Q&A: 'War on Terror Served Iran's Interests Best'

LAHORE, Pakistan, Sep 16 (IPS) - Eminent writer, historian and filmmaker Tariq Ali was born in Lahore in 1943. While a student at Oxford University, he became involved in the movement against the war in Vietnam. That was the beginning of a long career in the literary arts and in peace activism that has earned him iconic status.

Ali’s book ‘The Leopard and the Fox’, released this year, was originally written as the script for a TV drama commissioned in 1985 by the BBC that depicted the circumstances that led to the hanging of Pakistan’s first elected prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The book explains how BBC was compelled to withdraw the three-part series because Pakistan’s then military dictator, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, was a key ally of the West in the war to expel the Soviets from Afghanistan.

When IPS correspondent Aoun Abbas Sahi interviewed Ali, who was in Pakistan recently, the writer, known for his incisive political commentaries, explained why he believed U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan was doomed to fail from the start -- because of the Iran factor.

Excerpts from the interview:

IPS: Who, according to you, is the main beneficiary of the United States-led ‘war on terror’?

Tariq Ali (TA): Undoubtedly Iran. But then the Americans could not have occupied Afghanistan and Iraq and without Iran’s support. This is what no one likes talking about. Had the Iranians said, if you take Iraq we will fight you, the occupation probably would not have taken place. But the Iranians, who regarded the Taliban and Saddam Hussain as enemies, kept silent. The Americans thought, because the Iranians supported them before they went in, things would be fine. But the Iranians were opportunists. They had their own agenda and defended their own state interests -- just like the U.S. defends its state interests. These state interests are now clashing and so the U.S. is threatening Iran.

IPS: How important is the role of the al-Qaeda in this scenario of strong resistance against Western forces both in Afghanistan and Iraq?

TA: Al-Qaeda utilises American mistakes and disasters. It grows as a result of these mistakes … because the only solution is political, not military. Al Qaeda, instead of being reduced in size, has grown because of American military adventures abroad. You cannot defeat people just by killing. It’s not the case that all the groups in Afghanistan fighting under the Taliban umbrella, are supporters of al-Qaeda. The Taliban itself is divided and split on this question.

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