Wiki leaks - in fighting in the relgion of peace....

[R1Geezer]

Arabia, etc urging the septics to destroy Iran's nukes. So why are fellow Muslims so afraid of dinnerjacket's ambiions? Do they know what his intentions are?

[Gromit]

As everyone knows, Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Saddam's threat was to the corrupt monarchs in Arabia who supply us with oil. He made the mistake of invading Kuwait and so he had to be got rid off. The USA and UK duly complied. While US and British troops were dying on the battlefield, the Saudis felt safer.

That was such a great success for them, that when Iran became too strong, they again felt threatened, and want foreign troops to die for them. In return, they keep us supplied with oil.

[Gromit]

The Arabs and the Persians have not been best mates for centuries, even though they share the same religion.

[jno]

this basically shows that religion hasn't got much to do with it despite the number of people flapping around crying that we're about to be a Muslim state. The Iraqis and Iranians have been at each others throats since the days of the Bible, where they were called Medes and Persians.

[youngmafbog]

Note quite sure how it validates that we are not about to be a Muslim state.

[keyplus90]

Other reason could be that Arabs know the history of Iran.................. Once there was a king in Iran,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, then what happened to him........................Perhaps Arab Kings fear the same. Nothing to do with religion so don't flap your wings.

[sandyRoe]

Saudi has a sect of Islam that did more to motivate the 9-11 bombers than anything Saddam's Iraq and Iran ever did.
Iran just wants to join the nuclear club as a self defense measure. Israel has the bomb, as do most of Iran's neighbours.

[R1Geezer]

which neighbours of Iran have the Bomb?

[jno]

within easy reach, if not ncecessarily next door, China, Israel, Russia, India and Pakistan come to mind.

[Gromit]

+ Turkey

[jno]

does Turkey have its own or are they just US ones stationed there? I've never been sure

[rov1200]

I wonder if Saudi Arabia would want the US to bomb Iran if that country had a fully developed nuclear arsenaL The purpose of having nuclear weapons is to deter others from attacking you. So isn't Armadinejad's intentions to own the bomb quite sensible especially since the disclosure by Wikileak?

[sandyRoe]

Pakistan, India, to the north, Russia, Israel, all have nuclear weapons. The USA fleets in that area would all be armed with nuclear weapons too.
The Iranian government would be neglecting their countries defence if they didn't get some.

[R1Geezer]

sensible if detterence is the aim. But dinnerjacket has regularly expressed a desire to "wipe Israel off the map", can we take the chance he'd use it? I'm concious of a BGB chance here!

[KARL]

The animosity between Iran and the Arabs has many facets and goes back to before the Arab conquest which I have been told by Iranians they still resent because their proud culture was suppressed and "Islam was forced down their throats" but they got their own back by "inventing Shiism" and thus corrupting the Arab design. It is therefore somewhat ironic that the current regime in Iran has ambitions of gaining control over the Muslim holy places. In this they hope to engage the support of disaffected Muslims worldwide, and there are lots of them. The tendency to drift into a "holier than thou" stance is a familiar one in religious observance (did you notice how he did not go to church....did not observe the set prayer time...) and both Saudi and Iranian regimes (and others besides) claim the blessing/support of religion/deity. This is why they are bound to be on a collision course. The differences between the two regimes are no doubt partly about power but religion is so often ultimately about straight forward intimidation and power (cleric over flock, leader over people, leader against leader, and neighbour against neighbour). We have seen it all before in Christianity and Islam is no more perfect, whatever those who try to sing its praises do or say. People of both faiths make unsubstantiated claims about their unshakable correctness, both religions are riven by division through much the same motives. Simple people have been and are still being talked into absurd posturing and worse in the name of their god. Yes, this is about religon and power, in both cases the ambitions are unpredictable and also there is the small matter of mistrust. "They" are always a threat against "us" - not an attitude that is the unique preserve of the religious. There are plenty of examples of neighbouring nations mistrusting each other - we need not go beyond the UK to look for that.

[jno]

Ahmadinejad once said something that was translated as wiping Israel off the map, but it seems to have been a mistranslation (perhaps deliberately so) - see here:

http://www.nytimes.co...review/11bronner.html

[Gromit]

Quite an interesting item in the Wikileaks. Apparently Jordan is building a Nuclear reactor as well as Iran. They are our friends, so there has been little fuss about it, and certainly no sanctions. Even the israelis have given it the nod...

// During her trip, Tauscher also met with Shaul Horev, head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) who revealed that contrary to Jordanian claims, Israel was not trying to sabotage the kingdom’s attempts to build a nuclear reactor. Such claims were made by Jordanian King Abdullah in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in June.

During the meeting, Horev told Tauscher that Israel had decided not to oppose construction of the reactor and that the government had also offered the Jordanians assistance in choosing the best location for it. //

http://www.jpost.com/...rticle.aspx?id=197242