Iran Focus
London, 22 Nov – Struan Stevenson, president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association, wrote an article for UPI.com in which he discusses how the Trump administration will deal with Iran. He pointed out that during his campaign, he said the nuclear deal with Iran was a terrible deal. “I’ve been doing deals for a long time. I’ve been making lots of wonderful deals, great deals. That’s what I do. Never, ever, ever in my life have I seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated as our deal with Iran. And I mean never.”
Congressman Mike Pompeo, R-Kan. has been selected by Trump as the new CIA director. Senior congressional insiders and foreign policy experts are delighted by this choice as they say he has been recognised for being ruthless towards Iran’s unyieldingness. He has also investigated the Obama administration’s secret negotiations with Tehran. He also exposed the ransom money – more than $2 billion that was paid to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages.
Veteran Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. is the nominee for attorney general. He voted against the nuclear deal in the Senate saying it was a “mistake” and a “wrong decision” for the United States.
One of Trump’s highest-profile backers and possibly the new secretary of state is Rudy Giuliani, the ex-mayor of New York City. Giuliani has criticised the nuclear deal and is also a supporter of the Mojahedin-e Khalq – the main Iranian opposition group.
Ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich is also up for a key post. He was a top advisor to Trump during the campaign and is also a big supporter of the Iranian opposition and critic of the Iranian regime.
Stevenson said that Trump and his Cabinet members are likely to keep a close eye on Iran’s behaviour with regards to the nuclear deal and will have a plan in place if Iran breaches the deal. He believes that, unlike President Obama, Trump will not be so “easily fooled” by President Hassan Rouhani. Trump can see right through his claims to be moderate.
The reality is that over 3,000 executions have taken place during President Rouhani’s time in office. He has been president at a time when there have been more executions per capita in Iran than in any other place in the world.
Stevenson said: “The smiling Rouhani justifies such barbarity by saying that the death penalty is God’s judgment on offenders. Nevertheless juveniles and women are regularly hanged, often in public and medieval punishments such as amputations, eye gouging, lashing and stoning to death are commonplace.”
He said that Obama based his Middle East policy on extending a hand to Iran based on appeasements and concessions thinking that it could change the regime that is developing nuclear weapons, sponsors terrorism, exports fundamentalism and is an outspoken hater of the United States and other western democracies.
But this policy has been a complete failure. Since the nuclear deal was signed, the Iranian regime’s position in the Middle East has strengthened. Instead of stopping the regime’s nuclear advancement, the nuclear deal has just slowed it down. Sanctions have been lifted by the US providing the regime with over $150 billion in frozen assets. Stevenson said: “This was a windfall for a regime whose biggest export is terror; a regime which funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen and the brutal Shi’ite militias in Iraq. Even John Kerry has admitted that some of these newfound resources have gone toward funding Iran’s proxy wars in the region.”
He added: “Iranian expansionism continues apace in the Middle East and the 80 million Iranian citizens who believed the ending of sanctions would offer a glimmer of hope for a better future have had their hopes sorely dashed. These 80 million oppressed Iranians will now look to Trump to hold the fascist theocratic regime in Tehran to account.”
