Iran Watch, part 6.
Ok. This is getting BO-RING. The Sindy’s John Rentoul says “the world might have decided it has better things to do” than follow our ongoing blog-and-Twitter row over Iran/Israel/nukes – but, bizarrely, he says this at the end of yet another blogpost – “Calling Mehdi Hasan” – in which he yet again dodges the key issues.
This’ll be my last post on Rentoul – I promise! – and I’ll try and make it as short as possible because I know he doesn’t like having to read long articles. (I can only guess that he prefers to conduct debates on geopolitics via 140-character putdowns on Twitter. Then again, his knowledge of Iran is pretty superficial: he claims, for example, that the Iranian president would be in control of nuclear weapons when of course, if such weapons were to be built by the regime, it would be Ayatullah Khamenei with his finger on the trigger and Ahmadinejad wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near them!)
Three quick points:
First, Rentoul wants to misquote people and then pretend he didn’t and/or pretend it doesn’t matter. It was Rentoul who claimed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had threatened to “wipe Israel off the map”, refused to correct himself or the belligerent meaning he ascribed to those comments and who now says that he knew I “would go off into the old debate about the translation of the Iranian president’s 2005 words about Israel”. This is wonderfully evasive as it leaves the passing reader unaware of the fact that, “old” or not, the debate is over and Rentoul is wrong. Ahmadinejad, for all his flaws, sins and crimes, didn’t say that. Rentoul knows he didn’t say that. Yet this proud pedant continues to flagrantly misquote the Iranian president in order to beat the drum for war against Iran.
Second, Rentoul again asks “why the warmongering IAEA should allow such a government to develop nuclear weapons”. I’m not sure I understand this contorted and rather loaded question – the IAEA isn’t a “warmongering” organisation (though its director general does look a little compromised to me) and hasn’t said Iran is developing weapons. Has he even bothered to read the IAEA’s reports? I’m happy to extend the “Iain Dale challenge” to Rentoul, if he’s interested in trying to win the £100 cash prize that’s still on offer.
Third, double standards matter. Despite Rentoul’s unfortunate smears, my own view is clear and well-documented: I want a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East in accordance with UN resolution 687. I don’t want Israel or Iran to have nuclear weapons (and nor does the IAEA!); Rentoul is ok with the former having ’em but not the latter.
That’s what this row has been about. The rest is noise.
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