Iran: US relations a ‘curvy road’

US President Donald Trump walks on his arrival accompanied by the Israeli President Rueben Rivlin, right, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Monday, May 22,2017. In order to ensure that Iran continues progressing toward global engagement – thereby protecting a nuclear agreement that Trump is not eager to defend – Rouhani’s government will have to work hard to improve relations with neighboring countries.

Despite Trump’s confrontational rhetoric, Iran had nothing to do with the terror attacks on the U.S. in September 2001, or subsequent attacks in Europe – including Germany, France and England. The King did not meet former US President Barack Obama at the airport when he visited in April a year ago.

Mr Trump has dubbed the nuclear agreement signed by Mr Obama as “one of the worst deals ever signed”.

While the USA relies on Syrian Kurdish forces, with 50,000 fighters, to oust Islamic State from the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Kurds are not capable of taking on the group in Deir al-Zor as well.

The conservative candidate Raisi has claimed, during the campaign, that he is the voice of the poor; but it seems poorer Iranians have trusted Rouhani, instead, as they believe he is the only one capable of terminating the sanctions. Europe, which has tripled trade with Iran, and Asia, Iran’s chief customer for oil, can be expected to object to Trump’s uncompromising posture.

“Furthering more enmity with Iran, rather than seeking common ground and interests at a time when Iran is ready to reach out diplomatically on the region’s long-term problems, is going to work against the long term aim of a peaceful and stable Middle East”.

“The Iranian people voted for moderation as they know a prosperous economy and jobs can only happen through investment, and investment through freedom and interaction with the world”, he said as he began his second term as president.

Mr Rouhani, a moderate cleric who signed a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, said the United States had “resorted to many methods against Iran but failed in all”.

“Bye-bye, Raisi”, the crowds chanted during the street gatherings. “There is no doubt in this”, Mr Rouhani said. Rouhani’s victory has proven once again that the candidate closest to the supreme leader is not guaranteed victory. It controls key domestic sites including the country’s airports. And yet, the country was never officially accused of harboring terrorists.

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of spreading an intolerant creed that fuels terrorism and threatens minorities.

A White House official said the deal will help increase Saudi Arabia’s defense capabilities, bolstering equipment and services in the face of extremist terrorist groups and Iran.

Sunday, Trump delivered a speech in Saudi Arabia, pushing for Muslim unity in the fight against terrorism, which he called “a battle between good and evil”.

Iran and the U.S. back opposing sides in the civil wars in Syria and Yemen, but they are both fighting the jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq. “It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this very room”. They were, in fact, Saudi, according to Simon Henderson of Foreign Policy. “Americans were only successful in their engagement with the Iranian nation during the nuclear talks”. For them, Trump’s return to America’s traditional allies was a great relief. Moreover, it will need to adopt a more constructive position vis-à-vis the Syrian conflict, making it clear that Iran is not spearheading a Shia liberation movement. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Quds Force continue to support Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Without Iranian-supported Iraqi Shia militias, the US-sponsored Iraqi army can not drive Islamic State from Mosul in northern Iraq.