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Trouble in Tehran

The world cannot ignore the hateful invective of Iran's president, who increasingly sounds like a danger to the Middle East.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is playing with fire. His latest rantings are that the Holocaust never happened and its fabrication was a ploy to justify the creation of the Jewish state. This follows earlier anti-Semitic remarks made by the recently elected leader that Israel should be "wiped off the map." These are words the rest of the world cannot ignore, because the stakes are too high.

Rational people might ascribe a political motive to such inflammatory rhetoric. Iran is moving forward with what it characterizes as a peaceful nuclear program, but well-grounded suspicions suggest it is an effort to acquire nuclear weapons. Britain, Germany and France have engaged in negotiations to try and forestall that possibility, so far unsuccessfully.

Ahmadinejad might be slyly trying to adjust his bargaining posture by appearing unflinchingly unreasonable and dangerous, thereby extracting greater concessions - a kind of North Korea redux.

Another postulation is that Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate his own power domestically and regionally. Ahmadinejad, who won election in June, is not well-regarded by the educated elite. But a substantial segment of the Iranian population, particularly the religious fundamentalists and underclasses, cheer every anti-Israel message. When Ahmadinejad called for Israel's destruction in October and was roundly condemned by much of the world, throngs crowded into the streets in support of his message. Continuing to inflame those passions is a way to divert attention from Iran's unemployment and poverty problems. It also establishes him as a leading enemy of Israel within the Muslim world, raising his profile and prominence.

But according to the Los Angeles Times, people in Iran who know him, including one of his former colleagues on the Tehran City Council, say that Ahmadinejad is simply speaking his mind. It is not a political calculation. If so, then Ahmadinejad may turn out to be the most destructive force in the Middle East since the plague of black death in the 14th century. Having a Holocaust denier with a vengeful spirit and nuclear ambitions in charge of a country that is within missile-launch distance of Israel paints a doomsday scenario.

If Ahmadinejad truly disbelieves the facts surrounding one of the most well-documented genocides in history, he is out of touch with reality and the rest of the world must do everything it can to make sure such a hateful radical cannot make a nuclear bomb.

[Last modified December 17, 2005, 01:01:18]