The Lebanon Ceasefire
By GARY LEUPP
Counter Punch
"The deployment of a UN-legitimated, probably French-led force in south Lebanon is in theory designed to "secure the border." But UNIFIL itself has reported nearly daily violations of Lebanese airspace by Israel since the Israeli withdrawal from the area in 2000. (Lebanese of all faiths credit this withdrawal to the efforts of Hizbollah fighters.) In reality the expanded UNIFIL mission is intended to eliminate Iran's ability to respond to imperialist aggression against itself through the use of its Lebanese allies. It's a mission preparatory to that aggression, preceding Iran's expected rejection of the U.S.-backed "generous offer" to Iran and reiteration of its inalienable right according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium.
"We are creating a situation where everything we're going to try short of military force is going to fail," says Ilan Berman, an Iran specialist with the American Foreign Policy Council, which advocates an aggressive posture towards Iran.
Back in May, when the U.S. agreed to join in talks with the Iranian regime if it agreed to suspend uranium enrichment," the U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton told Neil Cavuto of Fox News that Bush was "taking this step to show strength and American leadership. He's doing it to say 'We gave Iran this last chance to show they are serious when they say, "We don't want nuclear weapons." This is 'put up or shut up' time for Iran." It was in fact setup time for Iran.
So how indeed can this UN deployment in Lebanon, taking shape as I write, aid the neocons' and AIPAC's ambition to topple the government of Iran? By wedding the U.S. Europe, and Israel in the common cause of disarming the most admired armed force in the Middle East and broader Muslim world, and thus involving them all cooperatively in an effort calculated to provoke Syria and Iran. "
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