The following are excerpts from a television debate on Iran's policies in the Middle East, between Lebanese-American Middle East studies researcher Dr. Walid Fares and Iranian researcher Muhammad Sadeq Al-Husseini. The debate aired on Al-Jazeera TV on September 25, 2007.
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Dr. Walid Fares: "In my opinion, it is the Iranian regime that wages wars. It is this regime that started these wars, threatens its neighbors, supplies weapons and equipment to the terrorists, and declares that it will wipe out entire emirates and countries. The Iranian regime transfers weapons to the Taliban even though it hates them, because it wants to fan the flames of war against the democratically elected government in Kabul. The Iranian regime still occupies the Arab Tunb islands, and it has recently threatened to annex Bahrain.
"The Iranian regime sends weapons to Hizbullah in order to topple the Lebanese government. The Iranian government arms Hamas not only against Israel, but against the Palestinians too, and the massacres perpetrated in Gaza were encouraged by the Iranian regime. It maintains a strategic alliance with the Syrian regime, which is accused of assassinating the former prime minister of Lebanon, as well as MPs. Considering this campaign by the Iranian regime, as well as its interference in Iraqi affairs, by arming terror cells within Iraq – how can you possibly claim that the world is threatening Iran? It is Iran that is threatening the region and the entire world. Its activity has even reached Argentina. Today, in the U.N., the Argentinean president attributed the bombings of the early 1990s to cells linked to Iranian agencies."
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"Yesterday, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said in New York that he would like the Iraqi people to have a referendum. Great, but why doesn’t he arrange a referendum for the Iranian people? Why does he want referendums all over the world except in Iran? We address this question to the Iranian leadership. Why doesn't it hold a referendum on all its policies, including nuclear energy? If it wants a nuclear bomb, it should tell us who the enemy is and on whom it wants to drop it, and it should hold a referendum for the Iranian people on this."
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Muhammad Sadeq Al-Husseini: "First of all, democracy in Iran is more honorable than the old democracies in London and Paris and than the rule achieved fraudulently by George Bush, who was not really elected president. We have 27 elections every day, and there is a change of government from the extreme right to the extreme left – the right, the left, the religious stream, the liberal-religious stream, with a little bit of sugar, with a lot of sugar, clerics, and civilians... [The Iranian regime] believes in all the streams. Changes of government are carried out smoothly, unparalleled in the history of this region, which is surrounded by a bunch of dictatorships. Do you know what [the Americans] want? They want security and stability for General Musharraf, who is slaughtering his nation with worn-out shoes..."
Interviewer: "Worn-out shoes?"
Muhammad Sadeq Al-Husseini: 'That's right. With worn-out shoes, General Musharraf is slaughtering this great nation – the nation of Nuristan, which ranges from Afghanistan to Pakistan and India, and which used to be called the nation of Nuristan."
Interviewer: "[The Americans] turn a blind eye to his nuclear program?"
Muhammad Sadeq Al-Husseini: 'Not only that, but they even sign agreements with him in order to contain India and Pakistan, and to neutralize this great nation in order to remove it from the equation, so that they themselves will become the ruling empire."
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Dr. Walid Fares: "How come this regime sends hundreds of millions of dollars to Hizbullah and Hamas, so they can fight and launch barbaric operations, while the [Iranian] people cannot join even the middle class? I would like a response from the Iranian leadership."
Muhammad Sadeq Al-Husseini: "The Iranian leadership responds to the legitimate demand of the noble Arab-Iranian people of Al-Ahwaz to fight for the sake of Palestine. But those who stand in the way are those intellectuals who want a mandate rule of democracy. Their collaborators and cronies in Lebanon say that the Iranians must not show solidarity with the Lebanese, that the Syrians must not show solidarity with the Lebanese, and that the Arabs and Muslims must not show solidarity with the Palestinians. [They say]: We must slaughter them one by one, or leave them alone.
"When the Arab and Muslim martyrdom-seeking brothers in Al-Ahwaz, who are ready to liberate Palestine, want to take action, the first to stand in their way are those people who await the 'airborne democracy.' They dropped this democracy on Iraq, thinking that the proud Iraqi Arab people would greet them with roses and basil. It greeted them with explosive devices and organized warfare. It greeted them with heroic resistance and political resistance. It brought them to their knees at the bottom of the Iraqi quagmire, and made them plead for help from Damascus and Tehran, and from any power in the world: 'God, make one of the neighboring countries rescue us from our plight.' Even Kissinger said that."
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"Any American, British, or other member of the white race who participates in the war against the Muslims, will pay a steep and heavy price."
