A member of the Expediency Council says Joe Biden should be considered an adversary to the missile superiority and the regional influence of the Islamic Republic.
In an exclusive interview with the IRIB News Agency, Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi reflected on the possibility of resolving U.S.-Iran issues under a Joe Biden administration. “Instead of pondering this subject, we must look at what Biden said in the past. Biden spoke about our country during the election,” he said.
“Find one instance where Biden said he would nullify Trump’s sanctions against us upon coming to power. He has stated that there would be a return to previous conditions only after there have been negotiations over curbing the strength of Iran’s regional influence. Additionally, he has wanted to discuss Iran’s missile and defense capabilities to determine Iran’s right to defend itself,” Saffar-Harandi added.
In response to assertions by those who said they had not heard Biden’s team set the preconditions that Trump did, Saffar-Harandi clarified that “they should be suspicious of their sources. We would need to know what sources they use to gain information. Otherwise, why haven’t they heard the claims from Biden himself?”
Saffar-Harandi, a political analyst, said, “Biden’s advisers, those who will hold the main positions of power in the U.S. soon, have been even more explicit in labeling Iran as the greatest threat to the U.S. and have stated that they will not cooperate with Iran.
“This posturing shows that the Biden administration will pursue the same approach that they have pursued over the past 40 years. During this period, half the administrations have been Democratic and half Republican,” he added.
“The first sanctions leveled against our countries came during a period when the Democrats were in power. Jimmy Carter imposed the first sanctions on us and Congress, passed a resolution against us for trying antirevolutionary agents from the Pahlavi era, and doing justice.”
Saffar-Harandi added that “The harshest sanctions were imposed during the Democratic Bill Clinton administration. Barack Obama also imposed new sanctions on our country and now Mr. Biden is stating that he will continue the harsh sanctions Trump imposed.”
The policies of the Democrats and Republicans are the same; they differ only in process.
The Expediency Council member described the policies of the Democratic and Republican Parties as the same but having different approaches. “Upon coming to power, Obama wrote a few letters to the Supreme Leader. To my knowledge, the Supreme Leader responded to one of these letters, too.
“By sending those letters, Obama pretended to be different from other U.S. presidents. Of course, he threatened us as well and we responded appropriately.
“However, look at Obama’s actions. A few months after that correspondence with the Supreme Leader, the Americans were involved in the sedition that occurred during the Iranian election of 2009. As soon as they observed our internal turmoil, they changed their position and no longer wanted to build a new relationship with us. Suddenly, they began taking command of the near coup that was taking place.“
Pointing to the support shown by Obama’s secretary of state to those who rebelled in 2009, Saffar-Harandi added, “Secretary Hillary Clinton stated, ‘we support the freedom fighters in the streets of Tehran.’”
Saffar-Harandi says that American support for the seditionists contradicted the claims Obama made in his letters to the Supreme Leader. “It is laughable to think that the methods of the Democrats are any different than those of Republicans. Of course, they are superficially different, but they have the same goals.
“It is thought that only Republicans seek war despite the fact that many of the conflicts, whether in our region or other parts of the world, were initiated by the Democrats. The groundwork for the Vietnam War was laid under the John F. Kennedy administration, reached its peak under the Johnson administration, and ended under the Republican Richard Nixon administration.”
Not Just Republicans Are in Favor of War
Saffar-Harandi noted that “Not just Republicans are pro-war. In this region of west Asia, the groundwork for war against Iraq and Afghanistan was laid under the Clinton administration. Many crises, such as the emergence of Islamic State, happened under Democratic rule.
“The west Asia region fell apart under the Obama administration and Secretary Clinton acknowledged that ‘we created ISIS.’* Addressing Obama, Donald Trump sarcastically said, ‘We are struggling with what you created and do not know how to solve it.’”
Pointing to the interventionist policies of the Obama administration, Saffar-Harandi emphasized that “Nevertheless, we will follow events and will need to strengthen our relationship with our allies. We cannot sacrifice all other countries for one.”
He clarified that “our government sacrificed relationships with many other countries for an imaginary relationship with the U.S. and the West. Meanwhile, if we had structured trade relations with our neighboring countries, we would have reaped 30 times more revenue.”
“Meanwhile, Europe is so fanatical in its animosity toward us that it was not even willing to condemn the U.S. for exiting the nuclear deal. Instead, they issue resolutions for any action we take,” the Expediency Council member said.
*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, the cited remarks of Hillary Clinton could not be independently verified.
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