Really moderate, or just for show? Iranian President Rouhani. Illustrative. FEMA/Marty Bahamonde.
Newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made some conciliatory comments and has offered some support to reformers in Iran, raising questions about the possibility that Iran might finally reconcile with the West. We’re talking a major move toward world peace here. And based on Rouhani’s actions so far, we can cautiously say… Don’t get your hopes too high.
One of the areas where Iran has been stirring up real trouble is in its ongoing support for the regime in Syria in putting down the rebels there. Quite simply, Iran has sent weapons and other support to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad kill tens of thousands of his opponents.So who did Rouhani welcome as one of his first guests in Iran the same day he was sworn in? A representative of Syria, of course. And the anti-Israel, anti-American paranoia among the Iranian leadership has already been expressed by Rouhani as well.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that Rouhani claimed that the Syrian civil war is an effort to undermine the “axis of resistance” against plots by Israel and the United States in the Middle East. In other words, he linked his country with Syria as opponents of the US.
He also offered his support to the Syrian government and people, purportedly for a peaceful resolution for the Syrian civil war (which is precisely why Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah terrorists are pouring into Syria to fight the rebels, I’m sure).
The comments from Rouhani to Syria—which oddly enough were not prominent on any English Iranian news sites—follow his nasty anti-Israel statements last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lamented Rouhani’s comment that Israel “has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world.”
Said Netanyahu in a press release, “The President of Iran has been replaced, but the goal of the regime has not been replaced, it remains as it was. Iran’s intention is to develop a nuclear capability and nuclear weapons in order to destroy the State of Israel, and this constitutes a danger not only to us and the Middle East, but the entire world, and we are all committed to prevent this.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, August 5, 2013)