This speech will shore up Rowhani’s reputation as a “moderate” in the international media, but essentially he is just telling the generals, Tone it down, the Infidels are catching on. And indeed, Iranian spokesmen have been indulging in quite a bit of virulently hostile rhetoric toward the U.S. recently, belying the media and Obama administration insistence that Iran is “moderate” now. Note that Rowhani says here: “We must be very careful in our calculations. Launching missiles and staging military exercises to scare off the other side is not good deterrence, although a necessity in its proper place.” He does not, in other words, say “We must be very careful in our calculations. Launching missiles and staging military exercises to scare off the other side is not good moderate foreign policy, and completely contradicts the spirit of our new peace agreement with the U.S.”
Rowhani himself has dropped the mask at least once. Remember his tweet, later deleted: “Our relationship w/ the world is based on Iranian nation’s interests. In #Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation’s will.”
“Rowhani to Iran generals: cut hostile rhetoric,” from Al Arabiya, March 1:
President Hassan Rowhani urged Iran’s military leaders on Saturday to let diplomacy prevail in dealing with potential foreign threats, in a clear reference to efforts to end the nuclear dispute and decades of hostile relations with the West, Reuters reported.
“It is very important to formulate one’s sentences and speeches in a way that is not construed as threat, intention to strike a blow,” Reuters quoted Rowhani as saying in a meeting with Iran’s top military echelon.
“We must be very careful in our calculations. Launching missiles and staging military exercises to scare off the other side is not good deterrence, although a necessity in its proper place,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
He added: “A misfire could burst into flames and wreak havoc to everything.”
Moderate Rowhani
A moderate elected by landslide last June, Rowhani has broken with tradition and pursued compromise with the United States and its allies on uranium enrichment, a sensitive issue that resulted in global economic sanctions against Iran.
The Associated Press reported Rowhani as telling defense ministry officials that the Islamic Republic has decided not to develop nuclear weapons out of principle, not only because it is prevented so by treaties.
“We are not after weapons of mass destruction. That’s our red line,” he said.
He added: “If Iran was after weapons of mass destruction, it would build chemical weapons. Those are easier to make. It would build biological arms, which are even easier than making chemical weapons.”
He reiterated a policy set by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who issued a religious decree banning the production and use of nuclear weapons.
He has said holding such arms is a sin as well as “useless, harmful and dangerous.”
Iran is a signatory to the NPT and says it will remain committed to its obligations not to build nuclear weapons under the treaty but will not compromise on its right to enrich uranium and produce nuclear fuel.
“We signed these treaties to show the world we are not after such weapons,” he told military commanders.
“Even if there were no NPT or other treaties, our belief, our faith, our religion and principles tell us not to seek weapons of mass destruction.”
Rowhani’s efforts
Rowhani’s efforts run counter to belligerent slogans from Islamic hardliners who dominate the elite Revolutionary Guards and the regular army to a lesser extent.
While Iranian nuclear negotiators were haggling with world powers in Vienna last month, many generals were beating war drums at home and flexing their military muscles.
“Our forefathers primed us for the final epic battle,” said the chief commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad-Ali Jafari last month.
Such belligerence was absent from Rowhani’s speech on Saturday.
“Our foreign policy is based on detente and trust-building with the world. This is not just a slogan,” he said
“Iran is sincere in saying it is not out to attack anyone. Aggression is our red line. Weapons of mass destruction are our red line.”
Jay Boo says
Obama told us Egypt’s Morsi was a moderate.
Is it possible that he could actually be wrong yet again with Iran’s Rowhani?
Jan Strucker says
Great example of muslim principle of “Taqqiya”.
mortimer says
To deceive the KUFAAR and the Islamic ‘hypocrites’ (Muslims from other sects) is WORSHIP!
“Imam Ja’far said: Verily diplomacy (arri’a’) with a true believer is a form of shirk (polytheism); but with a hypocrite (munafiq) in his own house, it is worship.”
‘Diplomacy’ here refers to telling lies (taqiyya) to trick an opponent and gain the upper hand over him in the name of Islam.
jcd0101 says
Translation: Dont sharpen or display your rusty knives , ak 47,s or nukes
when the camera is ON you flipping moron..
WAIT UNTIL ITS OFF and make sure the microphone is off too
and all infidels are gone..
Then you can start to clean your ak47 and sharpen the knives.
dumbledoresarmy says
Or, in other words, “Softly softly catchee monkey”.
Something else, about the Muslim ability to smile, and smile, and then *kill*, that came up in a comments thread to an article about Tariq Ramadan, the Ikhwan “front man” in Europe.
It was so arresting that I copied and kept it.
http://chronicle.com/article/Vetting-Tariq-Ramadan/65620/
2. ellenhunt – May 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm
‘There is no point in asking people like Tariq Ramadan to “explain” themselves. All anyone will get is lies.
‘He is a man who is following the letter of islam.
‘Islam instructs to lie to infidels, to decieve in the cause of conquest.
‘That is what Ramadan is doing. Ramadan is working on the conquest of the nations of the western world from within.
‘**Many years ago I was talking with a Zoroastrian refugee from Iran who fled the Khomeni’s revolution.** {my emphasis – dda}
‘I made some silly remark the exact content of which I don’t even remember.
‘But I will never forget his response. He sat back, his eyes widened, and he stared at me saying,
**”You do not understand. These men are incredibly dangerous. You have no idea how dangerous. You cannot imagine it. You cannot imagine what they are capable of while smiling at you.”** {my emphasis – dda}
‘He did not raise his voice, but the intensity with which he spoke gave it more power.
‘He spoke to me after that for about 10 minutes warning me about the way these men walk and speak with total self-assurance, apparently normal, kind, honorable, soft spoken.
‘And he told me what they did.
‘He told me how they calmly ordered the slaughter and of neighbors.
‘He told me how they lied for years, pretending to be friends and then betrayed those friends to their deaths.
‘He told me how in their minds, because they are fanatics, they never have any qualms or human feelings about it.
‘To them, if a person is not a muslim, they are nothing.
‘To them, if a person is not a good muslim (fundamentalist, following to the letter) then they are a heretic.
‘He asked me to never forget what he said because he had seen it.
‘I had some contacts with such people later.
‘When I refused to convert after one of them worked on me, he told me calmly that he would kill me on the battlefield.
‘I also remember reading the description of the behavior of the 9-11 hijackers given by the people who used a cell phone before the plane went down in PA. The hijackers were very polite, smiling, apologetic to the passengers.
‘Tariq Ramadan {and every other mohammedan like him – dda} is a man to be feared. He is exactly the kind of incredibly dangerous man that the Iranian refugee warned me about.
‘He is exactly the kind of man I met later.
‘This is not a game.
‘He has one purpose here in the west.
‘He has the goal of destroying our society and everything we believe in. He has the goal of replacing it with Sharia and fundamentalist islam. {That is: with Islam, Islam, Islam, pure and undiluted, Islam as practised in most Islamic countries and by most Muslims for the past 1400 years – dda}
‘That means that you, anyone who is not a muslim, are to be killed, or utterly subjugated.
‘Do not be taken in by his pleasant manner, by his atmosphere of certainty. Know where it comes from. Understand him.
‘He is so much farther into fundamentalism {sic: into the psycho Death Cult that is Islam – dda} than the most notorious southern baptist {very foolish comparison – dda} that you who read my words here cannot imagine it.
‘I know this. I could not have imagined it.
“He is a fanatic {that is: a thoroughly devout orthodox Muslim – dda}, and a liar extraordinaire because of his fanaticism.”
Walter Sieruk says
As for that fake “moderate” president Rouhani along with Ayatollah Khamenei as well as the mullahs who have so much power in this cruel Islamic regime .
They all the be best desribed in in Psalm 73:6-9 of the Bible. Which reads “Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds no know limits. They scoff and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. Their months lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.”[NIV]