Attack on Iran will undermine world order: South Alabama University professor

TEHRAN, March 14 (MNA) – Any U.S. military adventure against Iran for its nuclear program “will undermine the foundation of world order and its tremors will be felt for years to come,” says a South Alabama University professor. “Such an attack will have a spiraling effect that will affect global economy in the energy sector and beyond,” Professor Nader Entessar told the Mehr News Agency. In recent weeks Israel has toughened its rhetoric against Iran, threatening to launch air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. However, Entessar said, “Without U.S. involvement, Israel will not be able to sustain any military attack on Iran.” Following is the text of the interview: Q: Is there a possibility of military attack against Iran? If so, why? A: A day doesn't go by without someone in the U.S calling for waging war against Iran. Attacking Iran now seems to have become an integral part of the foreign policy platform of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runners in this year's U.S. presidential election. But last week (late Feb.), Tucker Carlson, a Fox News commentator, took this argument a step further when he stated in the Fox News's late-night show "Red Eye": "I think we are the only country with the moral authority [...] sufficient to do that [to attack Iran]. [The U.S. is] the only country that doesn’t seek hegemony in the world. I do think, I’m sure I’m the lone voice in saying this, that Iran deserves to be annihilated. I think they’re lunatics. I think they’re evil." Although several commentators have expressed alarm at the disastrous consequences of a war against Iran, the political rhetoric in the United States has become exceedingly dangerous. On February 16, 2012, the U.S. Senate, supported by the pro-Israeli lobby, introduced a resolution urging Obama "to reaffirm the unacceptability of an Iran with nuclear-weapons capability and oppose any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to the Iranian nuclear threat." This resolution, which in its present form is nonbinding, is as close as one gets to a declaration of war. Q: If military threats against Iran become a reality what will be its consequences for the Middle East? A: It will be disastrous for the security of the Middle East and, for that matter, the entire world, if the United States decides to launch an attack on Iran. Such an attack will undermine the foundation of world order and its tremors will be felt for years to come. Specifically, many U.S. regional allies whose very existence is already based on tenuous pillars and many of whom lack popular legitimacy, will be the victims of any Western aggression against Iran. Also, such an attack will have a spiraling effect that will affect global economy in the energy sector and beyond. Q: What is your view of Israeli threats against Iran? A: Without U.S. involvement, Israel will not be able to sustain any military attack on Iran. Even the most ardent Israeli supporter in U.S. Congress is aware of this fact. That is why Israel, despite its public posturing, has to get the U.S. on board before it can seriously entertain the idea of attacking Iran. Nader Entessar is professor of the University of South Alabama. He is the author of Kurdish Ethnonationalism (1992) and the co-editor of Reconstruction and Regional Diplomacy in the Persian Gulf (Routledge, 1992) and Iran and the Arab world.