Black Republican

First, Reza Pahlavi pushed for sanctions that put Iranians in despair. Then he demanded an uprising in which he put thousands at risk while sitting safely in a Washington suburb. When that failed, he promoted the narrative that only US-Israeli bombardment could bring down the theocracy. And now that has failed miserably; he promotes civil war in Iran by calling for the arming of various groups. There are two common themes in all of his advocacy: First, everything he calls for serves the interest of Israel - sanctions, war, and civil war. Second, all of his demands put all of the risk on Iranians in Iran and none of the risk on him. Whatever happens, regardless of how many people in Iran get killed, die from medicine shortages, or get crushed by the sanctions, Reza Pahlavi will remain safe and well funded.

When Carney gave his now-famous speech in Davos, many of us - perhaps naively - were excited that Canada would emerge as a global leader to reinforce international law and its principles. Ever since, Carney has worked hard, it appears, to disappoint us. Here, for instance, he downplays Trump's language of annihilation as mere "war talk" and goes on to repeat the Israeli line that Iran constitutes an existential threat to Israel. Carney's key point in Davos was that Western states applied international law "with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim." And that is exactly what Carney did here. He downplayed Trump's horrific language (would he have done it if Pezeshkian had uttered those words?) and then went on to indirectly justify the illegal war by repeating Israeli propaganda re Iran's threat to Israel. Deep inside, I knew he would disappoint. Just not this fast and not this embarrassingly.