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UK Foreign Secretary: “Perfectly normal” Iran seeks to “turn a page” with West

Aug 25, 2015 7:30 pm By Robert Spencer

Philip Hammond Javad Zarif

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.”…

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Filed Under: Featured, Iran, United Kingdom Tagged With: Javad Zarif, Philip Hammond


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    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.

    Yeah, turning from “religious wackos foaming at the mouth and ranting about destroying Israel and the West” to “religious wackos who actually have the means to inflict major damage to Israel and damage to the West”.

    • Angemon says

      Aug 25, 2015 at 7:55 pm

      Also, ” here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine”, “peace for our time”, etc.

      • Mirren10 says

        Aug 26, 2015 at 5:52 am

        No different from all the politicians and aristos who went to Nazi Germany in the Thirties and saw only what they wanted to see.

        Fools, all.

        • Babs says

          Aug 26, 2015 at 1:48 pm

          Yes, and we could all have told Mr Chamberlain what to do with that piece of paper.

    • Dr. Divinity says

      Aug 26, 2015 at 7:48 pm

      I R A N

      I= Irresponsible
      R= Radical
      A= Asinine
      N= Nothingness

  2. Mark says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    I was hoping the UK would stand up and defend the freedom of the world and learn from passed mistakes dealing with islam…..
    Impeachment of obam dose not look good and I’m sure he and his people ( NOT Americans ) have their hands deep in this to under mine the current nuke deal that.
    Sadly I believe iran already has enough nuke’s in suitcases to wipe many cities off the map

  3. DrJLD says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 8:06 pm

    How many Chamberlains and Hoares can Britain afford in its history?

    You, and the rest of the world, as Churchill would say, have had a choice between war and dishonor. You have chosen dishonor…and you will soon have both. How many times does a country do this until they get a war they can’t win…except with great loss of lives and treasure.

    Iran is NOT the fantasyland that Britain’s political elites want you to think! Iran is the world’s greatest terror state. The government is repressive, very theocratic, respects NO human rights, and wants to murder you in your home’s.

    Can the government and business be so rabid for doing business that government would barefacedly lie to its citizens and the world? Of course! Follow the money trail and you will find the filthiest and foulest corruption you can imagine.

  4. Champ says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    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.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    It ends with “better ties” but at first I thought this stated …”and develop better LIES” …so I’ll go with that mistake because that’s exactly what they desire, becoming better liars!

    • Mirren10 says

      Aug 26, 2015 at 1:52 pm

      🙂

      “and develop better *lies*”.

      Good one, champ !

    • Dr. Divinity says

      Aug 26, 2015 at 7:57 pm

      The only page Iran will turn is another page in the Koran

  5. David, Thailand says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 9:46 pm

    Someone please help me I need his email address for my bridges, cheap, beootiful fresh bridges, get ’em here, all colours and sizes and every direction, last few days at you wouldn’t believe how much…!

    • nothosaur says

      Aug 26, 2015 at 1:31 am

      priceless. 🙂

  6. David, Thailand says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 9:49 pm

    Poor Hammond still hasn’t figured out that emulating Obama is as dumb as dumb gets, since he was a willing partner to betraying the free world.

  7. Westman says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 10:52 pm

    British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said, nothing to see here, “draw a line and move on”. Meanwhile back at Syria, Iraq, Fordow, and Natanz the plans continue for “Erasing Israel off the map” and is “non-negotiable”.

    Apparently Hammond has never been in the presence of consumate liars and is the equivalent of Neville Chamberlain who honestly believed in what he heard and the “normal” folk he observed. The minders must have sore throats from choking back the laughter.

    When the Ayatollah says, “Yes, Death to America”, he isn’t joking. British aristocracy may be lulled by Persian fairy tales, but the citizens of the West are waking up.

  8. RonaldB says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 11:13 pm

    The Iranian people are intelligent, and have a distinguished pre-Islamic history.

    Of course, the Persians fought the Byzantines to a mutually-exhausting standstill, probably opening the way for the Arab conquest that morphed into the Islamic (Ottoman) empire.

    Urban Iranian culture is not monolithic, and has elements that appreciate freedom from Islamic oppression: unfortunately, those elements, like all elements of Iranian society, are under the heel of the theocracy and the dictator Khameni.

    Remember the very attractive video made by the Iranian dancers to the tune “Happy”?

    They were arrested and sentenced to prison and lashing, although the sentences were ultimately mostly suspended.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPF_n4sozY

    But, the fact that there are nice elements in Iranian society doesn’t take away from the fact that Iran is a deadly danger.

    President Obama chose to ignore the Green Revolution in Iran that was viciously suppressed by the Iranian authorities. The protesters were demonstrating against the dictatorship trying to give the appearance of democratic choice. It would have been nice if the US had made a statement recognizing the individual rights of the demonstrators wanting reform, but any focus by the US government on individual rights is in short supply these days.

  9. mortimer says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 11:19 pm

    The unfounded, overoptimistic overstatements of British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond do no good. There is no point in pretending that Iran is not a DESPOTIC THEOCRACY.

    Mr. Hammond, let’s live in reality. Iran is a big, vicious prison.

  10. Plutarchus7 says

    Aug 25, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    THE ONLY PAGE IRAN IS TURNING

    is in the Koran seeking guidance from Allah for the next step in His plan of victory for the revolution.

  11. anon says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 12:25 am

    It is an interesting juxtaposition.

    This story: British Foreign secretary says that Iran is a perfectly normal country dedicated to peace.

    Next story: Iranian official: “Israel should be annihilated”

    I think I would rather trust the Iranian officials about their own motives than some dhimmi who doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about. I would also feel much more comfortable in life if members of the foreign office (and home office) educated themselves. Reading jihad watch from time to time would be a good start.

  12. Richard says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 4:47 am

    If doing is being, would that be mental disturbance ?

  13. GRaham says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 6:18 am

    Bullshit!

  14. duh_swami says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 8:47 am

    The Ayatollah depends on the stupidity of kuffar…The PC elite don’t disappoint him…
    If you support evil, you are evil…If you don’t know evil when you are looking at it, you should not be in charge of anything, not even a houseplant…

    • Babs says

      Aug 26, 2015 at 1:52 pm

      “If you support evil you are evil….”
      You’re talking of the wizened old hope of the UK Labour Party, aren’t you?

  15. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 10:32 am

    So it’s perfectly normal for a country to openly declare its intention to nuclear bomb another nation into oblivion? I wonder if any members of the storied English press has confronted this guy with that question. They’re famous for probing into the personal lives of celebrities there, so why not Hammond?

  16. Doug says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 10:51 am

    What satanic force grabs hold of a person once he or she enters politics? No longer do they serve their electorate and uphold the laws and values of the constituency, but suddenly support and try to sell islam to them.

  17. Voytek Gagalka says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 2:47 pm

    Mr. Hammond forgot the history of his own country. The last time another British politician considering that “perfectly normal” Hitler just wants “to turn page” with England was Chamberlain. How did this work out? Now, with Iran, it will end up EXACTLY similar way, or worse. Britain fades pretty fast into total irrelevancy.

  18. Mark says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 6:07 pm

    Thus, yet another British politician shows that they are either totally clueless about reality or they are utter cowards and most dangerously of all, of traitor material.

    One question is how much input by lying muslims are their ears getting?

  19. Enfant Terrible says

    Aug 26, 2015 at 6:34 pm

    “Hammon [sic] spoke at the end of a TWO-DAY visit….”

    “He added that the visit had changed his view of the Islamic republic.”

  20. Mirren10 says

    Aug 27, 2015 at 11:25 am

    “He added that the visit had changed his view of the Islamic republic.”

    Must have been all that delicious hummus and zulbia.

    Yes, he is that vacant.

  21. kay says

    Aug 27, 2015 at 11:33 am

    Chamberlain : “Peace in our time.”

    http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6373/iran-deal-war

    If someone had asked you a year ago what would be the most efficient way to cause a major war in the Middle East, you might well have said: Giving the mullahs in Iran the opportunity to get advanced conventional weapons, ICBMs, nuclear weapons and tens of billion of dollars to fund terrorist organizations and destabilize other countries in the region. You might have argued that a regime that does not hesitate to attack targets in Washington or Berlin might not be the most prudent one to shower with gigantic quantities of money and the deadliest weapons.

    If one knows anything about the regime in Iran, it is difficult to understand how U.S. President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran could create anything other than chaos and war in the Middle East.

    The content of the Iran nuclear agreement creates the perfect conditions for a major war in the Middle East — one that could spread and start a major regional conflict.

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