Trudy Rubin
As battles raged last week between Israel and Islamist groups in Gaza and Lebanon, my mind flashed back to a conversation I had with a senior Iranian official in May.
"The United States has problems in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Afghanistan," he said. "Iran is the one who can help (in all those places). The United States needs Iran's help, not confrontation."
When I asked what would happen if tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program led to a U.S. military attack on Iran, the official swiftly replied: "I don't think the United States is in a position to think like that." The message was clear: You Americans need us if you want to stabilize the region. But if you threaten us, we can make things much, much worse.
Flash forward to the outbreak of Mideast violence in recent days.
I recalled the Iranian's warning when fighters from the Iranian-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah made separate incursions across Israel's southern and northern border, within two weeks of each other, to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Their timing was telling, just before the G-8 conference of the world's top industrial democracies in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the question of whether to push for U.N. sanctions against Iran was at the top of the agenda.
Suddenly, the G-8 agenda shifted from how the world community might press Iran to freeze its suspect nuclear program to how to prevent new Mideast wars from exploding.
Iran was delivering a warning to Washington via proxies, without firing a gun. ...
>>> Continued @ Centre Daily Times
Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers can write to her by e-mail at trubin@phillynews.com.
