KRISHNAN Guru-Murthy, of Channel 4 News, fairly recently interviewed the Iranian academic Mohammad Marandi, of the University of Tehran. Krishnan made the mistake of introducing Mohammad as “being close to the Iranian regime”. This, quite rightly in my view, got Mohammad’s hackles raised and he responded with: “I want to ask you a question. Did you call the person from Israel (who Krishnan had just previously interviewed) ‘close to the Israeli regime’ or is it just I that represent or am close to a ‘regime’? What’s a ‘regime’? It is the Islamic Republic of Iran! Show respect for my country!”
“I’m proud to be associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is the side that is defending the Palestinian people where your criminal government is helping the Israeli ‘regime’ [touche, Mohammad!] and this goes way beyond the last year”.
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Clearly Krishnan’s interview got off on the wrong foot, but I totally agree with the point Mohammad made. Krishnan went on to ask for Mohammad’s response to IraN launching missiles into Israel. He replied: “The way out is for the holocaust in Gaza to end. The way out is for the Israeli regime [that word again!] to stop slaughtering children. The way out is for the British regime to stop the Israeli regime carrying out these massacres”.
Mohammad later went on to say: “The US government were promising a ceasefire and they were lying. They were lying through their teeth. They knew they were lying. They were giving the Israeli regime time to carry on the slaughter. Just like the two-state solution was always a lie. It was put there to keep everyone quiet so the land grab can continue.”
He later stated: “Your government allows Israelis to bomb Syria, to bomb the occupied West Bank, to bomb and slaughter in Gaza. You’re constantly justifying it. Your government is constantly trying to make it seem that the Israeli regime has the right to do this.” Then later: “Your government pretend that you are more civilized than the rest of us and you help the Israeli regime to use bunker busters to slaughter people day and night. Your government is not benign.”
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My letter is in no way a defence of the Iranian government, which treats the women in Iran abominably, for example. It was more to do with Mohammad quite rightly highlighting the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the UK and US governments with regard to the current plight of Palestinians and now, of course, the Lebanese. Quite right too!
His visceral tone during the interview was palpable but totally understandable given the extreme actions of Netanyahu and his wild-eyed cronies. His government should definitely be described as a “regime”!
I was always taught that actions speak louder than words. If you are Palestinian or Lebanese, you get mere words, meaningless platitudes, from UK and US governments.
If you live in Israel, though, it’s most definitely positive actions you get from UK and US governments (arm sales, financial support, full political support, etc) irrespective of how many tens of thousands of Palestinians your army kills and maims, leaving the vast majority of the population of Gaza without a home.
Surely in Scotland we can do so much, much better than this UK Government. For those that deserted the SNP at the last election, is this really what you want?
Ivor Telfer
Dalgety Bay, Fife
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