Iran wishes to start a clean slate with the external world, mainly the USA. I wish that the moderate politics announced by President Hassan Rouhani and supported by the Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could have included the Gulf States in order to reassure them to that the old Persian dreams are gone. When he was running for president, Rouhani announced that his politics would aim at lifting the international sanctions and ending Iran's seclusion. When he got elected, he indeed started to carry out his pledges. His assistants indicate that the economic reasons justify the political reasons to negotiate with the USA. Indeed, the Iranian economy shrunk by 5.4 percent in this past year alone, while the annual inflation rate amounts to 41.4 percent. Furthermore, the Iranian toman collapsed and unemployment reached unprecedented levels. Following the eight lean years that constituted the term of the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad in power, the new administration launched a public relations campaign that took both the West and East aback. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted a message to congratulate the Jews on the occasion of the Hebrew New Year. President Rouhani exchanged messages with President Barack Obama and alluded to a "constructive dialogue", in a piece carried by the Washington Post. In an interview on ABC, the American president said that he is trying to launch a dialogue with Iran and that the latter might play a part in solving the Syrian crisis. The Iranian president said that his country will accept a Syrian president selected by the Syrians, meaning that Iran is not adamant on keeping Bashar al-Assad in power. There are also leaks indicating that the American and Iranian presidents might be meeting during the UN General Assembly session in New York, through a "coincidental" encounter in the corridors of the international organization, where Rouhani will be giving Iran's speech next Tuesday. Rouhani will also be meeting with President Francois Hollande. The Iranian public relations campaign also included the release of political prisoners, comprising eight women and three men. The Guide further announced that Iran does not wish to possess nuclear weapons; and President Rouhani pledged that his country will "never" work on obtaining chemical weapons. He also pledged to show more transparency when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. The nuclear program is the main issue. The statements of both the Guide and the President are important. If Iran were to allow the international investigators in, this would be sufficient to convince the external world that it is indeed not working on obtaining nuclear weapons. This is of course not good enough for the warmongers, such as Senator John McCain, who is rejecting any agreement with Iran, unless the latter is to surrender without a fight. This also applies to his partner, Senator Lindsey Graham, who announced during a pro-Israel meeting that he will present a draft law to the Senate, allowing the president to declare war against Iran without reverting to the Congress. By doing so, Graham wishes to prevent the president from diverting his responsibility of launching a military strike to the Congress, just like he did in the Syrian case. Lindsey wants a war that will destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities, as well as the Iranian military capacity, so that it becomes incapable of striking back, along with its allies. This is a purely Israeli stand with the war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, being behind it. Indeed, Netanyahu clearly announced that Iran's military nuclear program must not be merely halted, but rather entirely cancelled. He indicated that Iran's nuclear facilities in Qum (meaning the underground facilities that cannot be destroyed via air strikes) must be destroyed, that the uranium enrichment must be stopped, that the already available enriched uranium must be exported and sold, and that the production of a nuclear bomb must be stopped as main pre-terms for lifting the sanctions. The man who is making all these demands is none other than a war criminal heading a criminal gang, occupying a country, displacing and killing its people, and destroying or stealing their houses away. Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal and it wishes to control the region (the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons is part of this plan, the implementation of which became possible following the crime of the two Ghoutas, knowing that the UN report confirmed the regime's responsibility for that crime). Iran is insisting on the persistence of its nuclear program through a limited enrichment for the purposes of power production. The Israeli gang is controlling the American foreign politics in the Middle East. Therefore, I am not sure if the new Iranian foreign politics will work. I however say that the closer parties must have precedence and Iran must work on enhancing its relations with its Arab neighbors before extending its hand to Israel's allies. [email protected]
