From: Reuters<\/p>\n
LONDON (Reuters) – A tough line from President Donald Trump has been met by a show of unity from both sides of Iran\u2019s political divide, uniting hardliners who cast the United States as an implacable enemy with pragmatists who seek rapprochement with the West.<\/p>\n
Iran, which has kept up a steady drumbeat of angry statements for days, lashed out again on Tuesday, threatening to teach the Americans \u201cnew lessons\u201d and keep \u201call options on the table\u201d if Washington blacklists its Revolutionary Guards.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of being too soft on Iran, is expected to announce a hardening of policy this week, likely to include \u201cdecertifying\u201d a landmark 2015 deal that lifted international sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran\u2019s nuclear programme. Such a step would stop short of pulling out of the agreement, leaving that decision to Congress.<\/p>\n
Trump is also expected to designate Iran\u2019s most powerful security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), as a terrorist organisation. The IRGC has a vast economic empire in Iran, and blacklisting it could make it more difficult for Iranian businesses to access the global financial system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems the Trump administration understands only swear words, and needs some shocks to understand the new meaning of power in the world,\u201d said Iranian armed forces spokesman Masoud Jazayeri, who is also a Revolutionary Guards commander.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Americans have driven the world crazy by their behaviour. It is time to teach them a new lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several Iranian newspapers ran the same photo on the front page on Tuesday: the urbane, U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif laughing and hugging the commander of the IRGC, Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari, in a striking display of unity between the two main factions of Iran\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a similar stance but different ways of saying it,\u201d the papers quoted Jafari as saying.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s moderate president Hassan Rouhani won re-election less than five months ago after a campaign in which he called for better ties with the outside world and reform at home, openly criticising the influence of the IRGC which he accused of backing his hardline opponent. But the moderates and hardliners tend to rally together in public when threatened from abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Americans are too small to be able to harm the Revolutionary Guards,\u201d Ali Akbar Velayati, the top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying by ISNA. \u201cWe have all options on the table. Whatever they do, we will take reciprocal measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. sanctions on the IRGC could affect conflicts in Iraq and Syria, where Tehran and Washington both support warring parties that oppose the Islamic State militant group (IS).<\/p>\n
Russia, Iran\u2019s ally that is also fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, said on Tuesday that it does not consider the Revolutionary Guards to be a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIRM, DECISIVE AND CRUSHING\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Iranian nuclear deal, backed by European countries, China and Russia, lifted broad international sanctions over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme that had been tightened during the Obama years and had caused severe damage to Iran\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n But Washington still maintains separate unilateral sanctions over Tehran\u2019s ballistic missile programme and over allegations that it supports terrorism. The lingering U.S. sanctions have slowed Iran\u2019s re-emergence into the world economy, making global banks reluctant to take on business with Iranian firms despite the nuclear deal.<\/p>\n The United States already blacklists some individuals and entities for supporting IRGC activities, but not the Guards themselves. Designating the Guards as terrorists could make it more difficult for Iranian businesses to take advantage of the lifting of the international sanctions, since banks are required to verify that their clients are not on terrorism blacklists.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s rial has dropped against the U.S. dollar in recent days in a sign of concern about Trump\u2019s policy. The rial was quoted in the free market around 40,400 to the dollar, currency exchangers in Tehran told Reuters, compared to 39,200 last week. Several exchangers said they had stopped selling dollars from Monday and were waiting to assess the trend in the market.<\/p>\n The government told Iranians on Tuesday it would not let the decisions of the \u201cmentally unstable\u201d Trump affect the market.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump might say some things by the end of the week, but this should not create chaos in the market. Iran is a stable country, and nothing will happen,\u201d government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said in a weekly news conference.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Central Bank governor, Valiollah Seif, was also quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency that \u201cTrump\u2019s words might have an emotional impact on the foreign exchange market, but it would not be long-term\u201d.<\/p>\n Washington aims to put more pressure on the IRGC, especially over its missile programme. Trump said in September that recent IRGC missile tests illustrated the weakness of the nuclear deal.<\/p>\n Iran says the nuclear deal does not require it to restrict its missile programme.<\/p>\n Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, said Iran purposefully excluded military capabilities from the pact, as \u201cit is not intended as leverage or a bargaining chip in future negotiations\u201d.<\/p>\n In an article published in the Atlantic magazine on Monday, Zarif added: \u201cNo party or country need fear our missiles … unless it intends to attack our territory.\u201d<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From: Reuters LONDON (Reuters) – A tough line from President Donald Trump has been met by a show of unity from both sides of Iran\u2019s political divide, uniting hardliners who cast the United States as an implacable enemy with pragmatists who seek rapprochement with the West. Iran, which has kept up a steady drumbeat of angry statements for days, lashed… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":964,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions\/964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}