Iran has declared war on the rest of the world

22 July 2006

Douglas Davis says that this conflict can be traced back to the transport via Damascus of a lethal consignment of weapons from Tehran to Hezbollah

Finally, if Hezbollah is able to emerge with even a shred of military credibility from its encounter with Israel when the Security Council calls time, the outcome will be perceived as a huge victory for Islamism. It is a ‘triumph’ that is likely to carry the seeds of accelerated radicalisation, with possibly devastating consequences — not only for the West but also for a clutch of Middle East states that are already facing a burgeoning Islamist threat: Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and, of course, Lebanon itself.

Concern rather than outrage was the dominant theme at the hastily convened Arab League summit in Cairo last weekend. Arab foreign ministers, many of whom have now concluded that Israel’s enemies are theirs too, railed helplessly at the international community for failing to fulfil their promise to bring peace to their turbulent region.

The heady days of sterile Arab League rhetoric are coming to a close. The ritual denunciations of the Zionist entity are muted. The extravagant expressions of pan-Arab solidarity are barely whispered. A new reality is in the air. Hezbollah’s attack last week represents the opening salvo in Iran’s war against the West — and anyone else who stands in its way.
Douglas Davis, a former senior editor on the Jerusalem Post, is a member of the Middle East Writers’ Group