Iran is “perfectly normal,” eh?
Really? Let’s consider that statement in light of some recent news items:
“Islam’s biggest rock star” banned in Iran after performing in Israel
Iran: “We will trample upon America”
Iran’s Supremo calls for Muslim world to unite and destroy Israel
Iran’s Khamenei hails his people for demanding death to America and Israel
Iran’s Supremo posts photo of himself trampling Israeli flag
Iran launches “nuke Israel” video game on nuke deal deadline
Iran-flagged ship targets U.S. Navy with laser
60% of women in one Iranian province have undergone FGM
Islamic Republic of Iran: 74 lashes, prison for eating in public during Ramadan
Iran: Pastor “viciously beaten” in prison, told only way out is to deny Christ
Iran sentences 18 Christians to prison in new crackdown on Christianity
Senior Iranian cleric: Hey, let’s chop off more hands
Iran: Muslim convert to Christianity gets five years in prison
Iran fires upon, seizes U.S. commercial ship, U.S. “monitoring” the situation
Iranian city bars Christians from celebrating Easter in churches
Iran militia top dog: “Erasing Israel off the map” is “non-negotiable”
Islamic Republic of Iran: Authorities raid Christian homes, ask them to leave country
Iran: Muslim cleric vows to “raise flag of Islam on White House”
Lord, what fools these British politicians be. “Hammond says ‘perfectly normal’ Iran seeks to ‘turn a page’ with West,” Times of Israel, August 25, 2015:
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Monday he believed in Iranian’s genuine desire to “turn a page” with the West and develop better ties.
Hammon [sic] spoke at the end of a two-day visit to Tehran and a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to mark the reopening of the two nations’ respective embassies after a break of several years.
While he stressed that the countries’ relations remained complex and difficult, he said Iran as a regional power was too important to ignore on Middle East issues.
“It’s hard to see what is the point of advocating dialog with someone who you know has a very different view of the world from you, unless you are anticipating some give and take,” he said, according to the UK’s Telegraph.
He added that the visit had changed his view of the Islamic republic.
“I suspect that I, like many people in Britain and the West, will have had an image of Iran as a desperately theocratic, deeply religious society motivated by ideology,” she said. “What I’ve seen is a perfectly normal, bustling, dynamic, entrepreneurial, thrusting, middle income developing world city, which has clearly enormous potential. You only need to look at it to see the enormous potential.”
Of the regime, he added: “I don’t get the impression of a population cowed by authority. It’s a much more bustling, dynamic place than I had expected — a much more diverse place than I had expected — and the message I’m getting from our interlocutors is that they do want to see the nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions as an opportunity to turn a page. That doesn’t mean we can wipe out history — and in particular some very difficult history between Britain and Iran. But it does mean we can agree to draw a line and move on.”…