Iran does not exist in my world...

[debgeisler]

...but in a reality all its very own. Al Jazeera's coverage of the plot the US government says was crafted by members of the Iranian government (to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US and others):

Iran has vigorously rejected US allegations that it had backed a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, with a senior official describing them as a "childish, amateur game".

Ali Larijani, the parliament speaker, said on Wednesday that the "fabricated allegations" aimed to divert attention from Arab uprisings that Iran says are inspired by its own Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah in 1979.

Damn, they're full of themselves.

Seems to me that the Arab uprisings happened all on their own...and not from something 32 years ago in a country which is now pretty doggone repressive. But that's just me, of course, and I don't live in the middle east.

Comments

[lauriemann.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the months between the time the Shah fell and the time the Ayathollah took over...

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Juan Cole has a hypothesis that would explain it: Iran being a country of 70 million odd people, it wasn't the government that ordered the hit, but a good old-fashioned opium smuggler. In which case, going via a Mexican narcoterrorist cartel makes total sense (in a way that it wouldn't, if the culprits were an actual national-level espionage organization). And, oh, the fact that the last thing the Iranian government needs is to hand Obama an excuse to go bombing in an election year. Right?

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

The Cole hypothesis is interesting. One wonders about motive (unless the opium smuggler were, of course, being directed by the government for maximum deniability).

And, oh, the fact that the last thing the Iranian government needs is to hand Obama an excuse to go bombing in an election year. Right?

Yes, I'd gotten there, too. Although I'd be more suspicious if the timing were a bit later.

The Saudis seem satisfied with the evidence of the plot...but, given their increased antipathy to Iran since March, that could just be a matter of convenience.