Iran's Rouhani responds with rage – and rockets – to Trump

Although Iran's President Rouhani traveled to New York to market his brand of "moderation" and "openness," his actions since President Trump's speech to the United Nations General Assembly bring immediately to mind the English proverb: "The wolf may lose teeth but never his nature."

Shortly after the U.N. event, there was a military parade in Iran on the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War.  At this event, Rouhani unveiled and tested a Khorramshahr ballistic missile, manufactured to be used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  "Iran will never [seek] permission to develop its arms," Rouhani declared in his remarks at the ceremony, much to the satisfaction of the IRGC's commanders.

It shows that in ignoring international concerns, Iranian authorities have carelessly followed North Korea's path to endangering international peace.  Khorramshahr missile have several unique features compared to other missiles, starting with their long range.

The commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, emphasized that "Khorramshahr ballistic missile[s] have a range of 2,000 kilometers with an ability to carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) within a range of 1,800 kilometers."

"The missile is able to carry several warheads," Hajizadeh said, according to Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC's Quds Force.

This response by Tehran is an obvious breach of the nuclear deal, commonly referred to by the acronym JCPOA.

In another reaction from Tehran to Trump's remarks, a major commander of the IRGC threatened the U.S. and said: "The U.S. should witness more painful response."

Even Tehran's puppet, aka the leader of Hezb'allah, Hassan Nasrallah, had some menacing words for President Trump.  Addressing his supporters on the occasion of the Shi'ite holy month of Moharran, he said, "If it is necessary, we will fight Trump."

Despite these threatening words, Iran's regime and its trading partners in the European Union have insisted on saving the catastrophic Iran nuclear deal.  At this point, after all these other bad signals, one must ask why Iran's regime and its European customers are trying so hard to change the U.S. president's mind.

For the clerics in Tehran, the nuclear agreement offers a smooth path to increasing Tehran's hegemony in the region through support for its proxies in the four corners of Middle East.  In addition, the JCPOA helps the IRGC to develop its missile program with its clandestine goal of nuclear weapons.

On the other hand, although E.U. governments acknowledge Tehran's destabilizing role in the region, their eyes are so dazzled by lucrative trade opportunities that they cannot see the reality and the root of the problems.

To take one case, French president Emmanuel Macron has said he is concerned about President Trump abandoning the nuclear deal.  Yet he has yet to call out the Iranian regime for its continuous violations of the agreement.  Consequently, in order to avoid more conflicts, he has suggested renegotiating the agreement with the addition of Iran's regional behavior.

Historically, the agreement with North Korea teaches us that the JCPOA will only buy time for Iranian authorities to achieve their main goal of getting nuclear weapons.

The European appeasers have not even considered that the clerical regime's missile capability is more perilous for the E.U. than the similar threat from North Korea is to the U.S. and its north Asian allies.

In this regard, the Israeli prime minister put his finger on an important issue.  "Iran will be able to build many bombs by keeping the deal," he said in his remarks to the General Assembly.

Considering Iran's de facto actions that amount to a response, and Trump's emphasis on U.S. national interests, one must answer the question posed by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. during a press conference recently: "Do you think that deal is working when Iran continues to test ballistic missiles?"

Indeed, to be able to answer this question, one should ask which one of Tehran's malign activities is stopped by the deal.

In view of above, the logical, practical reaction for the U.S. is to declare the Tehran regime out of compliance with the nuclear deal.

Correction: U.S. officials have determined that the missile test mentioned above was a fake.  The video released by Iran was of a missile launch from last January.

Hamid Bahrami is a former political prisoner from Iran.  Living in Glasgow, Scotland, he is a human rights and political activist and works as a freelance journalist.  Bahrami has contributed to Al Arabiya English, American Thinker, Euractive, Newsblaze, and Eureporter as his work cover's Iran's Middle East actions and domestic social crackdown.  He tweets at @HaBahrami and blogs at analyzecom.

 

If you experience technical problems, please write to helpdesk@americanthinker.com