utmost to
prevent it from acquiring them. Well, that is something that almost the
entire world is discussing right now.

Now, even if that does not happen, they can still inflict greater costs on
the imperialists. That is possible as well. Developments over the last few
months really frightened the Americans. That is a cost in itself. Under
special circumstances, such costs may be inflicted on the imperialists by
people who are fighting for their rights or by Muslims. Then they will
compare them to see how they could advance their interests better or what
they can do. However, we cannot engage in such debates for too long. We
cannot encourage that sort of thing either. I am only talking about the
natural course of developments. The natural course of developments is such
that such things may happen.

Those who are desperate, but who are also faithful and idealistic, see that
this is in their best interests. Then no-one will be able to control them.
That is when they become disappointed with such ordinary deceptive methods.
Therefore, in the future, the interests of colonialism and imperialism
dictate whether Israel will survive or not. Moreover, it is the resistance
put up by Muslims and Iraq and the Palestinians themselves that matters.
They should besiege imperialists and make them think about whether it serves
their interests or not. They should also think about whether maintaining the
current balance of power, which favours Israel, is affordable or not. Both
of those things may change in the future.

Iran's policy

Well, what kind of policy should the Islamic Republic pursue? That is a
different issue, which is our eighth or ninth point. As I said, the supreme
leader of the revolution [Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i] has repeatedly said what
our policy is. He explicitly said that during the Friday-prayer sermons
which he delivered recently. He has enunciated our policy. Whatever we say
is an analysis of those policies. The government, the Majlis and all the
Iranian institutions and our friends abroad all pursue the same policy.

Well, during all those stages, the Palestinian jihad was proceeding as well.
To be honest, the Palestinians never remained completely silent. They had
their ups and downs. However, they never became silent. For a while, armed
struggle intensified. However, they had to intervene. Their intervention
took place through the pressure that was exerted on those who were involved
in the armed struggle. It raised the issue of Camp David through puppet
governments. It took up 20 years of the Palestinians' time.

It is not the case that the jihad has completely subsided. However, there
have also created false hopes along with the people's rather quiet jihad. In
the end, it resulted in the formation of the so-called national authority.
They made false promises which included only 6,000 km of the 28,000 km of
the Palestinian territory. In this way, they could form a small and
insignificant government here. However, it seems that that era is coming to
an end.

At this stage the Palestinians waited. They fell silent and waited. They
formed political parties. Some of them took up arms but they were not
strong. The final stage of compromise was held at Camp David II, in New York
or Washington in America. At that stage Arafat who had been optimistic about
the efforts of the [American] brokers lost hope. When he came to Iran he
said [President] Clinton's comments [at the meeting] was a bomb which
destroyed the negotiations, the statements of the American president -
expressed after several days of intense negotiations - was merely a
different version of the Israeli demands, and the meeting broke up. Arafat
had written it all down. He read them for me from his notebook.

In the meantime the intifadah began and found a new climax. The Palestinians
came to the conclusion that negotiations, be they in Madrid, Camp David,
Oslo or any other place, will succeed, only if it is accompanied by their
own efforts, selflessness and revolutionary actions. This was the background
to the second Intifadah. It began when the Lebanese, with their spirited
actions, forced the Israelis, for the first time, to flee in disgrace. This
was a good and inspiring lesson. The Palestinian struggle lives on and the
Intifadah, the current climax of the Palestinian struggle, is the result of
the misleading and dishonest actions of the Western powers. We are
witnessing this in the world today. The situation has deep roots. This is
the tenth point that I wanted to make.

Now is the Palestinian revolution, the current Intifadah, going to weaken in
the future? Some people may think that the Palestinians are going to get
tired, that a small community is not going to be able to stand against all
this power, that the feebleness and incapability of the Islamic world and
its governments will undermine their resolve. But this judgement is wrong.

Palestinian intifadah

For one thing the Palestinian jihad has been the source of inspiration to
many other Islamic movements throughout the world. It was a source of
inspiration to us in Iran. It has been a source of inspiration to Lebanon,
Syria, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Central Asia, Chechnya, African
countries, Sudan. They feel obliged to support this jihad. Furthermore,
their own advancement has similar positive effects [on the Palestinian
movement]. These countries are not going to forget their source of
inspiration. They will keeping an eye on the situation. The [Palestinian]
movement will survive. There may be ups and downs. There many be small ups
and downs in view of the global situation. But this is not going to die
because it is rooted in the homelessness of five million people, in the
innocence of eight million people, in the innocent blood of hundreds of
thousands of martyrs whose call is still being heard, in the fallen weapons
that call to be taken up, in the feelings of innocence and justice, and more
than anything, in the path of martyrdom and happiness and the path of the
Almighty. Therefore, you cannot say that the [Palestinian movement] will
die. There may be ups or downs but it will survive. And it will undoubtedly
end with the liberation of Palestine. [public chants of support]

The huge wave of Islamic jihad of Palestine subsided with the start of the
compromise negotiations. Then, when the talks reached a deadlock, the
Palestinian intifadah intensified once again, and today, we face a new
situation. The important issue today is very important and deserves a
mention.

This is my 11th point. It seems that global arrogance has planned four
different moves to stop and quell the present intifadah, or at least rid
itself of its grave consequences. The first one concerns propaganda. You can
see the great propaganda campaign which is in progress in the world today
with the aim of introducing them [the Palestinians] as terrorists, and
Israel as the side that is defending itself. You need someone as foolhardy
as Molla Nasreddin [legendary witty folk figure] to believe this. Otherwise,
who can believe that Israel, with all its helicopters, F-16 aircraft, tanks
and rockets - which it uses to assassinate people - is the side that it is
engaged in self-defence, but a selfless and devoted human being, who sees no
other option but to attach a bomb to himself and blow himself to pieces in
some place, is the terrorist element? If one day, the world reaches such a
conclusion and offers such a judgment, then we must consider humanity as
dead and buried, and we must start to believe that humans are the same as,
or even worse than, animals. Of course, already there are people who act in
such a way, but at the same time, claim to champion the cause of human
rights.

In my opinion, such a belief is not going to find any place among the
righteous-seeking and struggling people. Yet, this kind of propaganda exists
in the world today.

The second method they have chosen is violence. You can see how it [Israel]
is perpetrating violence. When one person is killed inside the Israeli
territory, a squadron of helicopters begin to fire indiscriminately at the
people. You can see for yourselves how far violence has gone. Is this kind
of violence a proportionate and appropriate response? Of course, it must be
acknowledged that both these methods - that is to say propaganda and
violence - have had some effect, but in general, they just aggravate an
already bad situation. The people who have no choice but to resort to
martyrdom-seeking operations are not going to frightened of this violence.
After all, they have nothing to lose. How is a person going to lose anything
when he believes that by blowing himself up, one minute he is on this
material world and the next moment he is going to be transferred to the
divine paradise on the wings of divine angels, and once there, he will sit
next to the Prophet and the disciples of God, in a reception given in the
honour of divine martyrs?

This is really like a duck trying to threaten the river, or the sea. There
is no way that a fish can live without the water of the sea.

As I said earlier, the conditions in Palestine are creating this type of
people. These acts of violence [by Israel] may silence some uncertain or
opportunist elements, but as a rule, they will strengthen the resolve of
others. It is because of this that I want to tell global arrogance to be on
guard. It is here that the cost of exerting pressure on the people of
Palestine and lending support to Israel can be very high for global
arrogance. If one day, these tired, faithful and martyrdom-loving people
decide to deliver blows to the vital interests of arrogance no matter where
they are, then they can do this. They [the Americans] may be able to stop
half of these operations, or even two-thirds of them, but some will still be
carried out, and when they do, the costs will be huge. The events in New
York can be a lesson for the Americans, particularly today, when, due to
their aggressive moves and their mistakes, they have paved the way and made
it possible for some groups to be armed with non-conventional weapons.
[Crowd chants: Death to America]

Therefore, as a person who has good knowledge of history, particularly the
history of popular movements, I would like to admonish the Westerners not
allow to matters to go this far. They should not feel happy about events
such as attacks by helicopters, or other acts of violence [by Israel]. This
is very dangerous, and we really do not want to see the world security to be
disrupted, and we do not want to see the present insecurity - which has cost
the world more than 1,000bn dollars and has paralysed the world in many
areas, including in Israel itself. The West should not allow the world to
suffer from such conditions. They should not allow a situation of
confrontation and antagonism between the devoted, martyrdom-seeking forces,
and the centres of arrogant power, in the form of the Third World War. This
is the worst possible scenario, if arrogance continues with its present
ways.

The other path that they have chosen is the path of deceit and false
promises. America announces that it supports an independent Palestinian
state, with Bayt al-Maqdis as its capital. However, we see that things are
different in practice. Europe says the same thing, and Mitchell puts forward
a plan. Naturally, such plans have short-term effects for a month or two.
Nonetheless, after a while, it seems the people who made these promises
start to regret their statements, while, at the same time, those who had
believed these promises also start to regret their decision. These plans are
not going to produce much. Their last plan involves the use of the so-called
[Palestinian] self-rule authority. This is very bitter indeed. They provide
the self-rule authority with a list of names, and ask them to arrest and
hand over [to Israel] for example 200 people on the list. God forbid if the
leaders of the self-rule authority fall for this, although they already have
done to some extent. They [the Israelis] are not going to be happy with just
an arrest. They are after more.

The worst things that can happen is division and fighting among themselves.
All those who have been engaged in jihad for the past 50 years will destroy
all their background with one wrong action. We do not want this bitter
incident to occur in the history of the Palestinian struggle. However, it is
possible for such a thing to happen. I think a few days ago, the Israelis
announced that they had complete confidence in Arafat and his intention to
establish security. You have witnessed that Israel and America emphasize
that there should be complete calm for one week before serious negotiations
can begin. They think that this one week is enough and after that it will be
difficult to revitalize it [the intifadah]. During this week other decisions
will be made. The self-rule government should not give in to this and think
that it will achieve its objectives in this way. In America, he [Arafat] saw
and heard the final words of Mr Clinton and he noted them in his old note
book. He knows what can happen. As a result, God willing, the leaders of the
self-rule government will not be deceived by this big trickery.

Another solution that they are hopeful about, is to tire the mojahedin and
to propagate, what they used to always say to us in Iran, that there is no
use in these actions, and they are like trying to achieve the impossible;
they said why should these valuable human beings be destroyed like this.
These are not in line with Islamic and Koranic logic. These who are in the
arena are Muslims.

The Koran says that it is not such that your enemy should not be harmed...
In a serious and true jihad, if you suffer, your enemy will also suffer. It
addition, it says: you have some hopes that are far beyond their reach. With
this suffering, you will reach absolute prosperity and with their suffering,
they will plunge into hell; these are not equal. You rely on justice and
God, and they are on the edge of an abyss of fire [preceding sentence in
Arabic] and these two are not the same.

You, who believe yourselves to be intelligent people and diplomats, shouldn'
t say that why are these Palestinian children are being lost like this.
These blows are very fatal. You are destroying the enemy from within. A
nation which does not have atomic and chemical [weapons] and F-16s, has
discovered something stronger than F-16s which it has pursued. You have left
them no option. You have shut off everywhere [to them]. You have placed them
there through your extermination [methods]. As a result, it seems that these
methods which the imperialists are using, will lead to no where. These were
some eight or nine points which I have made and not kept count of . You
yourself should count them.

Self defence or terrorism

See what arrogance Israel is demonstrating in this regard. The conference of
the Islamic countries' foreign ministers in Qatar was on the basis of an
invitation by Arafat and everyone was Arafat's guest. Israel arrogantly said
that Arafat has no right to leave Palestine and even went further and said
he shouldn't leave Ramallah. Today, they are saying he has no right to leave
his home. Well, this is a self-rule government. He is a weak designated [
against elected] mayor without any authority. What government and
establishment is this? What have you pinned your hopes on? Why have you
wasted the Palestinian nations' time for 20 years. Today some advise the
youth and the women who have recently joined the masses of martyrdom-seeking
individuals, to protect and preserve themselves for some other time. I want
to mention two other important issues in another part [of my speech].

Now that the situation has become a bit desperate, the Europeans, who during
the past few months pursued a different approach to that of America and
Israel and had made the Islamic world a little hopeful, have changed their
stance.

They are openly saying that Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine are
terrorist organizations. They are so shameless that they ask Islamic
countries to treat these groups as if they were terrorists, to close down
their accounts, to close their offices, to put their members on trial. To be
so obedient is a source of shame for [European] governments which see
themselves as being equal to America. How can they explain this injustice to
their own nations and freedom-loving people? Is this fair judgement? There
are five million [Palestinian] refugees, their families live on UN handouts
in camps and shanty towns. Their groves, homes, farms and workshops inside
Palestinian territories are being taken over by rich Zionists. They are only
defending themselves and you call them terrorists. It is shameful. You have
to be truly shameless. What sort of people pronounce these things and vote
for these things in their countries? Let the world see the truth. Let the
freedom-loving people of the world see the truth. Let them see that those
who call themselves the leaders of the free world and who claim to be
defending human rights are, in fact, opposed to human rights. They are weak
and inferior. There is no rationale [for their actions]. Their helicopters
openly terrorize people on the streets. They, and not the Palestinian
Authority, control the airspace. The helicopters come down and target taxi
passengers after identifying them. This is what terrorists do. Are they
defending helpless people? If this is their rationale then [the actions of
ordinary] terrorists are truly more honourable than this form of freedom
seeking [encouraged by the West]? One day the world will judge.

Warns USA

The second issue concerns America itself. In Afghanistan, the Americans -
according to their own thinking, according to their own analysis - achieved
a swift victory through the power of bombardment. Of course, it seems to be
the case, but they attach very little value to the main principle and they
think that the role played by the Afghan nation, the United Front and the
mojahed forces. That is at least what they pretend. That is what they are
displaying to the world, even if they do not truly think so. They are trying
to exhibit to the world that America has found a way for fighting its
opponents. The bombings, on the one hand, and the use of domestic [Afghan]
forces, as far as they do whatever America tells them. But, such
calculations about Afghanistan cannot work in other places. You know that
the forces which forced the Taleban to withdraw were also involved fighting,
their problem was that wherever they were about to advance, Pakistani
aircraft would hit their positions in support of the Taleban. And, wherever
the Taleban had any shortcoming, the systematic army of Pakistan would
intervene voluntarily. Now, the reverse is happening. Now, America is
attacking the Taleban instead of the United Front [which Pakistan was
attacking]. America also tied the hands of Pakistan so that it does not
interfere from the other side. Yes, that role was indeed played by America,
we accept that much. But, if America intends to compare this [with other
situations] and use this process as a model and tested method for its future
policies -which seems quite likely at the moment, because such assumptions
exist in the While House and the American parliament - that would create
another tragedy for mankind and world security, and it will very soon draw
the attention of the Americans to the fact that they have made a strategic
mistake. That is not a simple task.

The people of Afghanistan were in fact long tired of war, of clashes and of
the selfishness of their domestic leaders and many other things. The way was
already paved. Even if it was not America, any other powerful country, if it
had become involved, could have done this and could have organized such a
task. Of course, the future of this is very difficult [to predict], because
neither America has the capacity, acceptability or popularity among the
people, nor there is any trust for it [America]. Others will not accept this
either. We should all work together for the future of Afghanistan so that
the people [of Afghanistan] do not fall into the trap of war, and so that
their security, work and reconstruction of their country could get under
way. And, if America wishes to show good will, it could also support and
help. They [the Americans] should not think of turning that place
[Afghanistan] into a [military] base, because the consequences of that can
already be envisaged. It will result in dealing blows and receiving blows,
it will have ups and downs; but, ultimately, nations cannot accept
captivity.

You see that despite this massive deployment of forces the Jews in Palestine
are faced with such circumstances. Fifty years have passed and it will be
the same in 100 years. The Crusades lasted nearly 200 years and they ended
like that. It's the same now. At the end, nations will rise and resist.
Amidst this, some will secure their immediate interests, and many will
experience the loss.

On the whole, it seems today, the world situation and our region, is in
need, on the one hand, of the alertness of nations and governments, and on
the other, the realism and fairness of the arrogant powers who want to
revitalize the colonial era by deploying troops, and occupying the
previously abandoned [military] bases and securing a presence in the region.
There is the hope that, God willing, this trend will secure the interest of
justice and righteousness...