Iran - Patrick J. Kennedy: The illusion of Iranian moderation

patrick-kennedy

Former US Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy has written in the Thursday edition of the Providence Journal about how Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is not at all “moderate”, despite Western perception, and that such a gap between perception and reality has existed for “more than three decades.”

“Countless instances since the 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani—including most recently the state-sanctioned torching of the Saudi embassy in Tehran — should have dispelled the notion that we are dealing with a moderate reformist at the helm of the Islamic Republic,” Mr Kennedy writes. “Sectarian conflict is on the rise with Iran backing Syria’s Assad, Hezbollah, an anti-American insurgency in Yemen and radical Shia factions in Iraq.”

The former Congressman noted how these developments “have proven the accuracy of analyses from sources like the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which insisted from the start that moderation was not a realistic prospect under the existing theocratic regime.”

“Indeed, the illusion of a “moderate” Iranian president has persisted for more than three decades, despite its nonexistence in reality. Rouhani is only the latest to artfully exploit this fantasy and play into a naïve, aspirational worldview among many in the West about Tehran's behavior and intentions.”