Talk is just that: talk.
Much has been said about Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani since his public debut at the United Nations last week. Since Rouhani’s election over former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he has been celebrated as a moderate president who could possibly be open to improving relations with the West and Israel. Others are hesitant to believe Rouhani’s milder approach and stress that his moderate views can be seen as a mask for a dangerous nation. Unfortunately, I believe the latter is true.
Rouhani’s recent comments have been received with a fair amount of optimism by the international community because he openly calls for improvements in relations between Iran and the United States. In an opinionated editorial that was published by The Washington Post, Rouhani wrote, “We must work together to end the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart... Rather than focusing on how to prevent things from getting worse, we need to think—and talk—about how to make things better.” In a speech at the United Nations, he continued by saying America was a “great nation” and that Iran desires to “stop the escalation of tensions, and then defuse those tensions.”
Rouhani even turned heads by calling the “supposed” Holocaust “reprehensible” and “condemnable,” still while never admitting to the Holocaust’s existence. This of course is an enormous difference from his predecessor who openly denied the Holocaust’s existence. I guess at this point you take what you can get.
Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran has been under the rule of Muslim clerics known as Imams or Ayatollahs. These Imams have shown continuous disrespect and hatred toward the United States mainly due to our support of the former regime under Shah Pahlavi, various military conflicts and arms dealing in the Middle East, as well as our stance as a major ally of Israel. In fact, the phone call that President Barack Obama had with Rouhani was the first direct contact between the two governments since 1979.
Iran has also continuously been developing a nuclear program much against the wishes and heavy sanctions passed down by the United Nations. Iran has taken a strong public stance that the nuclear program is strictly for energy use and entirely peaceful. It is unclear how long it would take for the Iranians to develop weapons-grade Uranium, vital for creating a nuclear warhead. The one clear fact on the matter is if Iran comes into possession of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s threats against Israel and status as an international security threat gain legitimacy.
The presence of these previous unresolved issues are exactly why it is so intriguing to hear an Iranian president sound so cooperative. Is this truly a change of heart by the Iranian leadership in order to smooth relations between Iran and the West, or is this all a smoke-and-mirrors trick into believing that Iran is a rational enough state to posses a nuclear weapon?
The United States should proceed with a policy that former president Ronald Reagan made famous through the slogan of, “Trust, but verify.” Our government should view the words of Rouhani as a definite improvement in relations and a step in the right direction for future negotiations. However, we need to assure that if the Iranians wish to ever obtain a nuclear weapon, they must prove to act as rationally with them as the rest of the nuclear-armed states.
Is Rouhani a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”? Or is this truly a positive act of diplomacy by the Iranian regime? Time will ultimately tell, however President Obama must continue to show strength and show diplomatic intellect toward Iranian leadership.
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