In promoting a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, President Obama and others have often expressed the hope that such an event might signal the end of four decades of enmity between the Islamic Republic and the United States.
And the closer we get to signing that deal, the more obvious it is this hope is plainly delusional.
Obama was fooled by President Hassan Rouhani and his entourage, known in Tehran as “The New York Circle” because many of them are US-educated and thus thought to be “moderate” in Western eyes.
The proliferation of Iranian “Death to America” rallies in anticipation of a nuke deal would suggest otherwise.
The scenario Rouhani seems to have sold to the Obama administration runs something like this: The nuclear deal will trigger a new era of economic prosperity in Iran and give the “moderate” faction, led by former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the momentum needed to win next year’s crucial parliamentary and assembly-of-expert elections.
The control of those two key organs would help the “moderates” marginalize the hardliners and curb the influence of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and its political allies. In time, Iran and the US could become allies, as they were before the mullahs seized power in 1979, and divide the Middle East between them into zones of influence.
And yet, as the Obama administration is bending over backward to clinch a deal by the June 30 deadline, Iran is experiencing an intensification of anti-American propaganda with public support from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In early June, addressing a crowd marking the anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei responded to chants of “Death to America” by joining the chorus of hate. “Yes, I, too, say death to America!” he said.
The following week witnessed another sign that the regime intended to heighten anti-American rhetoric with a two-day mass gathering in the historic city of Hamadan, the first capital of the
Iranian people, presented as a “Death to America conference.”
Since 1980, the Islamic Republic has organized a “Death to America” conference every year on Nov. 4, whcih marks the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy compound in Tehran and the holding of American diplomats as hostages. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a second annual conference was added with the title of “End of America” and held in February.
Thus holding a “Death to America” conference at this time of year is unusual. Some analysts believe the regime is preparing public opinion for a deal by highlighting its intention to maintain its militant anti-American posture.
According to Mehrad Bazarpash, a member of the Islamic Majlis, the ersatz parliament, the current talks are about the “lifting of sanctions” and will in no way mark the granting of “any
concessions whatsoever” to the American “Great Satan.”
“Those who try to prettify America’s image with reference to these negotiations are misguided,” he told the Hamadan gathering.
Another speaker, Dr. Hassan Abbasi, often referred to as “The Kissinger of Islam” because he markets himself as a grand strategist, the very raison d’etre of the Islamic Republic is to “work tirelessly for the destruction of the United States.”
“Our fight against America is not about this or that problem,” he said. “It is about the very existence of America and its economic and political and cultural systems. This fight will not cease until we have turned the United States itself into an Islamic Republic.”
Abbasi also claimed Iran had “tens of thousands of sleeping cells” in the United States that would be activated to trigger the Islamic revolution “at the proper time.”
The fact that the “Death to America” conference was held outside Tehran, thus attracting less public attention, might be a tactical victory for the Rafsanjani faction. However, Rouhani’s promise to discourage the designation of America as “foe” (doshman) and to stop the burning and/or trampling of American flags has been quietly forgotten.
A good part of the crisis provoked by Iran’s nuclear program is due to the regime’s ideological hatred of the United States. The intentional intensification of that hatred bodes ill for Obama’s naïve belief in Iranian moderation.