I'm Off To
Iran Before
Israel Bombs
It
By George
Galloway
30/06/08 "Daily
Record"
-- - BY
the time you
read this, I
will be in
Iran. I've
never been
there
before,
never met an
Iranian
leader - I
don't even
like the
present
Iranian
leadership -
so remember
all that,
because it
might become
important.
I'm
determined
to do my bit
for the
anti-war
effort. We
need another
war like
Gordon Brown
needs
another
by-election.
But the
Sunday
papers were
again full
of Israeli
war games
and threats
as
speculation
mounts of a
massive
bombardment
of yet
another
Muslim
country.
I'm going
for the
first
anniversary
of Press TV,
on which I
present two
programmes -
Comment at
10.30pm on
Thursdays
and The Real
Deal at
10.30pm on
Sundays.
This week I
hope to meet
Ali Larijani,
formerly
Iran's
nuclear
negotiator,
now speaker
of the
Iranian
parliament
and, I hope,
the next
president.
Larijani
proved
beyond even
the CIA's
attempt at
contradiction
that Iran is
acting
entirely
within her
legal rights
to develop
nuclear
power.
As a
signatory to
the treaty
governing
the
development
of nuclear
weapons,
Iran has
done nothing
wrong under
it either,
at least
according to
the watchdog
maintained
by the
international
community,
the IAEA.
Israel, on
the other
hand,
refuses to
sign the
nuclear
weapons
treaty and
thus, with a
chutzpah
which takes
the breath
away, claims
it's not in
breach of
it.
Yet last
week, it
acknowledged
the truth
first
revealed by
the Israeli
hero
Mordechai
Vannunu, who
spent nearly
20 years in
solitary for
telling us
that they
possess
nuclear
weapons in
abundance.
Their
brazenness
about this
reached its
apogee when
they
publicly
thanked
France, in
the
diminutive
form of
Nicolas
Sarkozy, for
the decisive
help they
had given
them (we
ourselves
gave them
the heavy
water
technology)
to enable to
build their
nuclear
arsenal.
So let me
run that
past you.
Israel,
which has
hundreds of
nuclear
weapons,
seems to be
planning to
attack a
country with
none with
the support
of France,
Britain and
the US and
all in the
name of, er,
checking the
spread of
nuclear
weapons in
that region.
You couldn't
make it up,
but alas you
don't have
to.
The Dr
Strangeloves
who've taken
over the
bunker have
already done
so.
Next week's
column,
should I
survive,
will no
doubt tell
you about
the great
civilisation
that is
Persia,
which hasn't
attacked
another
country for
more than
300 years,
not a boast
we can make
ourselves.
Iran is no
broken-backed
land
enfeebled by
decades of
war and
sanctions.
If attacked,
she most
certainly
will defend
herself and
by all means
necessary.
Fasten your
seatbelts.
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