The Iranian regime, for years, has described the United States as its enemy. Since the 1979 revolution in Iran, the relations between the two countries have been tense. Over the years, there have been a few attempts to warm relations, but they have always been without success.
Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump offered to meet with the Iranian president. He said there would be no preconditions. Trump said: “I’ll meet with anybody. Speaking to other people, especially when you’re talking about potentials of war and death and famine and lots of other things. You meet, there’s nothing wrong with meeting.”
Iranian officials shot down the request immediately. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said: “Mr Trump! Iran is not North Korea to accept your offer for a meeting. Even U.S. presidents after you will not see that day.”
Hamid Aboutalebi, an adviser to President Rouhani, said that any meeting with the U.S. will come once “the great nation of Iran” is respected. His conditions for a potential meeting were for a reduction in hostilities and a return to the nuclear deal.
The Iranian president also dismissed the possibility of a meeting by saying that the U.S. exit from the nuclear deal is “illegal”.
The Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, went one step further and actually prohibited talks with the United States. He said: “I ban holding any talks with America (…) America never remains loyal to its promises in talks (…) just gives empty words (…) and never retreats from its goals for talks.”
In the past few decades, Iran has been involved in the planning and execution of a number of anti-American terrorist attacks. It has launched ballistic missiles bearing the slogan “Death to America” and it has threatened it with destruction on a number of occasions.
It has criticised the Western influence that the United States has had on Iran and Rouhani has said that this influence is behind many of the problems faced in the country today.
However, the hypocrisy shown by many regime officials is astounding. As T. Kahn points out, a large number of Iranian leaders have sent their children to study in the United States or have themselves studied there.
Masoumeh Ebtekar, the current Vice President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs and the first female member in the cabinet of Iran since 1979, has a son that is currently studying at the Los Angeles branch of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Ebtekar herself, although born in Tehran, spent 6 years in the United States when she was a child. There she perfected her English, with an American accent, and upon her return to Iran she attended an international school.
Another example is Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani. Despite calling the United States a “threat to the entire world” he has deemed the country safe and good enough for his daughter to study medicine there.
So on the one hand, Iranian leaders want to destroy America. On the other hand, it is good enough for their children.
Source » ncr-iran