The Cold War Between Washington and Tehran (Page 2 of 2)

Meanwhile Washington may be seeking to destabilize Iran from within. The ethnic mix in Iran is complex; much of the population isn't Persian. There are secessionist tendencies and it is likely that Washington is trying to stir them up—in Khuzestan on the Gulf, for example, where Iran's oil is concentrated, a region that is largely Arab, not Persian.

Threat escalation also serves to pressure others to join U.S. efforts to strangle Iran economically, with predictable success in Europe. Another predictable consequence, presumably intended, is to induce the Iranian leadership to be as harsh and repressive as possible, fomenting disorder and perhaps resistance while undermining efforts of courageous Iranian reformers, who are bitterly protesting Washington's tactics.

It is also necessary to demonize the leadership. In the West, any wild statement of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, immediately gets circulated in headlines, dubiously translated. But as is well known, Ahmadinejad has no control over foreign policy, which is in the hands of his superior, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. media tend to ignore Khamenei's statements, especially if they are conciliatory.

For example, it's widely reported when Ahmadinejad says that Israel shouldn't exist—but there is silence when Khamenei says that Iran supports the Arab League position on Israel-Palestine, calling for normalization of relations with Israel if it accepts the international consensus of the two-state settlement that has been blocked by the U.S. and Israel for 30 years.

The U.S. invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message, loud and clear, was that the U.S. will attack at will, as long as the target is defenseless. Now Iran is ringed by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and particularly Israel, the regional superpower, thanks to U.S. support.

In 2003, Iran offered negotiations on all outstanding issues, including nuclear policies and Israel-Palestine relations. Washington's response was to censure the Swiss diplomat who brought the offer. The following year, the European Union and Iran reached an agreement that Iran would suspend enriching uranium (as it is entitled to do under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and in return the EU would provide "firm guarantees on security issues"—code for U.S.-Israeli threats to bomb Iran.

Apparently under U.S. pressure, Europe did not live up to the bargain. Iran then resumed uranium enrichment. A genuine interest in preventing the development of nuclear weapons in Iran—and the escalating warlike tension in the region—would lead Washington to implement the EU bargain, agree to meaningful negotiations and join with others to move toward integrating Iran into the international economic system.

Noam Chomsky's most recent book, co-authored with Gilbert Achcar, is Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy. Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.