AL Monitor’s Rohollah Faghihi reports on Iran’s President Rouhani’s continuing efforts to defend the JCPOA (Iranian nuclear deal):
“In the past, if we wanted to walk or move, shackles of the sanctions obstructed our way. But today these chains do not exist. We should move, because the main obstacle has been lifted, and our banking relations with the world have been established and will be expanded day after day,” Rouhani told a crowd of people in Arak.
He then took a swipe at hard-liners, saying, “We threw the occupier out of our garden and the garden door is open for the people. Some children have come to the door and asked where they can find the apples and pears they want to eat. Today this garden with its seedlings planted recently is ready for fertilization, but to [eat] the fruit, patience is necessary.”
Rouhani’s audience are those critics who constantly slam him for reaching a nuclear deal with the West — a deal that, according to the hard-liners, has no benefit for Iran.
Annoyed by the moderate president’s remarks, hard-line Vatan-e-Emrooz published an article Oct. 24 with the headline, “Promising a Pear.” It read, “After comparing the JCPOA to the shining sun, Hassan Rouhani has now brought up a new metaphor for justifying the JCPOA.”
The US GOP continues to hang with Iranian hardliners, both hating the nuclear deal. However, the hardliners in Iran may have more of a point as Iran has not yet really seen much to celebrate in that deal. It’s still early days. In the same article, Rouhani expressed only disdain for the US Presidential candidates:
On Oct. 23, Rouhani, while on a provincial trip to Arak in Markazi province, told the crowd, “The America that claims it enjoys more than 200 years of democracy and [holding] more than 50 presidential elections is now a major and industrial country that is devoid of morality, and this issue we witness in the [presidential] candidates’ debates.”
He continued, “At the United Nations, one of the leaders asked me which [US presidential candidate] I prefer, to which I replied, ‘Should I prefer bad over worse or worse over bad?’ We have seen the way of speaking, accusing, talking and mocking [each other] by the candidates, and this is the democracy and elections of the Americans.”
In other words, he knows better than to pick a horse; just condemn the Great Satan. Smart guy.
