Cost of attacking Iran underplayed
Financial Times / Roula Khalaf
13-Jul-2010 (3 comments)

Yousef al-Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Washington, had a “McChrystal” moment last week.

No doubt the diplomat was feeling relaxed in his surroundings at the Aspen ideas festival. And so he spoke freely – a bit too freely – just like the US general who lost his job last month over his and his aides’ scathing comments about the Obama administration in Rolling Stone magazine.

That the UAE ambassador endorses military strikes against Iran is likely to have come as no surprise to the US; American officials have surely heard similar, if less melodramatic, comments in private before. Nor is the Iranian regime likely to have been shocked since it ascribes the worst intentions to its Arab neighbours.

Mr al-Otaiba’s comments, however, are likely to be news to some Emiratis, accustomed as they are to public opposition to military action. But Emiratis may not necessarily have heard about the remarks since they were covered locally as a denial, in most cases without mentioning what the young diplomat said in the first place.

The silence in the UAE media, and across the regional press, speaks volumes about the sensitivity of Gulf Arab relations with Iran.

By asserting that the dangers of military strikes are preferable to the perils of nuclear arms in Tehran (“I am willing to absorb what takes place at the expense of the security of the UAE,” said Mr al-Otaiba), the senior UAE official may have been exaggerating. B... >>>

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Onlyiran

Payam, IMF is the Sheriff of Nottingham.

by Onlyiran on

:-))


پیام

IMF the only general around here.

by پیام on

The rest of us are mere pacifists.


mahmoudg

drums of war are getting louder

by mahmoudg on

there will be attacks, as this eposide with the Amiri spy shows.  He will be returned to Iran, showing that the nuclear danger is real, and the only alternative is to attack these sites.  Of course the end result is not the nuclear issue (Iran will have a peacful nuclear industry even a bomb under a democrtic regime), but rather the removal of Islamic rapists from power and getting rid of the 200K or so potential terrorists in the midst.