I had to tell people I was not born with a scarf because I came out Iran. People think you came out of your mother with a scarf; they can’t imagine that the scarf is not stuck to your head.
We need somebody ready to be commander-in-chief on day one, who understands there are no moderates in Iran; they’ve been killed a long time ago.
My family owned a bunch of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and other consumer-goods manufacturing plants. We would license Western goods and manufacture them in Iran and distribute them throughout the Middle East.
Like Afghanistan before it, Iraq is only one theater in a regional war. We were attacked by a network of terrorist organizations supported by several countries, of whom the most important were Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
The JCPOA can perhaps delay Iran’s nuclear weapons program for a few years. Conversely, it has virtually guaranteed that Iran will have the freedom to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons at the end of the commitment.
We’re seeing Iran now through the Shia militias in Iraq. We’re seeing Iran in Syria; we know the Quds Force is in there.
After the heavily politicized 2007 Iran NIE, many of us in Congress found it hard to take some intelligence analysis at face value.
Weapons systems the U.S. sold to the Shah of Iran wound up in the hands of Islamic militants who seized power there in 1979; a comparable scenario in Saudi Arabia is hardly impossible.
Hezbollah is not fighting for Syria. Hezbollah is not fighting for Iran. Hezbollah is fighting for Lebanon.
It would be wise for the U.S. private sector to stay away from Iran.
The greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough.
In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion – not even for Shiites, who are forced by Iran’s theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules.
Roughly nine of every 10 Syrian war dead since 2011 are on the butcher’s bill accumulated by Assad and his friends in Iran’s Quds Force, the Iran-allied Hezbollah, and the Russian air force.
Russia has always been very careful to try to balance the interest of the Gulf states and Iran off against each other.
In the instance of Iran for Russia, Iran is a very important counterweight to the Sunni Muslim powers in the Gulf, but Russia’s always been very concerned about potentially proselytizing and supporting groups inside of the Russian federation itself.
The ‘Axis of Evil’ was – and is – very real, as the tyrants of Iran, Iraq, and North Korea knew full well.
Obviously, having served in wars myself, I’m eager to do everything possible to avoid them, but our military capability vis-a-vis a country like Iran is a major source of leverage in any negotiation that we should never, ever give up.
I don’t think that Iran with a nuclear capability will be just the problem of the state of Israel. This is a matter that concerns the whole world.
We must apply the same standards to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt that we apply to Iran, Russia and Syria.
I believe in diplomacy; I don’t believe in talking to… that talking to Iran somehow constitutes a concession or a favour.
Those in the west who dismiss the repressiveness of laws against women in countries like Iran, no matter how benign their intentions, present a condescending view not just of the religion but also of women living in Muslim majority countries, as if the desire for choice and happiness is the monopoly of women in the west.
Israel is the vanguard of the free world against the Islamic terrorism of ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran.
We must openly call for the establishment of a Kurdish state that separates Iran from Turkey, one which will be friendly towards Israel.
There is very little hope that the United States or anyone else can do much to stabilize Iraq, Libya, Syria or Egypt. Stabilizing Iran, and bringing it back into the family of nations, is much more possible. That would be a ‘win’ for both sides.
We’ve gotten a long way on missile defense. We know how to do it. We know how to take down incoming warheads, but we need to do a lot more work in order to be – to deploy a system that’ll defend the United States against those kinds of limited strikes that might be possible by a nuclear armed North Korea or Iran.
For years, Iran has worked to position itself to dominate the entire Middle East and to impose its version of radical Islam on society. It is actively working to destabilize Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria.
Iran may or may not be the existential threat to Israel that Netanyahu insists it is. But a lessening of U.S. support for Israel certainly would be. With an indifferent America, Israel would become a lonely, frightening place.
Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is one of the most important objectives of our national security policy, and I strongly advocated for and supported the economic sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table.
In order to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear country you have to introduce a system of verification and inspection.
The greatest threat to our freedom and prosperity is not al-Qaida, the Taliban, Iran or even China. It’s an idea, the idea that we can spend our way out of our problems without tightening our belt and paring down the very bloated government.
It is my Middle Eastern hat and my attachment to Israel that ultimately inspires my support for Obama. I know he understands that neither Israel nor America can afford four more years of Iran and the radical Islamists gaining strategic leverage in the Middle East.
There is total unanimity that the most serious threat facing the United States and Israel is a nuclear-armed Iran.
If Iran becomes a nuclear weapon state it is the end of non-proliferation as we know it. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon you are likely to see Saudi, Egypt and other countries follow suit and we will bequeath to the next generation a nuclear arms race in the world’s most unstable region.
Iran has a dismal record on human rights.
Ironically, from our perspective, Russia finds Iran a stabilizing force. This is because Iran provides a counterweight to all of the Sunni Muslim powers in the region, being predominantly Shia. And Putin actually sees, and the rest of the Russian leadership, sees Iran very much as a rational actor.
When the President of Iran talks about removing Israel from the face of the Earth and is building nuclear bombs with a range of 3000km, you have to be worried.
It was sanctions that drove Iran to the negotiating table in the first place.
It was the Obama administration that cut a faux deal with the Iranians that will not disarm Iran of its nuclear capabilities, and will in fact accelerate their nuclear development.
Bob Levinson was in Iran serving his government, and Bob Levinson was not well served by his government.
In emerging democracies like Russia, in authoritarian states like Iran or even Yugoslavia, journalists play a vital role in civil society. In fact, they form the very basis of those new democracies and civil societies.
Iran has had a very harmful effect in a variety of ways in the region… fomenting unrest to a degree in Saudi Arabia, undoubtedly in Bahrain, and definitely in Yemen with Hamas, with Lebanese Hezbollah among other activities in locations.
Engaging in diplomacy with Iran and putting an end to their nuclear weapons program was the right thing to do.
The administration has taken its inexcusable apathy a step further, declaring that even abiding by the few token sanctions in place isn’t truly necessary, as evidenced by the now 20 countries to which the Obama administration has granted waivers to continue doing business with Iran.
The European Union and its member states continue and will continue, as the nuclear deal is implemented, to have open channels with Iran.
The Americans have claimed they want to completely stop Iran’s oil exports. They don’t understand the meaning of this statement, because it has no meaning for Iranian oil not to be exported, while the region’s oil is exported.
I have stated publicly, I want the same things for Iran that I want for Brazil. I want them to use and develop their nuclear energy for peaceful means.
In the end, for all of Obama’s grand rhetoric on ridding the world of nuclear weapons, history has doomed him to preside over the emergence of two rogue nuclear regimes (North Korea and Iran).
Aggressive and irresponsible steps endanger the peace and stability of the world, and the international community feels the need to protect itself from Iran.
The viral power of online media has proven how fast creative ideas can be spread and adopted, using tools like cellphones, digital cameras, micro-credit, mobile banking, Facebook, and Twitter. A perfect example? The way the Green Movement in Iran caught fire thanks to social media.
It was known in the mid 90s already that Saddam Hussein was a dangerous tyrant that he had already launched aggressions against Iran, he had invaded Kuwait.
What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and that Iran and Russia cannot be granted a sphere of influence in Syria, and that we will not sit down at the negotiating table to help broker Assad’s victory in this fight.
