July 13, 2008
An itchy finger on the taunt button
Last week Iran fired a volley of missile tests. Was it the latest move from an apocalyptic president who loves to goad the West?
It is quite possible that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad first learnt about sabre-rattling at his father’s blacksmith’s shop in Tehran. The Persian sabre, or shamshir, has a sharply curved narrow blade that requires an exact fit inside its scabbard, and to an apprentice’s ear any undue clank or jangle would suggest a botched job.
Many people now wish that Iran’s president had stuck to his father’s profession, or at least pursued his PhD in traffic management. Instead, the combative leader is giving everyone the heebie-jeebies as he fires off volleys of missiles in a game of brinkmanship that could, it is feared, lead to war between America and Iran.
Once again the world’s gaze is fixed in alarm on Ahmadinejad, a tiny, wiry figure with a gaunt face and eyes that do not change expression as he spouts combustive rhetoric. This devotee of football and technology, devout husband of a university lecturer and father of three children, has spoken of being bathed in a green light from heaven. He says that he yearns for a Shi’ite saviour, the 12th imam, to return and bring about the final apocalypse.
One school of thought holds that Iran’s second launch of powerful Shahab-3 rockets across the Gulf in the space of a week was Ahmadinejad throwing the toys out of his pram in fury at America’s studied indifference to his provocations. Since coming to power in 2005, the 51-year-old president has gone out of his way to outrage the West, declaring that Israel should be wiped from the map, that the Holocaust is a myth and that Iran has an inalienable right to nuclear power – potential cover for nuclear weapons.
Lately he has called for US military bases across the world to be “eradicated” and promised to strike at Tel Aviv if Iran were attacked. He has also threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for 40% of the world’s oil supplies, in retaliation...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4322583.ece
video:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/09/iran.usa