Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, February 10
The Middle East Peace and Security Conference, scheduled to be held in Warsaw this month and attended by representatives from 79 countries, is expected to produce no less than six different committees to “control Iran’s behavior in the Middle East.” This may suggest that the Warsaw Conference will be of a different nature from all previous, and unsuccessful, attempts to control the aggressive Iranian behavior in the region. The coming together of so many world leaders to discuss Iran may very well translate into an attempt to form an alliance against The Islamic Republic that is equivalent to the international coalition formed against ISIS. It is no secret that despite all of the international momentum against Iran, with the exception of U.S. sanctions on the Tehran regime by the administration of President Donald Trump, things have not succeeded in pushing for a real change in Iran’s behavior. Therefore, the Warsaw meeting is a monumental event in that it is meant to draw a line between the Iranian regime’s continuation of its disruptive behavior and its suspension by decisive practical steps agreed upon by world leaders. Iran is not only fighting Saudi Arabia or the countries of the region, but the United States (not to mention its direct responsibility for the thousands of deaths in Yemen). Sadly, the Iranian regime insists on operating according to fanatical ideological principles rather than in the best interest of its people. It is shocking to think that Iran, the oil-rich nation with vast natural resources, used to be more successful than Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The latter are now members of the G20. The former, meanwhile, marked 40 years since the revolution that reduced the country to shambles. Over two million Iranians now live below the poverty line. Iranian oil is looking for buyers. The Iranian Riyal has lost 75 of its value in a single year. All of these resources have been wasted on a futile nuclear program. Therefore, the chief beneficiaries of the Warsaw Conference will not be the Gulf states, but rather the Iranian people themselves. It is them, after all, who have been robbed their basic rights and freedoms for over four decades, forced to live under a regime that systematically abuses and dominates its people. –Salman al-Dossri