By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”, August 12, 2024,
*Iran’s Shiite Ayatollahs share a common strategic goal with Russia, China and Sunni Islamic terrorism (e.g., the Moslem Brotherhood, including Hamas) to undermine the geo-strategic posture of the US, in the Persian Gulf, the Middle East at-large, Africa, as well as Latin America, which is the soft underbelly of the US. However, the State Department insists on a diplomatic option toward the Ayatollahs, which has yielded them hundreds of billions of dollars, since 1979, bolstering their anti-US rogue capabilities….
*Bringing “The Great American Satan” to submission has been a top priority for Iran’s Ayatollahs since the toppling of the Shah in February 1979, as evidenced by their rogue actions, 1979 Constitution, school curriculum, mosque sermons and military indoctrination. However, Foggy Bottom would not consider the regime-change option….
*The February 1979 Islamic Revolution – which benefitted from a State Department tailwind – has transformed Iran from “The American Policeman of the Gulf” to the world’s leading epicenter of anti-US global terrorism (including on US soil), drug trafficking, money laundering and the proliferation of advanced military systems to anti-US entities. Still, the State Department refuses to define Iran’s Ayatollahs as a terror regime, sticking to diplomacy in dealing with the rogue Ayatollahs, softening and suspending economic sanctions against Tehran….
*Therefore, the Ayatollahs – along with their proxy, Hezbollah terrorists – have entrenched themselves throughout Latin America – since the early 1980s – collaborating with the drug cartels of Mexico, Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Brazil, as well as with every anti-US government. They supply these anti-US entities with predator unmanned aerial vehicles and equipment to construct underground tunnels from Mexico into the US. Nevertheless, the State Department is determined to prove that showering the Ayatollahs with financial and diplomatic bonanzas would induce them to accept peaceful-coexistence with their Sunni Arab neighbors, become good-faith negotiators, and abandon their 1,400-year-old fanatic ideology….
*The Ayatollahs have subverted and terrorized every pro-US Arab regime, with a focus on Saudi Arabia (the home of Mecca and Medina, the two holiest sites of Islam) and other oil-producing Arab regimes. Toppling these regimes would yield the Ayatollahs control of 48% of global oil and natural gas reserves, which would impact the price at the pump. Yet, the State Department pressures the pro-US Saudis, Emiratis and Egyptians, while courting the anti-US Ayatollahs and the Moslem Brotherhood….
*The pro-US Hashemite regime in Jordan has been a prime target, for the Ayatollahs, due to its location, bordering Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iraq. Thus, the toppling of the pro-US Hashemite regime would extend the strategic hand of the anti-US Ayatollahs through Iraq and Syria (which are largely controlled by the Ayatollahs) closer to the Mediterranean. It would bestow upon the Ayatollahs a grand doubleheader: encircling Israel by the Iran-controlled belt of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza, while engulfing Saudi Arabia from Iran-controlled Yemen, Qatar, Iran, Iraq and Jordan. But, Foggy Bottom reacts feebly to the expanded Iranian bombing of US installations in the Gulf area, Syria and Jordan, while seeking another nuclear accord with the Ayatollahs….
*The Ayatollahs aim to leverage Jordan’s domestic vulnerability, which features an intra-Bedouin tribal fragmentation; the solid base of the (mostly Palestinian) Moslem Brotherhood terrorism in Jordan; and the 70% Palestinian majority – a fertile ground for terrorism – and its inherent conflict with the pro-US ruling Bedouin minority. In addition, many Islamic terrorists are among the 2 million Iraqi and (mostly) Syrian refugees, who have been absorbed in northern Jordan.
*An Ayatollahs’ success to topple the pro-US Hashemite regime would transform Jordan into another platform of anti-US Islamic terrorism – in the mold of Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which would yield a terrorist domino scenario into the Arabian Peninsula, lethally threatening every pro-US Arab oil-producing regime, which would confer upon Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Moslem Brotherhood, Russia and China a geo-strategic and economic bonanza, while dealing a dramatic economic, national security and homeland security setback to the US and other Western democracies. Nonetheless, the State Department establishment is preoccupied with its own alternate reality, which is more convenient, predictable, tolerant and peaceful than Middle East reality….
*According to a May 15, 2024 Reuters report: “In January, an unprecedented attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan was carried out by Iran-aligned groups based in Iraq, which left three U.S. soldiers dead and 40 injured…. In recent months, Jordan’s security services have thwarted numerous attempts by Iran and its allied [Syrian and Iraqi terrorist proxies] to smuggle in arms including Claymore mines, C4 and Semtex explosives, Kalashnikov rifles and 107mm Katyusha rockets…. Iran and its allied Hamas and Hezbollah are trying to recruit young, radical members of the kingdom’s Muslim Brotherhood [which collaborates with the PLO/PA and other Palestinian terror organizations] to their anti-Israel, anti-U.S. cause in a bid to expand the Tehran’s regional network of aligned forces…. Iranian-led plots aim to smuggle weapons into the US-allied kingdom to help opponents of the ruling monarchy carry out acts of sabotage. The weapons were sent by Iranian-backed militias in Syria to a cell of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood that has links to Hamas…. The Brotherhood, [which is embraced by the State Department], enjoys a wide base of support in Jordan from both the Palestinian majority and the Bedouin minority…. The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist movement, of which Hamas is an offshoot founded in 1988…. The hostility between Iran and Jordan dates back to 2004, in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq, when King Abdullah accused Iran of trying to create a ‘Shi’ite crescent’ to expand its regional power….”
*While Iran’s Ayatollahs pose an intensified threat to the US national and homeland security, demonstrating that they are not a party to good faith negotiation – but an enemy determined to bring “The Great American Satan” to submission – the State Department persists in its self-destructive diplomatic option, couched with hundreds of billions of dollars to the Ayatollahs, resisting the regime-change option.
A truly brilliant analysis by Yoram Etteinger. While Israpundit has for a very long time opposed to the Hasemite monarchy, I hope we can all agree that a Muslim Brotherhood regime as a puppet of Iran would definitely not be an improvement. Ettinger is alsoo corrct that a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Jordan would not be in the USA’s interest or the interest of the pro-American governments in the Middle East (mainly Israel, the Gulf states, and to a limited extent Iraq), Unfortunately Ettinger is also right that the State Department supports the Muslim Brotherhood and is in bed with it. However, that may be because Blinken and many of the officials that he has succeed edin planting in the State Department, the DoD, the CIA and even the department of the Treasury are Iranian agents, not loyal Americans.