The Enemy

The recent series of attacks in Iran -- shootings at President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's campaign office, an arson attack of a mosque and a bomb found on a place, all amidst a tense electoral campaign and even regional machination, are a most intriguing development. Of course, the Iranians know exactly who to blame. Yet again, it seems, they've uncovered a dastardly plan by none other than The Enemy:

Enemy Seeking to Show Iran Insecure on Threshold of Election

TEHRAN (FNA)- The enemy has always sought to portray Iran as an unsafe and insecure country on the verge of elections in the Islamic Republic, a senior airport security official said Sunday, following an attempted bomb attack on a domestic flight.

The bombing attempt occurred Saturday on a Kish Air flight heading to Tehran from the oil-rich southwestern city of Ahvaz near the border with Iraq.

"The enemy has always striven to show the country's atmosphere insecure on the threshold of great decisions by the Iranian nation and now it aims to create such an atmosphere on the verge of (presidential) election to affect peoples' minds and opinions," Lieutenant Commander of Iran's Airports Security Corps Colonel Mohammad Hassan Kazemi told FNA.

The vigilance of the nation has nipped all enemies' plots against the country in the bud, Kazemi added.

He reiterated that Iran always considers intensifying security measures based on different conditions, adding that preciseness and speed of action among flight security units have increased more than before.

Kazemi also boasted that enemies have not even been successful in hi-jacking Iranian planes in the last 25 years.

Well lucky that Lieutenant Commander Kazemi is watching out for The Enemy.

P.S. I highly recommend you watch this public service video about The Enemy from Iran's intelligence services we linked back in February 2008. And in all fairness, Iran is not the only country worried about having an Enemy: Is Iran the Enemy? - Time. I would love to see more examples of references to The Enemy (whoever's enemy he may be) - please leave them in the comments.

Comments

[Benjamin_Geer]

Sometimes I wonder if Ahmedinejad is trying to imitate Nasser. Today's issue of Al-Hayat quotes him as saying that former president Khatami's signing of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty "spurred the nation's enemies to keep increasing their demands on it", adding: "We have shown that the red line of the Iranian nation is its independence and its interests. The world must realise that if the Iranian nation's steadfastness and the defence of its independence is a risk, this nation prefers that risk to a hundred bargaining initiatives that ruin the country and and cast it to the winds." (That's an English translation of an Arabic translation, but I couldn't find a Persian-to-English translation of Ahmedinejad's remarks.)

This reminded me of the sorts of things Nasser used to say in speeches, e.g. this one from 15 April 1956:

<blockquote dir="rtl">وقد أحاط بنا الأعداء؛ الأعداء الذين كانوا يريدون دائماً أن نكون ضعفاء مستضعفين، أن نكون لهم ذيولاً، أن نأخذ منهم الأمر، ألا تكون لنا سياسة منبعثة من ضميرنا، وألا تكون لنا سياسة منبعثة من وطننا، وألا تكون لنا سياسة منبعثة من مصلحتنا .. سنسير قدماً إلى الأمام من أجل مصلحة مصر، ومن أجل عزة مصر، ليس لنا من سبيل إلا سياسة حرة مستقلة، تنبعث من ضمير هذا الشعب، وتنبعث من مصلحة هذا الشعب

("The enemies have surrounded us, the enemies that have always wanted us to be weak and vulnerable, to be their appendages, to take orders from them, not to have a policy that springs from our conscience, from our country, from our interest. . . . We will move ahead for the sake of Egypt's interest, for the sake of Egypt's pride. There is no path for us except a free, independent policy that springs from the conscience of this nation, from the interest of this nation.")

Or this one from 26 July 1956 in which he announced the nationalisation of the Suez canal:

<blockquote dir="rtl">هذا الشعب جميعه - ٢٣ مليون - كلهم حيكافحوا فى سبيل العزة اللى تحققت، وفى سبيل الاستقلال لأخر قطرة فى دمهم

("All 23 million people in this nation will struggle for the pride that has been achieved and for independence, to the last drop of their blood.")