Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, February 13
In one of his latest public appearances, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, thanked President Trump for “showing the true face of America” with his recent presidential decrees. Similarly, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who usually keeps an affable attitude in his interactions with the West, sounded more combative in his recent statements than ever before. With the change of the American administration, Iran is definitely facing rough days ahead. America under Trump is by no means the America under Obama. To this point, many pundits have been claiming that the new winds blowing from Washington are dangerous, since they have empowered Iranian hardliners. The average Iranian citizen, the old argument goes, will rally around the flag and support the mullahs over liberal and moderate politicians. I couldn’t disagree more. We heard these exact warnings numerous times throughout history, and we were fooled, again and again, into believing that the liberals in Iran can wield true political power. The sad truth is that the Supreme Leader is the ultimate barer of political power in the country. Iran’s moderates have been used by the radicals as nothing more than a facade. The ultimate victim of this trick was Barack Obama, who believed that by lifting the sanctions on Teheran, Iranian liberals would be empowered. Again, this proved to be false. The nature of the regime in Teheran is not likely to change, regardless of American foreign policies. The mullahs rule the country based on a fundamental political and religious ideology that isn’t malleable to the White House. The only change we have witnessed in Iran is an improvement in its ballistic missile program, and its progression one step closer towards being a nuclear power. This is true with or without Trump. – Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed