Okaz AFTER the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, the first thing it did was to engage in an eight-year-war with neighboring Iraq, killing more than a million people, half of them innocent civilians. During this war, Iranian warplanes and ships threatened the international navigation in the Arabian Gulf. Anyone would feel an Iranian military presence in this tense and explosive waterway terrifying. Iran has committed massacres either by its armed militia, sectarian groups, the Republican Guards or hired mercenaries. In this case, can we consider Iran an Islamic power that can protect the security and stability of the region? The answer is, no doubt, a big NO. Experience has taught us that Iran was the main instigator of trouble and the force behind disruption of stability in the Gulf. It has a hand in every conflict in the region. Iran had a hand in every terrorist act in the GCC countries starting with the Haj riots and continuing through the recent aggressive activities in Al-Maswarah district of Awamiyyah. It definitely had a hand in the explosions in Moaissem and Al-Khobar. It was also behind an assassination attempt against Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, the late Emir of Kuwait. This is apart from Iran›s continued support to terrorist organizations including Al-Qaeda whose leaders it had hosted. Iran has been planting terrorist cells in neighboring countries, recruiting traitors and inciting violence in Qatif as well as in Bahrain. It is a fact that Iran has been rekindling the lamps of crises and pouring oil on their flames. It is true that Iran is a might military force but it is not an Islamic power that will preserve the security and stability of the region. It is a bullying force wearing the garb of racism with the turban of sectarianism on its head.
