{"id":8818,"date":"2018-10-01T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T07:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/?p=8818"},"modified":"2021-10-02T11:42:50","modified_gmt":"2021-10-02T08:12:50","slug":"irans-best-diplomat-takes-on-us-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/posts\/8818","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s best diplomat takes on US power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fate has given Foreign Minister Zarif the daunting task of foiling a global campaign aimed at bringing his country to its knees and forcing it to submit to American power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"

AP Files\/Globe Staff
Donald Trump and Mohammad Javad Zarif.<\/p><\/div>\n

Hundreds of diplomats from around the world converged on New York this past week for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. One had a tougher job than all the others \u2014 the world\u2019s most challenging diplomatic assignment. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran is today\u2019s David facing the American Goliath. In this confrontation, as in the Bible, the odds favor Goliath.<\/p>\n

American leaders are threatening Iran in terms more vituperative than any the United States has ever used against a sovereign nation. To accompany their threats, they have embarked on the harshest campaign of economic sanctions in modern history. Their demonization of Iran wildly exceeds the bounds of reason and geopolitical reality. Fate has given Foreign Minister Zarif the daunting task of foiling a global campaign aimed at bringing his country to its knees and forcing it to submit to American power.<\/p>\n

Many senior officials in Washington do not see Iran as a geographical or political entity. To them it is our era\u2019s embodiment of the violent barbarism that has threatened civilization ever since the Visigoths sacked Rome. For much of the last century, we called that nihilistic force \u201ccommunism.\u201d Then it became \u201cterrorism.\u201d Now it is \u201cIran.\u201d By portraying Iran as an irredeemable font of evil, we justify the most monstrously misconceived assault on a foreign nation since our invasion of Iraq fifteen years ago.<\/p>\n

American sanctions are intended to starve the Iranian economy by forcing every business in the world to stop trading with Iran. Any that refuse, we warn, will be forbidden to operate in the United States. We are also insisting that Iran dismantle the missile defenses that are its main deterrent against attack; embrace Israel, its most persistent enemy; stop aiding governments that request its help, like those of Syria and Iraq; end its support for Palestinian rights; and cut off payments to militias in other countries that are fighting ISIS and al-Qaeda.<\/p>\n

In short, we demand unconditional surrender. Zarif\u2019s job is to turn back this tsunami. He is as well prepared for the job as any Iranian.<\/p>\n

In vowing to go alone, Donald Trump is turning our country against an agreement it negotiated.<\/p>\n

Zarif left Iran at 17 to attend prep school in California. He went on to earn degrees in international relations at San Francisco State University and the University of Denver. Later he became Iran\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, and in 2013 was named foreign minister. During the six-nation talks that produced the 2015 accord restricting Iran\u2019s nuclear program, he led Iran\u2019s negotiating team. Not even these years of experience, however, prepared him for what he now faces. Nothing could have. No diplomat in modern history has had to deal with a multi-faceted challenge like this one. If he fails, his country, which has existed for 10 times longer than the United States, could collapse.<\/p>\n

When President Trump addressed the UN on Tuesday, he denounced the country he called \u201cthe world\u2019s leading sponsor of terrorism.\u201d He asserted that its leaders have \u201cembezzled billions of dollars from the treasury,\u201d and that they use their power to \u201cspread mayhem across the Middle East\u201d and \u201cfund havoc and slaughter in Yemen and Syria.\u201d All of that is true \u2014 if the country in question is Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Every serious study of global terrorism in the 21st century concludes that most of the money supporting al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and like-minded gangs comes from Saudi Arabia. It is no accident that Osama bin Laden and most of his 9\/11 hijackers were Saudi. No other country, not even Pakistan, has sponsored terror as relentlessly as Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The only way to portray Iran as a terrorist state is to define terror as opposing American power. That is Iran\u2019s true sin. Trump\u2019s national security adviser, John Bolton, made this clear when he warned Iran: \u201cIf you cross us, our allies or our partners; if you harm our citizens; if you continue to lie, cheat, and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hell would include the imposition of a deranged totalitarian cult, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, as Iran\u2019s next government. It is an exiled group that\u2019s widely hated in Iran \u2014 not surprisingly, since it has assassinated Iranian leaders and sided with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Among this cult\u2019s most vocal supporters is Trump\u2019s lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. In a speech to one of its support groups in New York last week, Giuliani declared that the overthrow of Iran\u2019s government \u201ccould be in a few days, months, a couple of years \u2014 but it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zarif\u2019s job is to persuade the world to rebel against Trump\u2019s dictates. He has already had some success, notably in India, China, Russia, and Turkey. The most difficult diplomatic nut to crack will be the European Union. Zarif made progress this week. After he met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, she announced that Europe would establish a \u201clegal entity\u201d allowing businesses to sidestep sanctions on Iran. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was \u201cdisturbed and indeed deeply disappointed\u201d by the move, but its scope is still unclear.<\/p>\n

A European break with the United States on an issue so dear to Washington\u2019s heart would be a spectacular breach of the trans-Atlantic alliance that has undergirded American foreign policy for 70 years. Zarif must convince Europeans that making this break would be in their long-term interest. That may be too much to expect even from such an evidently gifted diplomat.<\/p>\n

By Stephen Kinzer, Bostonglobe<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That hell would include the imposition of a deranged totalitarian cult, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, as Iran\u2019s next government. It is an exiled group that\u2019s widely hated in Iran \u2014 not surprisingly, since it has assassinated Iranian leaders and sided with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[52,178,20],"module":[81],"ctype":[17],"blog":[109],"class_list":["post-8818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran","tag-mujahedin-khalq-destructive-cult","tag-pmoi-iran-people","tag-third-view-mek","module-article","ctype-story","blog-western-bloggers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8818"},{"taxonomy":"module","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/module?post=8818"},{"taxonomy":"ctype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctype?post=8818"},{"taxonomy":"blog","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejatngo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog?post=8818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}