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The Frightening Truth of Why Iran Wants a Bomb
(Telegraph-UK) Amir Taheri - Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club," President Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tete-a-tete) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941. Last year, after another khalvat, Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency to provoke a "clash of civilizations" in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the "infidel" West, led by the U.S., and defeats it in a prolonged contest that sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war. While Bush is determined to create a Middle East that is democratic and pro-Western, Ahmadinejad is equally determined that the region should remain pro-Iranian. Ahmadinejad has reactivated Iran's network of Shia organizations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Yemen, while resuming contact with Sunni fundamentalist groups in Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco. The Imam's return will coincide with an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil and righteousness, with evil ultimately routed. If the infidel loses its nuclear advantage, it could be worn down in a long, low-intensity war at the end of which surrender to Islam would appear the least bad of options. And that could be a signal for the Imam to reappear. The writer is a former executive editor of Kayhan, Iran's largest daily newspaper.