Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran stated in a televised speech on the weekend that the historic nuclear deal reached last week will not change Iran’s policy towards the United States. Iran’s leader has pledged to maintain the nation’s anti-American polici
es. “Our policy against the arrogant U.S. government will not change”, Mr Khamernei said.
Furthermore, the Ayatollah stated that Iran would still support its allies in the Middle East including the terrorist group Hezbollah, “Palestinian resistance groups [read: terrorists groups such as Hamas] and the Syrian government. Dialogue with Washington, may however continue on other issues “if the US carried out its obligations under the deal in good faith.”
These statements made by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stand in stark contrast to the gushing praise President Barack Obama has had over recent days for the nuclear deal and the Iranian regime, a regime which still regards the United States as a sworn enemy.
President Obama’s foreign policy seems to consist of simply imagining that enemies are no longer enemies, and that by imagining this is so, it will come true. This was his strategy with Cuba, whereby he was quick to brush away any concerns, stating that we are beyond the petty tensions and disagreements of the past.
Raul Castro wasn’t quite so optimistic, and made it clear that all was not ‘peachy’, and that America would still have to accept Cuban communism.
Evidently, President Obama doesn’t seem to feel the need to be ‘on the same page’ when he talks with his diplomatic counterparts, because he can simply imagine that enemies don’t exist and people do not hate America and the West.
And hasn’t the world become a much safer place since President Obama was elected in 2008?
The world has indeed become a much safer place, if you simply imagine that it is so.
Photo by Desmond Kavanagh 