The dangerous obsession of Trump with Iran
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by Ishaan Tharoor July 24, 00:59 AM Send an email to the author
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In the feverish political landscape of the United States, supporters of President Trump often criticize the latter as a symptom of a condition: " Trump derangement syndrome ". The opponents of Trump are so possessed by their contempt for him, according to the diagnosis, that they adopt positions and pursue political objectives that they would never have envisaged in another context. Examples cited include the Russophobia found in some American liberals and the precipitate rejection of Trump's North Korean overtures, signs of a partisan tribalism supposedly displacing political logic.
But Trump and his lieutenants are guilty of their own disturbing syndromes. most ostensibly when it comes to Iran. Even though Trump has done everything possible to come to terms with an autocrat in Moscow, to have embraced Arab monarchs abusing human rights and to celebrate his sympathy with the most isolated dictator in the world, he sees Tehran an implacable and irreconcilable enemy
. Sunday night, the White House has raised tensions with the Islamic Republic. Trump has published a dramatic tweet, addressing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in capital letters: "NEVER, NEVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES OR YOU HAVE CONSEQUENCES THAT HAVE ALWAYS SUFFERED SOMETHING FROM ALL HISTORY." [19659009] To the Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES WHERE YOU HAVE CONSEQUENCES THAT HAVE ALWAYS SUFFERED SOME OF ALL THE HISTORY. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL DEFEND YOUR WORDS SPENT OF VIOLENCE AND DEATH.
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018
The tweet received an optimistic response from Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the following day.
Trump's anger was apparently triggered by comments that Rouhani made on Sunday at a meeting with Iranian diplomats. "America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and the war with Iran is the mother of all wars," said Rouhani, warning the government. Trump administration not to engage in efforts to overthrow the Iranian regime. 19659013] Rouhani seemed to offer a rebuttal to the speech made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later in the day. During the speech, Pompeo launched a long-running attack on Iran's political leaders, arguing that the theocratic regime was a corrupt "kleptocracy" and a "mafia".
"To our Iranian American and Iranian friends tonight I tell you that the Trump administration" The dreams of Pompeii are the last dreams of a broader diplomatic offensive against Iran, " said Pompeo, "through our work and the providence of God."
.Since she denied her nuclear deal with Tehran, the White House is pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran and encouraged all the glimmers of protest in the country.Trump has also always regarded Iran as a global threat, parroting the talking points of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the country's corrosive influence in the Middle East.
There is no doubt that senior Trump officials want a regime change, Pompeo and many of his former colleagues at Capitol Hill support the support of anti-regime organizations in the Iranian diaspora who have little say in the House. National Security Advisor John Bolton, who has spent most of his career in Iran, issued a statement reiterating Trump's threats. "I've talked to the President in recent days," reads, "and President Trump told me that if Iran did anything to the negative, it would pay a price as little as of countries have already paid. " A [19459042LacoteriedasotherinseconserversofWashington who once defended the Iraqi invasion resurfaced, calling for a new confrontation
That is why many Iranian analysts are wary of the parallels between Trump's current tweets and the "fire and the fury". "In contrast to the case of North Korea, the hostility towards Iran is quite ideological in this administration," said Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group
. Many Iranians now associate the country's economy with the collapse of the country, angry that the nuclear deal has not produced the economic benefits that it has. had promised. The Trump administration "has reinforced the hand of uncompromising Iranian factions, in the clerical and judicial establishment as well as in the guards of the revolution, who have always said that it was a mistake to reach an agreement with the United States, "Najmeh reported. Bozorgmehr of the Financial Times. "These groups, who believe that their position was justified, were able to use the threats of Mr. Trump and others to reaffirm their authority, adding to the pressure on Mr. Rouhani, whose credibility was severely damaged by its failure to Washington's new economic restraints. "
This could provoke a reaction from the regime, via its proxy forces in various corners of the Middle East. "Western countries need to be aware that if they put too much pressure on Iran, it could trigger radical Shiite forces and unleash a new wave of Islamic radicalism," Hossein Marashi, a reformist politician, told reporters. Tehran.
Washington supporters want Sunday, Pompeo dismissed any prospect of real political differences in Tehran, arguing that Rouhani and Zarif are only polite "henchmen" for the international project of the ayatollah . "Trump's lieutenants are positioning themselves as champions of revolutionary change in Iran – or for an armed conflict with an increasingly cornered adversary.
But the demagoguery of the Trump administration on this front is unlikely to galvanize popular discontent in Iran. "More US threatens Iran and more ordinary Iranians face economic hardships" Leadership in Tehran, says Vaez at Today's WorldView, is adept at surviving and to just close the hatches and wait for the Trump administration
.My colleague Jason Rezaian, who spent a year and a half in an Iranian jail, attended the event. Pompeo. "The essence of what Pompeo said about the depravity of the Iranian rulers was true," wrote Rezaian, "but when coupled with the United States, it goes directly." Wounding the Iranians – in particular, sanctio Strict economic and travel ban recently maintained – it is difficult for the administration to support its own claims that the well-being and prosperity of Iranians are important. "
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