Iran and America Joins Hands in Waging “The Global War on Terrorism”?

Iran and America Joins Hands in Waging “The Global War on Terrorism”?

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Following the incursion of jihadist rebels of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) into Iraq and the capture of its second largest city Mosul, American and Iranian officials meeting behind closed in Vienna reached a historical agreement. Henceforth, Tehran will collaborate with Washington in fighting the ISIS rebels in the context of  “America’s War on Terrorism”.  


Secretary of State John Kerry was emphatic: the US government will “communicate” with Tehran with regard to “pushing back the Islamist terrorists”.
While Tehran will participate in counter-terrorism operations in coordination with Washington, officially the two governments will “not work together”.
While the statement excludes an “active” relationship between Washington and Tehran, it nonetheless establishes a positive framework of collaboration, implying the exchange of information and intelligence:

“What I said [John Kerry] is we are interested in communicating with Iran to make clear that the Iranians know what we’re thinking and we know what they’re thinking and there’s a sharing of information so people aren’t making mistakes,” (US State Department website: Interview With John Kerry, June 16, 2014 emphasis added)

In response to the question: “Can you see cooperating with Iran militarily?” Kerry responded:

“… I wouldn’t rule out anything that would be constructive to providing real stability,… I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold Iraq together, the integrity of the country, and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces that are ripping it apart. (US State Department website: Interview With John Kerry, June 16, 2014)

Analysts quoted by the Los Angeles Times say that “the U.S. and Iran are likely to agree to only limited military cooperation at best, if President Obama chooses to order direct military action, such as airstrikes, in Iraq.” (emphasis added)
America’s overture to Iran at the Vienna meetings took place on Monday June 16, 2014 when Deputy Secretary of State William Burns joined the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. It was understood at this meeting that “talks about the threat posed by an Al Qaeda-inspired Sunni extremist group” would be discussed on the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations:

The topic was not military coordination “or strategy determinations about Iraq’s future over the heads of the Iraq people,” the [US] official said in a statement. Instead, “we will discuss how the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, [or ISIS] threatens many countries in the region, including Iran, and the need to support inclusivity in Iran and refrain from pressing a sectarian agenda.” U.S. and Iranian officials have been hinting for several days that they may discuss at least limited cooperation on how to deal with the extremist group, which has seized the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit in the last week. (Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2014)

What these diplomatic overtures to Tehran suggest is that Washington has granted a  “green light” to Iran to actively intervene militarily in Iraq, in a sectarian “civil war” which has been triggered by the US.  This “green light” potentially opens the door to military escalation and an extended regional conflict: “a new Iran-Iraq war?”
Whatever information or exchange of intelligence occurs between the US and Iran as result of a fake collaborative agreement will be subject to manipulation and deception. Washington’s hidden agenda is to incite Iran’s military involvement, with a view to ultimately weakening The Islamic Republic of Iran as a regional power.
Iran: From “Active State Sponsor of Terrorism” to “Limited Military Cooperation” with Washington
In the space of 24 hours, the fundamental tenets of post 9/11 US foreign policy were (temporarily?) scrapped.

Lest we forget: since September 11, 2001, The Islamic Republic of Iran has been labelled by Washington as an“Active State Sponsor of Terrorism”, allegedly supportive of Al Qaeda. That status has not been officially revoked.
In the words of  former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

“Iran has been the country that has been in many ways a kind of central banker for terrorism in important regions like Lebanon through Hezbollah in the Middle East, in the Palestinian Territories, and we have deep concerns about what Iran is doing in the south of Iraq.” (quoted by CFR, emphasis added)

Moreover, in 2011, a US federal district court in New York City ruled that Iran had actually supported Al Qaeda in the conduct of the 9/11 attacks:

‘U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled yesterday that Iran and Hezbollah materially and directly supported al Qaeda in the September 11, 2001 attacks and are legally responsible for damages to hundreds of family members of 9/11 victims who are plaintiffs in the case.
Attorneys representing families of 9/11 victims today are filing their second lawsuit against Iran asserting evidence that Iran played a key role in planning and facilitating the 9/11 attacks. The new case, Bingham, et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran, et al., is being filed in federal court by the same attorneys who have been litigating Havlish, et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran, et al., now pending in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Iran 911 Case

About Turn? Now Iran is to join hands with America against Al Qaeda.
Following ad hoc bilateral talks in Vienna, Iran is called upon to become a partner of the “international community” in “going after al Qaeda.”
Somebody is either lying or are we all stupid?
Iran Threatens a Terrorist Attack against Canada’s National Capital Region
On the 16th of June, the Western media went into overdrive. A  dribble of syndicated reports inundated the news chain:  Iran will henceforth be helping America in waging the “war on terrorism”.
Beneath the barrage of Iraq reports, a timely news story pertaining to Iran as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” was barely noticed. According to Canadian press reports, published on the very same day as the US-Iran agreement in Vienna (June 16,2014) quoting “reliable” intelligence documents, Iran was preparing to wage a terrorist attack against Canada’s National Capital Region.
According to Toronto’s National Post under the title:  Iran’s ‘anti-Canada rhetoric’ has officials on guard for possible Ottawa area terror attacks

[In response to] Iran’s rising “anti-Canada rhetoric,” intelligence officials have been monitoring the Islamic republic as a potential terrorist threat to the Ottawa area, newly declassified documents show. While the diplomatic falling out between Ottawa and Tehran is well-known, the intelligence reports are the first indication the Canadian government is tracking the possibility it could lead to terrorism in the capital.
The reports, written by the Integrated Terrorist Assessment Centre, do not specify the exact nature of the threat Tehran may pose to the Ottawa region but in the past Iran has used its proxy force, Hezbollah, to attempt attacks internationally.

The documents also note the Iran connection to last year’s alleged plot to derail a Toronto-bound passenger train. The RCMP says the conspiracy was directed by Al Qaeda figures operating out of Iran.“The presence of numerous high-profile federal institutions, foreign embassies, military facilities, tourist attractions, and special events make the NCR a rich environment for possible plots by a variety of differently-motivated terrorists,” the report says.
The intelligence reports include Iran on a list of “other potential threats to the National Capital Region,” immediately after politically motivated violence against foreign dignitaries.(National Post, June 16, 2014 emphasis added)

Another Canadian news report confirms that:

“Canadian intelligence agencies are tracking the possibility of a terrorist attack from Iran as tensions between Tehran and Ottawa increase.”
…
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has continued to urge caution where Iran is concerned.
“We haven’t seen much change in the Canadian position and so, that sort of tension between Tehran and Ottawa seems to be continuing,” he said [John Baird].
That tension is what is raising the concern for intelligence agencies.  (CFRA, June 17, 2014)

Meanwhile, an Ottawa Police spokesman stated that The Ottawa Police Department would seek the collaboration of:

“the RCMP, OPP, military police, Surete du Quebec and Gatineau Police as well as their ongoing partnership with Ottawa Paramedics and Ottawa Fire (Ibid)

Assuming for a moment that America’s objective is to fight Al Qaeda, why on earth would Washington seek the cooperation of a country which is “allegedly” planning to bomb its closest ally: Canada, not to mention Iran’s alleged support (based on piles of national security documents) of Al Qaeda in various terrorist undertakings.Surely the “Iran threat” to Canada’s National Capital Region (revealed by Canadian Intelligence documents and reported on June 16, 2014), should have been “an eye-opener” to US State Department officials in Vienna who had invited the Islamic Republic of Iran to assist America in waging a “Global War on Terrorism”.
Welcome to the “New Normal”, Iran is no longer a “State Sponsor of Terrorism”, Tehran no longer supports Al Qaeda, Iran is now helping America to fight Al Qaeda.
How long will this “New Normal” Last?
As soon as Iran becomes actively involved in Iraq’s civil war, with military operations directed against the Sunni population, the “international community” will most probably point its finger at Iran rather than at the US. Already, sections of the Sunni resistance movement considers Iran –which supports the Al Maliki government– rather than the US as the aggressor nation.
Beneath the media lies and contradictions and outright fabrications, the truth of the matter is as follows:

• There is no evidence that Iran was behind the 9/11 attacks, nor is there is evidence that the Sunni Al Qaeda entity was supported by the Shiite government of the Islamic Republic of  Iraq. Yet in the course of the last 13 years, the political consensus supported by the media and the intelligence community is that Iran is a “State Sponsor of Terrorism”.
• While Iran does not support Al Qaeda, there is ample evidence that Al Qaeda including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS)  funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has been supported by US-NATO as well as Israel.
• Known and documented, Al Qaeda affiliated entities have been used by US-NATO in numerous conflicts as “intelligence assets” since the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war.
• In Syria, the Al Nusrah and ISIS rebels are the foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance, which oversees and controls the recruitment and training of paramilitary forces. ISIS has Western Special Forces within rebel ranks.
• The ISIS rebels are trained and funded by the Western military alliance. The US has no intention to target its own ISIS foot soldiers, who are waging a covert war on behalf of the US in both Syria and Iraq.
• Whatever military actions are waged by the US, they will target the Sunni resistance movement as well as the civilian population.
• ISIS is a US intelligence asset, an instrument of non-conventional warfare. The ultimate objective of this ongoing US-NATO engineered conflict opposing the al-Maliki government forces to the ISIS insurgency is to destroy and destabilize Iraq as a Nation State and suck Iran into a violent regional sectarian conflict,
• This conflict could potentially engulf (directly or indirectly) a large number of countries, including Iraq, Iran and Syria, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Pakistan, leading to reconfiguration of the Middle East-Central Asian region (see map below).

New Map of the Middle East Project: unofficial NATO and US War Academy map. The above map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006, Peters is a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006).

http://www.globalresearch.ca/iran-and-america-joins-hands-in-waging-the-global-war-on-terrorism/5387998

​