Iran Press: Commentary Advises Recent Separatist Bombings Serious

BBC Monitoring Service, Monsters and Critics: translation of recent Iranian news commentary.

The bomb explosions and blasts in Ahwaz on 12 June are another step towards deepening the new round of separatist struggle. Of course, it is backed by a group of anti-Iranian currents, including the USA, Britain, Israel, the Zionists, and, finally, the Wahabis, the Ba'thists, and domestic elements.

The separatists, every few years, by taking advantage of two important factors - first, the instinctive and natural tendency towards ethnicity that has become a deviant cultural trend under the influence and teachings of separatists and the Arab regimes in the region, particularly the Ba'thists, and, second, the economic problems - start a new round of struggles and try to achieve their goals.

This is a repeated story, as well, but since Shaykh Khaza'l, Britain, at the time when the central government has not been under its control, like the constitutional periods of the Mosaddeq era, has taken actions for local agents to disintegrate Khuzestan, and only under the government of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who were both the agents under the control of Britain and America, Britain has stopped following up such a goal.

The British Government, in a new opportunity it achieved in the region with the cooperation of the USA, intends to disintegrate Khuzestan. There is only a slight difference, and that is with the implementation of the new separatist project in the south. It is following up two strategic goals. First, in accordance with the US demands, it will pave the way for international incredibility and domestic misfortune for the Islamic Republic system to conquer Iran. Second, based on its old colonialist experiences, its considers the likelihood for the system to be toppled so weak that it has figured out that the separation of Khuzestan is the best way to topple the system.

It is clear that the disintegration of Khuzestan and making it an independent country would weaken Iran and eventually undermine the security of the oil transport, as desired by the colonialists. This is because all of the oil-rich countries are small and weak. They can survive only by depending on powers such as America and Britain. Therefore, the security of Israel would be guaranteed even more.

The recent blasts were the responsibility of the separatists. They have accepted this responsibility by issuing various statements.

In this connection, it is important to pay attention to some points:

The separatist currents that have entered the struggles in the new round and that are leading activities like these (unlike some separatists of that Pahlavi era that were against the USA and Britain) are directly in line with the interests of America and Britain, in particular. READ MORE

Undoubtedly, making the separatist currents hopeful by believing the forged letter by Abtahi and announcing that they are not going to participate in the election, saying that the Iranians (non-Arabs) are enemies of the Arab people and that the Iranian Government is only working for the Iranians and such things that are sheer lies, would let them enhance terrorist actions against the people of Khuzestan, including the Iranians and the Arabs. On the other hand, due to these actions, the government will be forced to show more control and regimentation, and giving any excuse to the separatists will decrease the government's confidence in the Arab people.

In studying the turmoil in Khuzestan, I also emphasized the economic problems and the need to look into these problems. However, I am now saying that a tiny part of the Arab forces have chosen a bad time and a poor excuse to introduce their economic expectations, because the mutiny, based on a forged letter, has given strength to the belief that the Arabs of Khuzestan are looking for an excuse to show their hostility towards the non-Arab Iranians. This would entail the lack of trust by the government with regard to the Arabs, and eventually it would worsen the situation of this ethnic group. Therefore, the best thing to do is to confront the separatists and any grounds that might give them more hope.

I have also some advice for the moderate Arab parties. I should remind them in advance that one of the objectives of the separatist currents is to defeat moderate parties, such as the Afaq Party, the Vafaq Party, and the Alseqlain Party, and forcing them to the margins. In other words, the separatist currents want to defeat and isolate the parties. Therefore, these parties, in order to take the initiative and defeat the extremist separatist currents, need take certain actions. I hope they think of my words as brotherly advice and reflect upon them.

The suggestions are as follows:

A. Identifying and reconstructing the expectations: The moderate parties should accept that there are grounds for extremist ethnic sentiments among the Arabs of Khuzestan that enhance the basis for separation. However, these sentiments are unconscious, and if they were not so, the separatist parties and groups could not recruit people in an organized or accidental way. The solution is fighting the cultural taboos that have occupied the minds of the noble Arab people, sometimes unconsciously.

B: Cultivating political culture: It is said that a political activist would never criticize his/her own society, especially the people on whom he/she thinks his/her power depends. This is because the political activists are afraid of hurting those people by criticizing them, and thus they lose power. Therefore, these activists try to keep silent if there is a defect in their people so that perhaps others will not attack the critic violently out of prejudice and pride. The political activists of the ethnic groups, to achieve credibility and legitimacy with their people, constantly talk about a change of attitude within the government and the non-Arab people, but they consider the social and political behaviour of their own tribe infallible. However, the intellectual is someone who, while defending the values and positive cultural heritage of his tribe, also criticizes the negative taboos of his people bravely and, besides asking for a change in the attitude of the non-Arab government and the people, calls for a change of attitude among the Arab people, too. My emphasis is that if the moderate Arab parties did not start to launch an intellectual movement to criticize the taboos and if they only wished to reach power and thus intensified the expectations that are driven from negative taboos, they would only play the role of catalyst for the separatist groups. In other words, when, in a bid to reach power, they elevated the demand based on negative expectations - despite healthy economic and ethnic expectations - and the system, because of these taboos, did not take notice of those expectations or else the build up of tolerance has not been accomplished in the government for responding to some healthy ethnic demands, we should give the government a chance to build up such tolerance and capacity. Otherwise, the dissatisfaction would increase, and the separatist currents and foreign enemies would take advantage of the government's inability to meet the demands and the inability of the moderate parties to be accountable, and they would take the initiative to force the Arabs into crisis, challenges, and even further deprivation. Such a vicious circle would make the situation dangerous.

Source: Mardom-Salari web site, Tehran, in Persian 19 Jun 05 p 10

Text of report from Baztab website entitled: "We should take the blasts by separatists seriously" by Iranian newspaper Mardom-Salari web site on 19 June

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