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Iran's newly re-elected president Hassan Rouhani said on
Monday that his country will continue its ballistic missile program
despite criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump. "The
U.S. leaders should know that whenever we need a missile test because
of a technical aspect, we will test," Rouhani said in a news
conference. "We will not wait for them and their
permission." "Our missiles are for peace, not for
attack," he added. The remarks came three days after he won
Iran's presidential election, securing another four-year term. On
Sunday, Trump also made a speech in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that urged
leaders in the Middle East region to combat extremism.
As he hopscotches through the Middle East, President
Donald Trump is urging Israel and its Arab neighbors to unite around
a "common cause": their deep distrust of Iran. Trump's
first trip abroad has highlighted the extent to which strident
opposition to Iran now serves as an organizing principle in his
efforts to remake America's relationship with the Middle East. He
leaned heavily on concerns over Iran's destabilizing activities in
the region during his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Tehran's
long-time foe. During meetings Monday in Israel, which considers Iran
its biggest threat, Trump said Arab nations' own worries about Tehran
could ultimately lead to new regional support for a Middle East peace
deal. "There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbors
that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by
Iran," Trump said as he opened talks with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran's newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani took
barbed swipes at the U.S. and its ally Saudi Arabia on Monday,
hitting back at both a day after President Donald Trump used his
first foreign trip to the kingdom to call for further isolation of
Iran. The 68-year-old cleric, a political moderate within Iran who
secured a resounding victory over a hard-line opponent, called
relations with the United States "a curvy road" even as he
touted the 2015 nuclear accord Iran secured with the Obama
administration and other world powers as a "win-win"
agreement He was less flattering in his assessment of the Trump administration
so far. Rouhani said that Iranians are "waiting for this
government to become stable intellectually" and that
"hopefully, things will settle down ... so we could pass more
accurate judgments."
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE PROGRAM
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday Tehran
would continue its ballistic missile program, state television
reported, striking a defiant note after strong criticism of the
Islamic Republic from U.S. President Donald Trump. "The Iranian
nation has decided to be powerful. Our missiles are for peace and for
defense ... American officials should know that whenever we need to
technically test a missile, we will do so and will not wait for their
permission," Rouhani said in a news conference, broadcast live
on state TV. Rouhani also criticized Iran's arch-foe Saudi Arabia
over its lack of democracy, urging Riyadh to allow its people to
decide their country's fate through free elections.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Flush from his decisive re-election victory, Iran's president
struck back on Monday after a weekend of verbal affronts from the
Saudi-American summit meeting, describing President Trump's visit to
Riyadh as empty theatrics and mocking his support for a monarchy that
has "never seen a ballot box." At a news conference in
Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric who has sought to
open up Iran, said his victory on Friday over a hard-line
conservative challenger showed that Iranians had exercised a
democratic choice. Mr. Rouhani suggested that he remained open to
dialogue with the United States. But he did not waste the opportunity
to exploit the contrasting optics created by Mr. Trump's visit with
Saudi Arabia's ruling monarchs at the moment Mr. Rouhani's victory
was confirmed.
Iran welcomes cooperation at all levels to bring
stability to the Middle East, President Hassan Rouhani told his
French counterpart on Monday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump
lambasted Tehran again as he tours the region. In a telephone call,
Rouhani told France's new president Emmanuel Macron he was hopeful
that Europe would not copy Trump's stance against the Islamic
Republic. Visiting Iran's arch-foe Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Trump
singled out Iran as a key source of funding and support for militant
groups in the Middle East, sending a tough message to Tehran the day
after Rouhani won a second presidential term. He said on Monday in
Jerusalem that shared concern about Iran was driving Israel and many
Arab states closer, calling Tehran a real threat in the region.
"The Islamic Republic is ready for cooperation in all levels
with other countries, including France, to fight against terrorism
and to resolve the Syrian crisis," Rouhani was quoted saying to
Macron by Iran's state news agency IRNA.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that shared
concern about Iran was driving Israel and many Arab states closer and
demanded that Tehran immediately cease military and financial backing
of "terrorists and militias". In stressing threats from
Iran, Trump echoed a theme laid out during weekend meetings in Saudi
Arabia with Muslim leaders from around the world, many wary of the
Islamic Republic's growing regional influence and financial muscle.
Trump has vowed to do whatever necessary to broker peace between
Israel and the Palestinians, dubbing a peace accord "the
ultimate deal". But ahead of his Holy Land visit, he gave little
indication of how he could revive talks that collapsed in 2014.
Donald Trump is betting that Arab nations hold the key
to securing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, a paradoxical
premise founded on his belief that shared concern over Iran will
bring longtime rivals to the bargaining table. Trump is using
the opening legs of his first foreign trip as U.S. president to
encourage the revival of Mideast peace talks. In Riyadh and
Jerusalem, he has said repeatedly that the perceived threat from Iran
is pushing Arab Gulf states and Israel closer together. He believes
that realignment could create conditions for long-abandoned peace
talks to resume. It's far from a fully-formed plan, and so far Trump
has made his case only to friendly audiences: Sunni Arab nations like
Saudi Arabia and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all of
whom fell over themselves praising the U.S. president.
Antipathy towards Iran is the one thing that
Washington's disparate allies in the region agree upon. So bashing
Tehran has been a prominent theme for Mr Trump both in Saudi Arabia
and now in Israel. Hostility to Iran is the glue that binds what some
would like to believe is an emerging coalition between Israel, Saudi
Arabia and the smaller Gulf States together. But how far it really
promises to shake up the sterile politics of the region is unclear. A
common purpose to contain Iran is one thing but can it really extend
to bringing a new diplomatic dawn to the region? For Mr Trump,
criticising Tehran performs multiple functions It allows him to sound
tough on the world stage. Tougher than his predecessor, Barack Obama,
who, he believes, signed one of the worst deals in history in
reaching the nuclear accord with Iran.
Fresh off a resounding reelection victory, Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani criticized President Trump on Monday for
visiting Iran's arch-rival Saudi Arabia, but also insisted that he
wanted to improve relations with the U.S. Rouhani said Trump's
meetings in Riyadh over the weekend were "a sham" and drew
laughter from the audience at a press conference in Tehran when he
compared the high turnout at Iran's election Friday to the fact that
Saudi Arabia has never held elections. "Mr Trump has come to the
region at a time when 45 million Iranian people went to polling
stations, and he went to a country where they don't know what
elections are about," Rouhani said. "It's not in their
dictionary.
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said Monday they see new opportunities for peace in the
Middle East, based on a strategy of isolating Iran from other Muslim
and Arab states in the region. At the end of Mr. Trump's historic
first day of meetings in Israel and visits to holy sites, the
president said he's optimistic about "a rare opportunity to
bring security and stability and peace" to the region. But he
told Israelis that the price of gaining Arab cooperation in defeating
the broader threat of Islamist terrorism must be to reach a
long-elusive peace agreement with the Palestinians. "We must
take advantage of the situation," Mr. Trump said. "There is
a growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have common
cause with you in the threat posed by Iran."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is in a stronger
position after his re-election to push through plans for wooing
foreign investors the country needs to boost oil production,
according to analysts. Iran's effort to attract about $100 billion to
develop more than 50 oil and natural gas fields bogged down ahead of
the May 19 presidential election. Political arguments stalled
approval of the contract terms the government would offer, and U.S.
financial sanctions - and the potential threat of additional curbs -
continue to dissuade many would-be international investors. Rouhani
defeated rivals in a landslide, winning about 57 percent of the vote.
As his victory was announced Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump
was in Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional rival, bolstering a coalition of
states opposed to the Islamic Republic.
The possibility of Iran entering the international debt
market hinges on a number of reasons, namely its risk factor in the
eyes of global entities, which the country expects to improve, the
governor of the Central Bank of Iran said. Asked about the possible
timeline for a bond issuance program by the Iranian government,
Valiollah Seif also told Fars News Agency that the question is vague
to a certain degree because there might come a time when Iran decides
to raise money from the global markets. "That will be when the
country must issue bonds in the international markets and that is
when we become certain that there is demand for our debt," he
said. Seif stressed that bonds must be issued when the country's risk
rating has improved.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Iranian aggression has united
Israelis and Arabs and brought Middle East peace closer than ever,
but Mr. Trump's warm reception in the region masks risks that have derailed
his predecessors' bids for decades. "I've heard it's one of the
toughest deals of all, but I have a feeling that we're going to get
there eventually," Mr. Trump said Monday as he met with Mr.
Netanyahu. "I hope." Mr. Netanyahu cited Iran as a unifying
force in the region, saying "common dangers are turning former
enemies into partners" and adding that Mr. Trump's meeting with
Arab leaders a day earlier in Saudi Arabia "could help create
the conditions for a realistic peace."
MILITARY MATTERS
During an event held in Tehran on Monday, Iran unveiled
three strategic military projects developed by its local experts.
Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan unveiled the new
projects, including the country's first domestic geoportal, a system
for calibration of satellite altimetry, and the first phase of a
local network of permanent border posts, Tasnim news agency reported.
Dehqan said the satellite altimetry calibration system is able to
measure water depth in the oceans, seas and gulfs with high accuracy.
The homegrown geoportal provides online and updated services for
finding geographic information and positioning data for various
purposes, he noted. According to the minister, the local positioning
network can be used for a range of fields, including military
navigation and positioning, border control, dynamics of the earth,
crisis management, earthquake prediction, meteorology, atmospheric
water vapor estimation, transportation and traffic control, and
agriculture.
TERRORISM
Iran condemned a suicide attack at a pop concert in
Manchester that killed 22 people, but in an apparent swipe at Western
security cooperation with Gulf Arab states said "artificial
alliances" would not eliminate such threats. "Terrorism will
be uprooted only by taking comprehensive measures, and avoiding
double standards," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was
quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA on Tuesday.
"Artificial alliances would not stop the expansion of cancerous
terrorism in the world." Monday's attack at a concert by U.S.
singer Ariana Grande in the English city of Manchester killed at
least 22 people and wounded 59.
PROXY WARS
Iran must stop supporting armed groups in Syria and Iraq
that contribute to the destabilization of the Middle East if it wants
good relations with the West, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel
said on Monday. "In many conflicts in the region Iran plays a
difficult role, especially in Iraq and Syria," Gabriel told a
news conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
"The message must be that we are ready to work with the new
government but we expect Iran to behave responsibly in the region, to
support not terror but the politics of peace," Gabriel said,
referring to the re-election of reformist President Hassan Rouhani.
"When that happens then confidence in the place as an investment
location will return." Le Drian urged Iran to vigorously
implement a 2015 nuclear agreement with six powers that resulted in a
lifting of most sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran's nuclear
program.
Donald Trump, on his first presidential visit to Israel
and the West Bank, has escalated his war of words against Iran,
demanding that Tehran immediately stop its financial and military
support for "terrorists and militias" and reiterating that
it must never be permitted to possess nuclear weapons. Trump referred
to the Iran issue repeatedly on Monday, expanding on his speech in
Saudi Arabia the day before in which he blamed "Iran's rising ambitions"
for violently destabilising the Middle East. "The United States
and Israel can declare with one voice that Iran must never be allowed
to possess a nuclear weapon - never, ever - and must cease its deadly
funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias, and it
must cease immediately," Trump said in at a meeting in Jerusalem
with the Israeli president, Reuven Rivlin.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday
stability could not be achieved in the Middle East without Tehran's
help, responding to criticism of the Islamic Republic from U.S.
President Donald Trump who is visiting the region. Trump called for a
U.S. alliance with Muslim countries on Sunday aimed at fighting
terrorism, singling out Iran as a major source of funding and support
for militants in the Arab world. Rouhani, a pragmatist who won last
week's presidential election, hit back hard by dismissing the summit
as a "ceremonial (event) that had no political value and will
bear no results". "Who can say regional stability can be
restored without Iran? Who can say the region will experience total
stability without Iran?" he said at a news conference. At a
weekend summit in Riyadh, Trump accused Iran of funding and arming
"terrorists, militias and other extremist groups" in Iraq,
Yemen, Lebanon and backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil
war.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The results of the opaque and undemocratic presidential
election that Iran held on Friday are in no way a representation of
the true will of its people, who made it clear in the past weeks that
their real desire is regime change. However, Hassan Rouhani's mandate
for a second term as president is significant nonetheless. First, it
demonstrated that the infighting in the regime's upper echelons of
power for a larger share of the country's riches has reached
unprecedented scale. And second, it underscored Supreme Leader Ali
Khamenei's mounting fear of social uprisings and rising influence of
opposition forces. What will ensue is more of what we've seen in
Rouhani's first term: a broken economy, human rights violations at
home, terrorism abroad, and tumorous crises spreading across the
regime's hold on power.
While President Trump basked in the flattery of Saudi
Arabia's absolute monarchy on Friday, about 75 percent of Iranian
voters turned out to repudiate an authoritarian populist and re-elect
their moderate president, Hassan Rouhani. Mr. Rouhani ran against
extremism and on the promise of human rights, civil liberties,
rational economic management and engagement with the world - a
platform that won him 57 percent of the vote to his opponent's 38.5
percent. It wasn't the first time Iranian voters expressed their
preference for these values. They have done so repeatedly, overcoming
every obstacle a repressive state can thrust in their way. The fact
that such demands may not be met - and may even result in significant
sacrifice for those who make them most vociferously - does not make
them less meaningful, but more so.
The verdict is in. According to a New York Times
analysis, while Trump was cementing his ties to Arab autocrats, a
"moderate" was busy winning re-election in Iran. And lest
you think I'm picking on the Times, the word "moderate"
dominated coverage of Hassan Rouhani's re-election, including at CNN,
the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. What a ridiculous
farce. In reality, an anti-American jihadist beat a slightly-worse
anti-American jihadist. Under Rouhani (who truly rules by the
permission of Iran's Guardian Council, a coalition of clerics and
jurists that vets all presidential candidates), Iran has exported
terror, propped up a genocidal Syrian regime, kidnapped and
humiliated U.S. sailors, tested ballistic missiles in defiance of the
U.N. Security Council, and - as the Post reported last month -
actually "boosted" the regime's support for the Taliban in
Afghanistan.
Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia was a huge success.
The Saudis wisely pandered to the new president's foibles, rolling
out the red carpet for a lavish celebration. Even Trump's speech on
Islam, a potential minefield, was generally well-received by his
hosts. Yet while Trump's speech - and his strong criticism of Iran - may
have been pleasing to his Gulf States' hosts, it should worry
Americans. Pushing back on Tehran allows Trump to symbolically break
with Obama's policies and is popular among congressional Republicans,
but it is also dangerous, with the potential to undermine the nuclear
deal, slow the fight against Isis, and embroil the United States more
deeply in parochial regional struggles
Hassan Rouhani has won a clear victory to a second term
as Iran's president. The turnout in Friday's election was close to 73
percent, with the incumbent taking some 56 percent of the over-40
million votes cast. Turnout in the last election in 2013 was roughly
the same. But that year, Rouhani won only 50.7 percent of the vote.
Still, the significance of this election is not that Rouhani won, but
what he did in order to win. This was because, as I learned in
discussions with those close to his campaign, in the weeks leading up
to the election, his victory was no certainty. Many American
observers assumed the election would be a referendum on the nuclear
deal, and that Rouhani would coast to victory. But, for the most
part, that was not the case. Unlike in the U.S. presidential
campaign, none of the Iranian candidates threatened to rip up the
deal. Even the most hardline candidate said that there was no going
back on its terms.
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