Article: Ghazanfar In The Land Of The Blind

Ghazanfar Roknabadi is not a small town in Afghanistan or a game
played in Nigeria, nor it is a soap opera on the Turkish TV. It is
none of that at all. Ghazanfar Roknabadi is the name of the Iranian
Ambassador to Lebanon. He is probably the only ambassador in
diplomatic history that feels he has more say in the affairs of his
host country than the president of the country. This is no surprise
when one realizes that his solider on Lebanon's ground, Hassan
Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah militia in Lebanon, has an army
stronger than that of the country. Ghazanfar Roknabadi recently
gave many interviews ( In Arabic ) to various TV channels and
became a wanted figure for Middle Eastern media. Reason is the
recent breakthrough in US-Iranian relations history since the fall
of the Shah in 1979. My personal view is that the Iranians opened
up for two reasons. The sanctions that crippled their economy on
one side, and an attempt to shift the focus and pressure from their
Syrian agent, Bashar Assad. The way the pro-Iranian
propaganda machines in Lebanon are portraying the developments at
the UN conference in New York is indeed astonishing. In one of his
Interviews broadcasted on one of Lebanon's pro-Hizbullah tv
stations on 27SEP13, Ghazanfar was a master in projecting white as
black and black as white, and yet he believes that people believe
him. To me, this is the peak of nativity. The two main deception
are his attempt to show that Assad's giving up his chemical weapons
is a victory for Assad and his regime, and the US has finally given
up to the US. This is how politics played in the Middle East
unfortunately. There are media machines with one great skill only,
deception. The most annoying one to me when he answered a question
as to why Obama initiated contact whit Iranian president Rohani,
and what is behind this breakthrough. His answer was that
the US has tried very hard for thirty four years to change Iran's
position regarding many issues but when they failed, they realized
how powerful Iran is so they are now listening to us and they
should take advantage of our offer!. He stated that the
Americans should ( try their luck ) may be they will reach
agreement with us. When questioned that some critics feel Iran is
only trying to buy time till it's nuclear bomb is ready, he said :
These critics use this false allegations to push us to recognize
Israel !. He completely ignored a follow up question to this
that the new Iranian president has recognized the Holocaust as a
crime against Jewish people. This is his weakest point in the
entire interview. He never answered but spoke of his country
steadfast position. The Iranians Ayatullah, and their agents
in the Middle East, Assad regime and Hizbullah militia, for more
than thirty years, have been trading with Palestinian-Israeli
dispute as an extortion method and to get concessions where needed.
Palestine is the pretext, but the objective is to gain
political power and influence over the region, which later will
translate into economical benefit. One other important question to
him when he was asked whether the change in Iran's position is as a
result of Obama's speech or does it represent a new shift in
Iranian policy. His answer was that this breakthrough has nothing
to do with Obama's speech nor it reflects a policy change. He
continues: It is the culmination of thirty four years of planning
and patience. He stated: the West used to scare people from Iran
and I challenge any one to prove that we have conducted any
aggression against anybody since the revolution!! I wonder
how many thousand pages will appear if one retrieved from the World
news archives the subject of Iranian Ayatullah's support of
terrorism and related incidents. He spoke about Iran's democracy
and how many presidents have change in Iran but he was unable to
answer a follow up question on the value of democracy of you have a
supreme leader who doesn't change and his power over-rule that of
the elected president. On the sanctions issue, he stated: we
have everything we need from submarines under the oceans to space
projects to manufacturing civilian and military airplanes to
rockets to food production. He continued: we owe everything and we
are even exporting, we are strong and we now set the rules!!
For any observers, the sanctions are crippling the Iranian economy
and if it continues for a couple of more years, the Ayatullah's
regime will come down crumbling, but this how such regimes survive
with lies and deception mastery. On the Syrian crisis his view was
that the only way out is for the US and its allies is to stop
arming and funding the Syrian Opposition, but he will never spoke
about Iran's puppet, Hizbullah, who is killing the Syrian people
and crippling Lebanon's stability. He also never spoke about the
Iranian republican guard fighters in almost every Syrian town.
Finally, the most noticeable of his answers is when asked whether
they trust this change in US position towards Iran. He said that he
doesn't trust what the Americans say, we have to see if their
actions meet their words!! Who is talking? Ghazanfar
Roknabadi, The Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon. He is no doubts under
the illusion that he lives in a land where everyone else other than
himself is deaf and blind.