HT: The Real Rouhani
WHAT ROUHANI SAYS | WHAT ROUHANI DOES |
|---|---|
| 1. “We must work together to end the unhealthy rivalries and interferences that fuel violence and drive us apart.” () | 1. Rouhani’s government held a military parade in Tehran this weekend featuring missiles emblazoned with the slogans “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” () |
| 2. “I’m committed to fulfilling my promises to my people, including my pledge to engage in constructive interaction with the world.” () | 2. Rouhani in a campaign speech on May 8th, 2013: “Saying ‘Death to America’ is easy. We need to express ‘Death to America’ with action.” () |
| 3. “A constructive approach to diplomacy…means engaging with one’s counterparts, on the basis of equal footing and mutual respect.” () | 3. Rouhani previously said: “We recognize Israel as a terrorist nation.” () |
| 4. “A key aspect of my commitment to constructive interaction entails a sincere effort to engage with neighbors and other nations to identify and secure win-win solutions.” () | 4. Rouhani picked as his defense minister one of the plotters of the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 Americans. () |
| 5. “The nuclear negotiations need only one thing and that is the political will of the other side to reach an agreement. This does exist on our side. And in my opinion, if both sides have the political will, then the Iranian nuclear issue is a very simple matter and can be settled in a short period of time.” () | 5. In a speech to Iranian clerics only weeks ago, he said: “Our government will not give up one iota of its absolute rights on the nuclear issue.” () In 2006, Rouhani boasted in a private speech in Iran of misleading the West over Iran’s nuclear program. According to the New York Times: “In a remarkable admission, Mr. Rowhani suggested in his speech that Iran had used the negotiations with the Europeans to dupe them. He boasted that while negotiations were continuing, Iran managed to master a key stage in the nuclear fuel process — the conversion of uranium yellowcake at its Isfahan plant. ‘While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the facility in Isfahan, but we still had a long way to go to complete the project,’ he said. ‘In fact, by creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the work on Isfahan.’” () |
| 6. “Iran wants to have peaceful nuclear activities. Iran is against any nuclear weapons.” () | 6. In 2003, when Rouhani was Iran’s head nuclear negotiator, he baldly lied to European negotiators about Iran’s nuclear program. He promised that Iran was fully cooperating with IAEA monitoring of its nuclear program while Iran was in fact clandestinely enriching uranium. () |
| 7. “Syria, a jewel of civilization, has become the scene of heartbreaking violence, including chemical weapons attacks, which we strongly condemn.” () | 7. Aside from Russia, Iran has been the biggest political and military supporter of the Assad regime in Syria, throughout the war supplying Assad’s military with weapons, money, training, and fighters. Assad’s chemical attack occurred while Rouhani was president of Iran. () |
| 8. “We must create an atmosphere where peoples of the region can decide their own fates.” () | 8. Iran ordered its Lebanese-based terrorist ally Hezbollah into Syria to help Assad more efficiently kill his own people. () Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah set up a joint command to violently suppress the uprising against the Assad regime. () |
| 9. “Gone is the age of blood feuds.” () | 9. “Rohani…chaired Iran’s National Security Council between 1989 and 2005, meaning he was at the top table when Iran masterminded the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people, and of the Khobar Towers in 1996, killing 19 U.S. airmen.” () |
| 10. “Rather than focusing on how to prevent things from getting worse, we need to think — and talk — about how to make things better.” () | 10. “Mr. Rohani led the crackdown on a 1999 student uprising…As Mr. Rohani said at a pro-regime rally in July 1999: ‘At dusk yesterday we received a decisive revolutionary order to crush mercilessly and monumentally any move of these opportunist elements wherever it may occur.’” () |
