Are Iran and the US allies?

There is little good news in the Muslim Middle East. Countries fracture. They threaten to disintegrate. Chaos spreads like fire on a lake of high-octane gasoline.

Syria obliterates itself. Libya verges on being consumed by the Islamic State. Nigeria is attacked by the Boko Haram. Somalia is in shambles. Egypt loses parts of the Sinai peninsula to Jihadists. Yemen ignites. Lebanon gasps under Hezbollah. Gaza sinks under Hamas. Iraq and Afghanistan fight off Jihadists the way an outdoor diner fights flies that swarm around his dinner-plate.

The Middle East Muslim world crumbles. It chokes on its own blood. Two entities leave their fingerprints in this blood: Iran and ISIS. Israel has nothing whatsoever to do with any of it (Ben-Dror Yemini, “Someone in the White House is confused”, i24news, March 30, 2015).

It’s the war between Iran and ISIS that fuels this fire, not Israel (Amir Taheri, “We’re letting Iran and ISIS carve up Iraq”, New York Post, March 15, 2015). It’s an Iranian and ISIS drive for supremacy that feeds it, not Israeli settlements.

As a result, Arab identity disappears (i24news, ibid). In place of ‘Arab identity’, something new and dangerous emerges: an identity that is Islamic, tribal, sectarian (ibid)—and murderously aggressive.

The Arab world consumes itself in the name of allah. Hundreds, even thousands of Muslims monthly are murdered by other Muslims in the name of allah. Death spreads through the Muslim Middle East and Africa like a plague--in the name of allah.

Israel is not the cause of this. The cause is conquest-for-allah.

Allah drives this fight because ISIS and Iran are locked in an epic Islamic war. Iran is Shiite. ISIS is Sunni. Each seeks supremacy in the name of allah.

In the meantime, some Iranian officials are already claiming that a new Persian empire is taking shape across the Middle East (New York Post, above). Iran closes its hegemonic fist around its neighbours.

Saudi Arabia (a Sunni people) watches in alarm. How long will it remain quiescent? Will it add its own fuel to this fire?

For now, it’s Iran which spreads its bloody wings. It carves up Middle East geography like a vulture tearing at flesh.

The US won’t stay away. It steps into this bloody allah-inspired clash. While you slept, it made a decision: it will take sides. It will ally with Iran. It will ignore a more rational Saudi Arabia and back Iran (Abraham Miller, “Obama Backs Tehran's Push for Hegemony”, RealClearWorld, March 12, 2015). It will fight ISIS with Iran (S. Azmat Hassan, “ISIS and U.S.-Iran Relations”, Huffington Post, October 30, 2014).

Apparently, Iran and the US have become allies. Apparently, they’ve joined hands.

Apparently, they go to war together. They fight as one in a Muslim-Muslim war.

When did that happen? Do you know? More important, why would the US want to ally with a nation whose leader calls out, ‘Death to America’? (“Khamenei calls ‘Death to America’ as Kerry hails progress on nuke deal”, Times of Israel, March 21, 2015).

Can you answer that question? I can’t.

So far, deals have been made: the US will not attack Iran-backed fighters in Syria; Iran-backed fighters won’t attack American personnel in Iraq (Huffington Post, ibid). Both will attack ISIS.

Now, the US talks about how to stop its new ally Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But if the US and Iran are allies, how can they remain allies when they must oppose each other in these talks?

Well, maybe they don’t exactly oppose each other. Read criticisms of the deal. Is it possible these new allies work together?

Maybe they do. Maybe they’ve reached a compromise: Iran will get its ability to develop what it wants. The US will get an agreement for the ‘Obama legacy’.

That’s how allies work together, right?