As you might have heard now, Iran has volunteered to send aid ships to Gaza. As stated in Tehran, “The Iranian Red Crescent has decided to send two aid ships to Gaza this week and has called for volunteers to act as relief workers and accompany the vessels, the state IRNA news agency reported.”
On top of this, “Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to escort aid flotillas to Gaza if the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei orders this, a Khamenei aide said on Sunday.
“The Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces are fully prepared to escort freedom and peace flotillas carrying humanitarian aid from all over the world to the oppressed people of Gaza,” Ali Shirazi, Khamenei’s naval representative, told the Mehr news agency.
“If the respected leader of the revolution (Khamenei) gives an order in this regard to the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces, it will take a practical step using its capability and equipment to escort flotillas to Gaza,” he said.
As Iran always did in the case of Palestinian conflict, they try to make use of the plight of Palestinians for their benefit. The “liberation of Palestine” was always part of the “Iranian Islamic Revolution” propaganda. But when you look in realities on the ground, they have never done anything good for Palestine or Palestinians except talk and raising Palestinian flags in their in-home demonstrations every now and then. Apart from that, they supported Hamas and still do so with little or no money to keep them alive in front of the other Palestinian parties. Whether this is good or not is debatable, but in general, non-Hamas supporters see no good in this relationship, but on the contrary it was always a reason for those who don’t support Hamas to stay away from it so that they will not be considered as Iran supporters.
Now let’s be clear here. We are not against Iran’s legitimate rights. Like all nations on earth, we respect and accept any government that is the voice of its people, that is, a democratically elected government, but this is not the case. On the other hand, we are absolutely not against any help offered to Palestinians, but we should always ask ourselves a question about anything that has to do with our struggle: at what cost?
Iran is at the centre of international pressure on account of its nuclear program issue, so the Gaza Freedom Flotilla issue and all the positive reaction the Palestinians are getting as a result of Israeli stupidity is going to be a goldmine for the Iran propaganda machine at a time when they need it. But who will buy it? Apparently, even Hamas has realised that underneath the surface, it would only exacerbate tensions if they accepted the offer. According to Stratfor sources:
June 7, 2010
Hamas rejected the request of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to escort vessels to break the siege imposed on Gaza, saying they do not want further tensions in the region, Al Sharq Al Awsat reported June 7. Hamas lawmaker Jamal al Khzri said the organization does not want any military intervention that could lead to further tension in the region or involve civil authorities to come to Gaza via military activities.Buy our Products | Sponsor us:
And this is how it appeared on Al Sharq Al Awsat website:
Translation:
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards offer to escort “Gaza ships” and Hamas rejects
While the Iranian Revolutionary Guards offered to escort “Gaza ships”, the Hamas Movement has rejected any military interference regarding the subject of ships that are trying to break the siege on Gaza. Hamas lawmaker Jamal al Khodari told “Al Sharq Al Awsat” that Hamas does not want any military intervention. [...]
Let’s look at it, who wants this siege on Gaza to end? Everyone but the Zionists! But if Iran enters this global wave of support to end the siege, who will have a stronger reason to make the siege all that more of a stranglehold and attempt to justify it? Of course, Israel! They always claimed that Iran is supplying Hamas with rockets (which no one has ever seen directly or indirectly), but what better reason can we give to Israel to oppose ending the siege? It would play straight into their propaganda.
Palestine was never of interest to Iran. The conflict has been going on for decades now, how many times did Iran shoot a single bullet towards the Israeli occupation (literally or hypothetically)? Never! All they want is attention for themselves and to provoke so they think they look like heroes.
Unfortunately, it’s lack of the Arab states’ positive action that gives Iran a space to play this game. But being late is better than never arriving. We Arabs all hope that our leaders take one positive action for Palestine, just once at least, maybe! But it should be a real, worthy and sustainable positive action, just for a change, not sounds and echoes.
We all should keep in our minds that the global movement isn’t about Iran! It’s about Palestine. Iran escalation is not needed as long as we have the world behind us. We certainly know that the world is not behind Iranian propaganda to send their Republican Guards to break the siege. In fact deep inside each one of us knows that Iran will never do it. But we also should be clear.
It should be clear that we absolutely do not support war on Iran or interference with their internal affairs, and official Iranians should understand that pro-peace and global support to Iran in this case does not mean that activists will support their cheap and selfish propaganda. Anti-war activists are not ignorant to buy this free media bubble. We support FREE Iranians, the Iranian people as a whole, not any specific Iranian government or the “Islamic Revolutionists” (although they have their own supporters around the world). We are anti-war and will always be because we love and support Iranians, not the “Iranian Islamic Revolution.” In fact official Iranians should understand that this game might cost them a lot of support, globally.
So, thank you Iran, but we don’t need your humanitarian aid.
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Would you be willing to receive aid from the US government ?
@osamah very good question. The answer is yes. But not only US government aid, even Iranian or any other country in the world, are all welcome. However, we have to be clear here. We are not interested in the aids itself or where it comes from. Our objective is ending the siege on Gaza and ending the occupation on Palestine in general.
Let me put it in other way. If Iran intention was only aid, they could have supported any of the previous convoys by goods and supply and that's it. In fact I think they have done this before and we thank them for it. But they should not think of doing anything more than that because as I explained, their intervention will give more reasons for Israel to reject the effort building up to end the siege.
Again, are we willing to receive aid from US government, yes, but this is not our objective. We want the siege to end once and for all. Gaza and Palestinians don't need aids, they need freedom.
Such a shame that the arab nationalist mentality still hasnt died.
'We Arabs all hope that our leaders take one positive action for Palestine, just once at least, maybe!'
Hahaha your filthy leaders are openly smiling and dancing the night away with US and Israeli oppressors and still you hope and pray and believe in them!
It won't happen, whereas both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said that Iran supports them more than any arab country. Is that for propaganda? No! Even Turkey has done more than the arabs even though they are playing a two faced game.
As an Arab, I tell you that they are NOT my leaders, they are treacherous scum, and anyone who calls them 'leaders' are with them and will be raised with them.
@Mohammad I agree with you, I have no hope in Arab regimes too. This is why I said "…maybe! … at least once for a change….." But let's be clear here: How did Iran support Hamas and Islamic Jihad? And what good did this support bring to Palestine and Palestinians?
The answer is simple. They might have given Hamas and Jihad some money and some explosives, so what?
Without those weapons the Israelis would have rolled over and finished the genocide which they are itching to. We have the right to defence and thanks to Iran we are doing that!
Without that money, there would be no government in Gaza, the government who let me remind you was elected!
Thats how they pay their policemen to keep the peace in Gaza, it puts food in mouths and clothes on backs. It creates Jobs. $500 million a year is a big amount so YES, it has brought plenty of good.
Iran forced Syria to withdraw from the sham of peace talks with Israel and warned the gulf states from recognising Israel.
Iran’s strategy is 100% correct, this is an enemy who doesn’t understand peace and ALWAYS betrays their treaty commitments. We must continue to isolate Israel from the other muslim and indeed international countries, not engage it. We must continue to put this pressure on Israel and this pressure is multi-faceted, it includes financial, diplomatic, political, and yes military pressure.
@Mohammad: Great! What is your source please? Not even Hamas ever announced or admitted this money or weapons, unless you work with Mossad!
Are you serious? You want to tell me that Iran supplied Hamas with weapons that is so huge and dangerous if used, that forced Israel to stop the genocide? You want to tell me that Israel can't kill more Palestinians because Hamas got Iranian weapons? Ok, fine. Why didn't Hamas use these weapons to finish Israel and get over it? When and how did Hamas get these weapons? and if they got so much weapons, why couldn't they use the same route to enter the food, aid and supplies to Gaza if this is their real aim?
I agree with you that peace talks without resistance is no use in its present form and that resisting occupation is a right for any people under any occupation.
Thank goodness,as a rational being,am aware of the fact that Palestine are not kindren of the Arabians.The Arabs rejected us and drove us out of the coastal line,we manage to settle here courtesy of the Israelis misfortune in the hand of Romans.Today,without much ado,the Arabs nations never really love the Palestine.Look at how we are been treated by the Arabs in Jordan,Syria and the Lebanon and Egypt.The Arab nations are reaping our gains in the hand of international community.One would have prefer a one united Isreal devided into 3 regions,westbank,Gaza and new israel,to be headed by the PM and three other premeires.We are tired of all this nonsense.Today is Iran,next day is syria and hezbulah all becomming obessed in the name of fighting for Palestine