Alleged Fatwa prohibiting Iran from developing nuclear weapon is fake

 Rachel Avraham  11-27-14

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/world-news/around-the-globe/alleged-fatwa-prohibiting-iran-from-developing-nuclear-weapon-is-fake-9747?

Moderate Qatari journalist claims the fictional fatwa part of elaborate Iranian disinformation and deception scheme.

Many in the Arab world are skeptical that Iran will give up its nuclear program.  They view any Iranian assurances that they will only pursue their nuclear program for peaceful purposes to be a campaign designed to deceive the west.   These commentators within the Arab world fear that the west will buy into the Iranian deception, granting them either concessions on their nuclear program that will harm Arab interests or, if the Iranians do indeed make concessions on their nuclear power, it will be in exchange for giving the Iranians a free hand to dominate the Arab world. 

According to a report in MEMRI, Qatari journalist Abd Al Hamid Al Ansari wrote in Al Watan: “All signs indicate that Iran will manage to continue its nuclear program. Iran will not step back or give up what it regards as its legitimate right to obtain nuclear technology. According to its viewpoint, if less noble countries, such as Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea, have managed to obtain nuclear weapons, how can the international community deny this to Iran, with its noble civilization?”

“Iran thinks this is its chance, now that the man in the White House is so eager to complete this historic deal and thereby score a historic achievement that previous presidents did not manage to attain,” Al Ansari proclaimed. While Al Ansari agreed that Rouhani is more flexible than previous Iranian leaders, he noted that this is driven by calculated prudence and not be a true desire to reform. He emphasized that Iran will “never undermine Iran's strategic principles.”

“Iran will not make meaningful concessions that will harm its capacity to enrich uranium,” Al Ansari stressed. “If it negotiates over enrichment levels, it will not open all its facilities to inspection, and if it allows the inspection of some, this will be in return for the lifting of the sanctions, if only a gradual one. This explains the statement Rohani made in a meeting with young people. 'You ask me if we are winning in the nuclear negotiations?' he said. 'The answer is yes, we are!'”

“Whoever believes that Iran spent these astronomical sums only for the sake of 'electric energy' is either naïve or a fool,” Al Ansari proclaimed. “One has to throw out one's brain to believe this...! Why does Iran need to produce electricity in dangerous facilities that can disastrously leak radioactivity into the waters of the Gulf and are also very expensive, when it has dozens of sources of cheap and safe energy like oil, gas, hydroelectric dams, and sun and wind-powered facilities?”

Al Ansari noted that despite all of these facts, the Iranians have managed to successfully market their nuclear program as being for civilian purposes and to gain the confidence of the international community utilizing deception: “Iran distributed a fatwa allegedly issued by the Imam Khomeini or by Khamenei banning the possession and use of nuclear weapons. Iran managed to convince the U.S. president that this fatwa exists and Obama frequently mentions it and tries to convince the American people that it exists!”

Al Ansari asserts that this fatwa does not exist: “In fact, every Muslim knows that such a fatwa contravenes the Koranic verse ‘and prepare against them all that you can’ [Koran 8:60], which obliges the Muslims to use every means of power, including nuclear weapons, to deter the enemies, though not for offensive purposes. Furthermore, any fatwa can be abrogated by a counter-fatwa, according to the circumstances, situation and interests. In addition, the religious principle of taqiyya in dealing with enemies [i.e., hiding one's true beliefs to avoid oppression] is a fundamental principle of the Shia.”

Al Ansari is not the only journalist within the Arab world to be highly critical of the US seeking a rapprochement with Iran. According to MEMRI, a former TV director on Al Arabiya TV declared: “We in the Middle East have serious reservations about these negotiations and the first of them is the secrecy surrounding the talks! Obama’s administration intentionally kept its contacts and negotiations with Tehran a secret, even from its own regional allies.” He noted that such an approach contradicts how the US negotiated with North Korea, where regional allies played a critical part in the negotiations.

An article in Al Sharq Al Aswat criticized the Iran deal for sacrificing Arab interests in order to reconcile with Iran: “Since the Arabs were absent from the talks on Iran's nuclear program in Geneva... they became part of the price of the nuclear deal. What Iran gets in return for giving up the nuclear program is the absence of any constraint on its influence in the Arab countries. That is, Iran has been given a free hand in the region.”

MEMRI noted that Jasser Al Jasser furthermore wrote in the Saudi newspaper Al Jazirah: “Several analysts, if not all, regard Obama's letter to Iran's Supreme Leader as indicative of a pro-Iranian bias and as a continuation of Obama's negative policy towards the Arabs. This because it allows Iran freedom of action in the Arab region despite all the suspicions about the Iranian regime's complicity in terror! This American and Western bias in favor of Iran and against Arab interests refutes everything that has been said about the nature of the U.S. alliance with the Arab countries. The agreement that the Americans currently want to sign with the Iranian regime places the Arab interests 'on the negotiating table,' after the concerned Arab countries have been kept away from the negotiations. The absence of the Arabs from the negotiations has led to the expected results: Iranian interests may grow stronger and gain precedence in the Arab region, at the expense of Arab interests.”

Al Watan cartoon declares Iran hiding nuclear weapon at the negotiating table