Band of Brothers

It is reported that Iran has gotten support for its Nuclear Programme from fellow Muslim states of Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and Bangladesh, which together constitute the Developing Eight (D-8), in their summit in Indonesia over the weekend. Well, of course they will support Iran. Getting nuclear technology has been the ambition of many countries if only because it provides one with International recognition in terms of scientific and technological achievement, not to mention the potential military might that will endow it with a strong bargaining position anywhere in the world where muscle flexing is required.

To their credit, they did say that the support is for peaceful purposes, which is to be expected anyway. However, Iran is still openly against the existence of Israel (or to put it more 'positively', for the destruction of Israel) and any forces aligned with it. It must be pointed out that this support for Iran's nuclear technology is not universal among Muslim countries in the world. I believe Iraq is non too happy at this development, having fought a near decade war with Iran back in the 1980's. I am not sure about the Gulf countries either. So far they have chosen to remain silent on the matter. The US and Europe believe that Iran's ultimate aim is the production of nuclear weapons. Given Iran's their belligerence towards Israel and the fact that it has the world's second largest proven reserves of oil, only a fool will believe that Iran's nuclear ambitions are anything but peaceful. I fear that those whom it calls its brothers today may live to regret the day that it did not exert friendly pressure on its 'brother' to stay away from nuclear weapons production.

Even brothers quarrel, with some ending up betraying and killing each other. Look no further than Cain and Abel. This fact is almost as old as history itself.