[R-G] Iran as Regional Hegemon

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://montages.blogspot.com/2007/10/iran-as-regional-hegemon.html>
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Iran as Regional Hegemon

The Financial Times reports that "Iran is ready to help the US
stabilise Iraq if Washington were to present a timetable for
withdrawing its troops from the country, Tehran's top security
official [Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council]
said yesterday" (Roula Khalaf and Najmeh Bozorgmehr, "Iran Ready to
Work with US on Iraq," 30 September 2007).

Why doesn't Washington take the offer? Because its offer is to help
Washington withdraw from Iraq, leaving a government friendly to Iran
there. That is the last thing Washington wants, in fact, which is why
it has not and will not take it. What Washington wants, instead, is to
ensure that Iraq won't fall into the hands of Iran after it leaves --
hence the reluctance to withdraw any time soon.

What do leftists say about the offer? Urge Washington to take it? No.
Again, there is no coherence on the Left. Herein lies the problem.
Only if Washington accepts Iran becoming a regional power, potentially
capable of achieving hegemony over Iraq after US withdrawal, will it
withdraw from Iraq. But some leftists have trouble accepting Iran
becoming such a regional hegemon -- that's subimperialism or perhaps
even imperialism in their opinion. So, there is no counter-discourse
to the notion that "we can't let Iran have Iraq."

--
Yoshie