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August 25, 2022

In a recent article about the ongoing Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiations with Iran, the author, Bryan Leib, states: “The Iranian people want liberty, religious freedom and peace with their neighbors.”  

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I have some serious questions about whether very many of the Iranian people want any of the things listed in this sentence.

The question as to the validity of this claim has tremendous bearing on our understanding of what is happening with respect to our negotiations with Iran as members of P5+1.  The sentence by Mr. Leib dilutes our understanding of Iran’s governing regime as being evil.  There is a nuanced suggestion here that if only the pure, good people of Iran were in charge this would all bode well.  And it is a way of hinting that a wholesome, honorable Iran is just around the corner, and we should be looking forward to the day that that group provides Iranian leadership.

This one sentence underestimates the depth of the wicked intentions towards other powers which are listed in his article.  The Ayatollah Khomeini’s curse on the U.S. when he called our country “the Great Satan” is still in effect.   We cannot have a drop of expectation regarding the deal’s credibility because of some non-specific hope in an overthrow of the present government of that country. 

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We should not forget that there is no suppressed democratic or liberty-loving Iranian base.  The Iranians have had despotisms since the Safavid dynasty beginning in the 1500s.

The Shah, who governed before the present mullah fanatics, while not a terrorist/jihadist, was not promoting liberty, religious freedom, or peace. 

For example, Israel as late as the 1970s before the Shah was overthrown had neither an embassy nor a consulate in Teheran, but was only allowed a mission.

I taught at that time in Iran, and the U.S. mission had huge concrete walls.  Admission for purposes only of getting a visa to Israel required that one be frisked by guards carrying machine guns and then entrance to the mission was through a huge steel door with wheels like one typically sees in bank vaults.  There was only one flight a day to Israel and the plane, encircled by military personnel, was a couple of miles away from the terminal building.  My passport was confiscated by the Shah’s agents upon my arrival in that country.  

Relatively speaking, some naïve souls might propose that the pre-ayatollah country was governed by more enlightened personnel.  What a joke!!

The so-called peace negotiations of JCPOA are about what was referred to six years ago on Arutz Sheva as the “industrial-terrorist complex.”  Aircraft companies like Boeing benefited from the deal made before President Trump because it included an agreement to sell a large number of airplanes to Iran.  Also, under the Shah, various short-range and long-range missiles were manufactured with the support of American engineering companies.