Halpern: Why Israel should be afraid of… Zimbabwe?

by Micah Halpern

The United States is organizing, urging and entreating their partners and allies, those countries who believe as the United States believes that a nuclear Iran is a threat to the entire world, to reach out to their own friends and allies. The mission is to keep the world safe. The plan is to put forth a fourth round of sanctions against Iran.

Iran has other plans.

As the United States and other Western countries sweat it out, working hard to organize the powers that be at the United Nations and within the Security Council, Iran bobs and weaves and maneuvers with apparent ease lining up supporters for their own cause.

Over the past four months Iran has engaged in secret negotiations with Zimbabwe. An agreement between the two countries was signed just a few days ago and has been made public. According to the agreement Iran now has mining rights to Zimbabwean uranium ore.

The best guesstimate is that Zimbabwe’s uranium ore deposits are huge, but no one knows for sure. Iran will begin mining and in exchange, Zimbabwe will receive much needed oil. It is a win-win situation for both countries. Zimbabwe is strapped for oil and fuel. They have great untapped uranium, but no money with which to mine their lodes. Iran’s uranium stock piles, old and imported from South Africa in the 1970’s, are almost totally depleted. Iran and Zimbabwe each get what they want, they each get what they need.

Would the Western world have ever persuaded Zimbabwe to join their fight? Never. Zimbabwe continues to be ruled by Robert Mugabe, the iron fisted thug, the mass murderer, the man who is persona non grata across the Western world.

Mugabe could not care less about the United Nations, the Security Council, international condemnation, sanctions or his reputation. Mugabe does what he thinks is best for Robert Mugabe. And right now Mugabe needs fuel and has uranium.

Iran is the perfect partner.

Few people saw this alliance coming. Only a handful are paying attention now. That’s a mistake.

That is what makes Iran such a formidable foe. Iranians know how senseless sanctions against them are, they know sanctions are extremely difficult to impose and how even more difficult they are promote. They understand, too, that there is the calculated risk that goods may be confiscated as they make their way to Iran but that is a price they are all too willing to pay.

Zimbabwe does not stand alone. There are many countries out there that can easily be persuaded to join with Iran, some out of economic need, some out of fear of Iran, some because like Iran, they despise the United States and the West. To ignore those countries is a mistake.

Every country has a diplomatic Achilles heel. The West must make every effort to sway as many non-allied, non-friendly countries as they can. The West needs to invest energy in those non allied countries and forge relationships and gain information. Information is power.

And by the way Iran is a very powerful enemy.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist and a social and political commentator. Read his latest book THUGS. He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com.