October 10-14
Some of the rhetoric widely promoted in the Islamic Republic is too much for Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif.
Zarif last week denounced talk that the US actually created the Islamic State, often referred to in the United States as ISIS, to carry out American policy in the Middle East.
He ridiculed such talks as a “conspiracy theory.”
However, this theory that Zarif ridicules has been pedaled in Iran even by the Supreme Leader himself, as reported on this column in the September 12 issue.
Khamenehi said, “Although the Western countries, especially the United States, claim they have nothing to do with these groups [Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State], there is ample evidence suggesting these movements have been created by the Western powers and their regional clients.”
Other prominent figures spouting this line include Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Majlis, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Alaeddin Borujerdi, the chairman of the Majlis National Security Committee, and Gen. Hossain Salami, the deputy commander of the Pasdaran, not to mention numerous Friday prayer leaders.
But Zarif dismissed all such talk in an appearance last month before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.
First, he denounced “conspiracy theories” in general, commenting that “our region is filled with those.” That drew much laughter from his audience of foreign policy aficionados who almost uniformly see the Middle East as a hotbed of lunatic theories.
After the laughter died down, Zarif said, “If you listen to those conspiracy theories, ISIS is a product of the United States—not a product of the US invasion [of Iraq], but actually a creation of the United States. So, let’s stop dealing with that. No government would create a group like ISIS that would engage in such a brutal, savage campaign against its own soldiers.”
The Islamic State was originally called Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and its main activity a decade ago was killing US troops in Iraq.
Three weeks have passed since Zarif said those words. They have gone un-reported in the Iranian media.
The fact that Khamenehi has not apparently disciplined Zarif for directly contradicting what Khamenehi himself has said suggests that Khamenehi doesn’t even believe what he said.
Much of the wild rhetoric dispensed by the regime leadership in Iran is simply offered up as fodder for the masses and isn’t believed by those uttering the fantastic theories. But the fact that wild rhetoric continues to be dished out by the ton also demonstrates the extent of the regime’s disrespect for its own people.