THE LEADER of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Raphael Trotman, seems to be a politician so desperate for political power that he is quite disposed to making the politics of distortion a major plank, even when Guyana’s national interest is at stake.

How else to assess his sweeping claim that the Guyana Government is engaged in a plan with Iran to help its enrichment of uranium project for that country’s nuclear programme that is known to be a very controversial international issue at this time.

Having engaged in his mischief about alleged “secret talks” between the governing PPP and the main opposition PNCR — a claim denied by both parties — Trotman chose to attract more media attention to himself with his sweeping, irresponsible talk about an agreement between Guyana and Iran to facilitate that major Islamic republic in the enrichment of uranium for its nuclear programme.

Clearly designed to promote disharmony between Washington and Georgetown, Trotman’s political handlers, whoever they may be, obviously do not care about the harm this kind of talk could cause to Guyana’s national interest in their preoccupation with fanning the flames of distortion.

For its part, the Guyana Government has made it abundantly clear, following the recent official visit to Tehran by President Bharrat Jagdeo, that while Guyana and Iran were committed to promoting bilateral

cooperation, consistent with their sovereignty, no agreement has taken place on the issue of facilitating Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.

In responding to the Barbados-based Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), following a very misleading report out of Georgetown by another news agency, Presidential Adviser, Gail Texeira, was categorical in declaring Trotman to be “wrong and mischievous.”

In addressing the specific issue of an accord between Guyana and Iran, by which the Iranian government will provide technical assistance to this country to map its mineral resources, Texeira said:

`”As a small developing country, we need the technological assistance to get a real sense of what are our natural resources, especially the non-traditional ones that are there in terms of the quantity, and what may be their potential in the future…

“So we have a right to get that technological support from friendly countries, and countries that are willing to help us, bilaterally. These studies cost a fortune and, therefore, if Iran is ready to help, then so be it…”

The AFC’s leader is evidently on an ego trip to exploit current quarrels between Washington and Tehran by callously throwing Guyana into the political mix, simply to score cheap propaganda.

Such propaganda could, however, be costly to Guyana’s economic and general interest as a Caribbean state committed to strengthening friendship with all nations with which it has diplomatic relations — USA, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, Brazil and Suriname among them.