With the recent sting of a foreign policy disaster orchestrated by Putin, the Obama administration is leaping at the chance to make positive world political moves. Enter Hassan Rouhani, the new president of Iran and agent of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. In the style of true incompetence, the U.S. is using similar tactics as those employed in the Syria tangle, and these may have even far more disastrous consequences.
For Rouhani, capturing the heart of the administration required nothing more than stating a desire to improve Iranian relations with the West. Iran has been laden with “crippling economic sanctions” by the U.N. as part of a so-far-failed effort to coerce Iran into stopping its uranium enrichment program (i.e., attempts to gain nuclear weapons.) It’s been effective in dealing a heavy blow to Iran’s economy, and yet no policy turnaround has been wrung out. However, Iran isn’t as impoverished as it would like the world to think.
Iranian oil resources, coupled with a lift of the heavy sanctions they currently bear, could turn their economy into a cash cow. Which raises the question, why doesn’t Iran stop its uranium enrichment program and be welcomed by the civilized world with open arms and gas tanks that need refueling? A country with the potential to have a bustling economy is clinging to “producing nuclear electricity” all the way down the dark hole of world pariah status and economic destruction.
Therein lies the crack in Rouhani’s veneer of “moderate seeking reconciliation with the West.” Take a good hard look, my friends, because the ploy being peddled by Rouhani in his Washington Post op-ed and slew of interviews is that of a trap.
The first sign of this is Rouhani himself. He’s been working within the Islamic Republic for over three decades, which is perhaps why he was accepted as one of six candidates eligible to run for president out of 678 the regime tossed to the wayside. The perfect ploy for soothing the West’s ruffled feathers over Iran’s uranium program, he served two years as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.
All this firsthand knowledge of Iran’s program must be why this charming new leader has not once offered an inkling of willingness to sacrifice any part of Iran’s nuclear program. In fact, he is insisting it doesn’t exist — similar to his response when a reporter asked him if the Holocaust was a myth, to which he replied, “I’m not a historian. I’m a politician.” He’s also a nuclear-grubbing weasel dressed in moderation.
The most telling and terrifying aspect of Rouhani’s resume is a statement he made to the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council in 2004 in which he said, “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the (uranium conversion) facility in Isfahan … In fact, by creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the work in Isfahan.”
As this character brews up a “calm environment” or rather one of Bambi-eyed optimism within the White House, the centrifuges are spinning in extremist Iran.
Iran already has over 70 percent (185 out of the 250) of the 20 percent enriched kilograms of uranium it needs to have nuclear capabilities. This explains why Rouhani is now stepping up to court the West — he’s playing out the clock. Iran has begun to install 3,000 new centrifuges to take them into warhead territory. There has been no better time in Iran’s entire odyssey to craft a nuclear weapon than right now when it is on the precipice of achieving that goal to woo the West into beguiled oblivion.
The solution however is simple. As Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer said, “The test of moderation is not what you want, but what you’re willing to give.”
The time has come (again) for the Obama administration to throw its leading-from-behind foreign policy out the window and wield a big stick. Rouhani and his extremist cronies need to be told to put up or shut up. When the centrifuges stop spinning, we’ll start talking. Until then, any sort of negotiations will be nothing more than a time trap.
Whitney Greer is a sophomore English major from Medford, Ore.
