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| 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.”
