Members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) march during the annual military parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the devastating 1980-1988 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, in the capital Tehran on September 22, 2018. – In Iran’s southwestern city of Ahvaz during commemoration of the same event, dozens of people were killed with dozens others wounded in an attack targeting another army parade, state media reported on September 22. (Photo by STR / AFP) (Photo credit should read STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Iraqi writer Farouk Yousef pointed out that after the US gave Iran $90 billion following the signing of the nuclear agreement with the Obama administration in 2015… the bulk of the money… was spent on terrorist groups run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as terrorist groups run covertly in other Arab countries.
-
[Iran is] trying to delay the signing of the nuclear agreement so that the mullahs succeed in forcing the Biden administration to accept all their demands, especially the removal of the IRGC from the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
-
“Biden was not ignorant of the wrong way he started [dealing with Iran]. All the countries in the region were telling him that the resumption of talks with Iran must include Iran’s missile program and its destabilizing activities in the region, including the activities of its militias that threaten stability in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Biden chose not to listen….” — Ali Al-Sarraf, Iraqi writer, Al-Ain, May 10, 2022.
-
“Biden could have told the mullahs that a return to the nuclear agreement would take place on the basis of three conditions: abandoning violations of the commitments in that agreement, curbing the missile program… and stopping the actions of militias that threaten the security and stability of the countries of the region…. The Revolutionary Guard is directly involved in the civil war and violence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen…. Iran’s own actions will prove to him that he took the wrong path.” — Ali Al-Sarraf, Al-Ain, May 10, 2022.
-
Like many Arabs, Al-Sarraf asked why the Biden administration was not defending the interests of America’s allies.
-
“[T]here is no sane person in the region willing to take seriously any reassuring words issued by [US Special Envoy for Iran] Robert Malley and other officials in the US administration concerned with the Iranian file. Every child now knows that these American officials have nothing but flattery for Iran, especially in light of the cold American reaction to the attacks it carried out against the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates….If anything has changed, it is for the worse.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Lebanese journalist, Elaph, March 30, 2022.
-
“How can a US administration gain the trust of its allies despite its refusal to take note that northern Yemen has become a base for Iranian missiles and drones? These missiles and drones are directed at the Arab Gulf states and are now threatening navigation in the Red Sea as well.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Elaph, March 30, 2022.
-
[T]he removal of the IRGC from the list of terrorist organizations would cause massive damage to the interests of the US. It will lose all its Arab friends, who will stop working with the Americans in a number of fields, including the war on terrorism.
-
It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will continue with its benighted policy of appeasing the mullahs or heed the insistent wake-up calls of America’s real allies.
-
[Iran is] trying to delay the signing of the nuclear agreement so that the mullahs succeed in forcing the Biden administration to accept all their demands, especially the removal of the IRGC from the list of foreign terrorist organizations.
-
“Biden was not ignorant of the wrong way he started [dealing with Iran]. All the countries in the region were telling him that the resumption of talks with Iran must include Iran’s missile program and its destabilizing activities in the region, including the activities of its militias that threaten stability in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Biden chose not to listen….” — Ali Al-Sarraf, Iraqi writer, Al-Ain, May 10, 2022.
-
“Biden could have told the mullahs that a return to the nuclear agreement would take place on the basis of three conditions: abandoning violations of the commitments in that agreement, curbing the missile program… and stopping the actions of militias that threaten the security and stability of the countries of the region…. The Revolutionary Guard is directly involved in the civil war and violence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen…. Iran’s own actions will prove to him that he took the wrong path.” — Ali Al-Sarraf, Al-Ain, May 10, 2022.
-
Like many Arabs, Al-Sarraf asked why the Biden administration was not defending the interests of America’s allies.
-
“[T]here is no sane person in the region willing to take seriously any reassuring words issued by [US Special Envoy for Iran] Robert Malley and other officials in the US administration concerned with the Iranian file. Every child now knows that these American officials have nothing but flattery for Iran, especially in light of the cold American reaction to the attacks it carried out against the Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates….If anything has changed, it is for the worse.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Lebanese journalist, Elaph, March 30, 2022.
-
“How can a US administration gain the trust of its allies despite its refusal to take note that northern Yemen has become a base for Iranian missiles and drones? These missiles and drones are directed at the Arab Gulf states and are now threatening navigation in the Red Sea as well.” — Kheirallah Kheirallah, Elaph, March 30, 2022.
-
[T]he removal of the IRGC from the list of terrorist organizations would cause massive damage to the interests of the US. It will lose all its Arab friends, who will stop working with the Americans in a number of fields, including the war on terrorism.
-
It now remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will continue with its benighted policy of appeasing the mullahs or heed the insistent wake-up calls of America’s real allies.