Iran Focus
London, 6 Feb – The Jerusalem Post speculates that Iran’s leaders must have had a terrible weekend; as in just a few days the US’s feeling towards them has soured greatly- and it wasn’t that good, to begin with.
On Friday, February 3, the US National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said: “The days of turning a blind eye to Iran’s hostile and belligerent actions toward the United States and the world community are over.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence James Mattis told reporters in Japan that “Iran [is] the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.”
Also on Friday, the Trump administration extended sanctions against 12 more companies and 13 more individuals, linked with the Iranian terror organisation, the Revolutionary Guards.
On February 1, Trump started a tirade against Iran on Twitter.
He wrote: “Iran is rapidly taking over more and more of Iraq even after the US has squandered three trillion dollars there.”
The following day, he wrote: “Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been more thankful for the terrible deal the US made with them!”
He also wrote: “Iran is playing with fire – they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!”
Trump was a heavy critic of the 2015 Iran deal on the campaign trail.
Flynn, who served as director of the Defence Intelligence Agency until 2014, was also opposed to a deal with Iran. He told Congress that Iran would build nuclear weapons, that they were currently stonewalling independent nuclear inspectors and that Iran was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis between 2003 and 2011.
In the past 12 months alone, Iran has:
• encouraging its Houthi allies to harass US ships off the coast of Yemen
• destabilising the Middle East
• abducting US sailors
• launched three ballistic missiles tests
• encouraging its proxies to attack Saudi ships
• executed over 1,000 people in their own country
The Jerusalem Post noted that the American policy on Iran has changed and that there is no longer any talk of moderates, as it is largely recognised that there are no moderates in the Regime.
