Tehran, January 31: A prominent British journalist says the West is selling the possibility of confrontation with Iran by exaggerating the threat of Tehran’s nuclear program through media manipulation.
“Manipulation of the media and public opinion through systematic threat exaggeration through which the growing confrontation with Iran is being sold by the US, Israel and West European leaders is deeply dishonest,” wrote Patrick Cockburn in an article published in The Independent on Sunday.
Cockburn added that “the supposed aim of imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and central bank is to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program before it reaches the point where it could theoretically build a nuclear bomb.”
The United States and the European Union have recently slapped unilateral sanctions against Iran’s oil and banking sectors based on the allegation that Tehran’s nuclear program may consist of a covert military aspect.
Iran has repeatedly refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tehran has a right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.
“Those who are deepening the crisis are very much the same people who targeted Iraq in the 1990s. They have been able to force the White House to adopt their program and it is now, in turn, being implemented by a European Union that naively sees sanctions as an alternative to military conflict,” Cockburn wrote.
The British journalist concludes that in reality, sanctions are likely to intensify the crisis, impoverish ordinary Iranians and psychologically prepare the ground for war against Tehran by demonizing Iran.
“To the White House and European leaders, sanctions may appear preferable to armed conflict. Unfortunately, history shows that long embargoes kill more people than brief wars.”
——Agencies