TEHRAN - WikiLeaks documents indicating that Arab leaders urged the United
States to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran have drawn a distinctly
muted reaction from Tehran.
Mindful of the importance of relations with their Arab neighbors, officials
including President Mahmud Ahmadinejad have avoided public recriminations.
Instead, they have deflected attention away from the awkward subjects raised in
the WikiLeaks documents by suggesting their release was a deliberate attempt to
sow misinformation.
United States diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks quote King Abdullah bin
Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia as advising
Washington to attack Iran in order to "cut off the head of the snake" and end
the country's nuclear program. Leaders of other Arab countries such as Bahrain,
Jordan and the United Arab Emirates made remarks in the same vein.
Rather than escalate tensions by taking Arab leaders to task for such remarks,
Ahmadinejad said the information was "not leaked, but released in an organized
manner". "We attach no value to these documents,” he told a press conference.
"Iran and the states in the region are friends. Such acts of mischief have no
impact on relations.”
News agencies run by, or close to, the Iranian government followed suit,
quoting the official denials put out by Arab states. The semi-official Mehr
Agency, for instance, interviewed the Saudi charge d'affaires in Tehran, who
said: "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia totally rejects this report. This is not the
first time such matters have been reported in the media.”
The pro-Ahmadinejad media have also given extensive coverage to comments by US
academic Noam Chomsky, who said WikiLeaks documents represented only a filtered
selection of the views of Arab leaders. In any case, it was no reflection of
what ordinary Arabs believed, Chomsky said, pointing to an opinion poll which
the Brookings Institute in Washington released a few months ago, showing that
80% of the Arabs interviewed saw Israel as the major threat to the region, 77%
thought it was the US, and only 10% identified Iran.
Even some of Ahmadinejad's critics in Iran agree with his take on WikiLeaks as
misinformation.
"Under the current circumstances, these revelations can have had no other
intended result than creating instability and isolation for Iran. As it
happens, Ahmadinejad realized this and rightly called these documents
worthless," said an analyst who opposes the Ahmadinejad administration. "You
might find this view the worthless product of conspiracy theory, but for me
it's hard to believe that these generous revelations were not orchestrated and
had no agenda."
Not everyone agrees. Ali Bigdeli, professor of international relations at
Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, said: "One has to ask those who believe
these documents were deliberately released with the US government's knowledge
how this would benefit it. Even if the WikiLeaks revelations were deliberate,
they would still do more harm than good to the US government."
The Shargh daily, which reflects the views of opposition reformers, took the
view that the leaked cables confirmed media speculation and analysis over the
years that the "gap is widening between Iran and the Arab states on the Persian
Gulf, particularly their godfather, Saudi Arabia".
A former Iranian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told the web
portal Mianeh that the documents were "a diplomatic defeat for the Ahmadinejad
government, which makes much of the slogan of improving relations with
neighboring states".
In cyberspace, reactions to WikiLeaks were quite different, with anti-Arab
sentiments prevalent in the overwhelming majority of blog postings and messages
left on Persian-language news sites, whether pro- or anti-government.
"The Saudis can't help acting against Iran," one comment left on the
pro-Ahmadinejad web site Jahannews said. "During the Iran-Iraq war, they took
many steps against Iran. Of course that was futile, and they can rest assured
that their current efforts will bear no fruit, either."
Iran's former ambassador to Bahrain, Mohammad Farazmand, put the case against
the Arab leaders more soberly.
"Let's not forget that the same Arabs who today want an attack on Iran helped
Saddam Hussein in the past and have yet to express remorse for their actions,"
he said in an editorial on the Iranian Diplomacy web site. "In my opinion, the
policy of taking a soft stance towards the southern Arabs in recent years has
been counterproductive and has led them to misunderstand the situation."
Farazmand concluded: "The WikiLeaks documents should thus be used to show the
red card to our southern neighbors. Certain Arab leaders who have secretly
encouraged the US to attack Iran are going to find it hard to deny past
deceptions and reiterate their hypocritical stance in future contacts with the
Iranian authorities."
In the buses, taxis and underground trains - often the scene of frank political
discussions in Tehran - talk of the WikiLeaks revelations is notably absent.
Judging from overheard conversations, what preoccupies most commuters is the
reduction in government subsidies, spiraling prices and the air pollution that
afflicts the capital.
Amin Mehrpour is the pseudonym of an Iranian journalist based in Tehran.
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