Alan Johnson writes about the denialism by sections of the left about the true nature of the Iranian regime, typified by New Statesman Political Editor Mehdi Hasan's recent apologetics:
"There is no nuclear threat" wrote Hasan in the New Statesman on November 11, just days after the IAEA confirmed that, actually, there was. Less than a week later, in a Comment is Free article titled: "If you lived in Iran, wouldn't you want the nuclear bomb?" he doubled down on his earlier denial, penning an astonishing defence of the Iranian regime premised on the claim that there was "still no concrete evidence that Iran is building a bomb".
Hasan advised us to ignore the IAEA report because the leaders of the Islamic Republic – from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to the bombastic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – had said "their goal is only to develop a civilian nuclear programme, not atomic bombs".
It is important to register what Hasan was proposing – to put the word of Iran's "Supreme Leader" above the considered judgment of the IAEA. The UN-affiliated body, which is responsible for monitoring the use of nuclear power, works by consensus and is careful to maintain the trust of all the major world powers.
Worth reading in full. And the apologetics on Comment is Free continue with the latest from Seumas Milne on "the covert US-Israeli campaign against Tehran":
There is in fact no reliable evidence that Iran is engaged in a nuclear weapons programme….
Well, where else apart from the Guardian would you expect to go nowadays to find regular support for a theocratic regime that sponsors terrorism world-wide, kills gays, denies the Holocaust, and brutally suppresses any dissent?
Mick Hartley 
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