Courtesy of Benzinga.
The fastest way to get a missile headed toward your skull is to do something stupid, like, say, attacking a foreign embassy on your home soil. That’s precisely what a group of Iranians did Monday.
The mob attacked and invaded the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, after the British government stepped up sanctions against Iran over the oil-rich nation’s nuclear weapons program.
“There has been an incursion by a significant number of demonstrators into our Embassy premises, including vandalism to our property,” the Foreign Office said. “We are outraged by this. It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it.”
Vandalism is a polite (shall we say British?) way to put it. The hooligans threw stones at the embassy windows. They broke in to the building and, after breaking the door and windows, and apparently stealing a picture of the queen, they were removed by Iranian police. The mob also burned a flag outside the embassy and chanted “Death to Britain”.
The demonstration began as a peaceful-ish protest against the British government, with which the Iranian government has been fighting.
On Sunday, the Iranian Parliament voted to kick out the British ambassador and reduce diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom in retaliation for newly-imposed Western sanctions, according to Iran’s official IRNA news agency. The vote still has to be approved by the Guardian Council, the body that determines if laws passed by parliament are compatible with Sharia law, or Islamic law, before it becomes binding.
“This unwarranted move will do nothing to help the regime address their growing isolation or international concerns about their nuclear program and human rights record,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. “If the Iranian government acts on this, we will respond robustly in consultation with our international partners.”
There has been growing concern in the western world that Iran is, in fact, developing its nuclear program not for energy, as it claims, but for military purposes. These sanctions are a response to the West’s belief that Iran is indeed building military-grade nuclear weapons.
Iran claims that it is not building nuclear weapons. That’s certainly not a view shared by many, including the United Nations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency released its most recent report, highlighting new concerns about “the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program.”
“The IAEA’s report last week provided further credible and detailed evidence about the possible military dimensions of the Iranian nuclear program,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement Monday. “Today we have responded resolutely by introducing a set of new sanctions that prohibit all business with Iranian banks.”
If all of this smells familiar, it’s because it is the same game played year after year, decade after decade, in new places across the globe. This, my friends, is the buildup to war. We saw it in WWI, and in WWII. We saw it in Korea and in Vietnam. We saw it in the Cold War. We saw it in Desert Storm I. We saw it in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
And now, we just might be seeing it happen again in Iran.
It’s not like such moves are beyond the scope of the CIA and other similar agencies. We (as in the United States) have already admitted to interfering with Iran in the 1950s. We’ve been harassing them ever since, including supporting Saddam Hussein against the Iranians in the 1980s war.
So, don’t be surprised if this little skirmish turns into a major event that turns into shots fired that turns into a bombing campaign. This has all the stench of a prelude to war.
Like my stories? You can subscribe for my free newsletter here.
Read more of my stories at Benzinga. You can also reach me by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe.
For more Benzinga, visit Benzinga Professional Service, Value Investor, and Stocks Under $5.
