Jamshid Chalangi:
Tonight’s program will be dominated by the discussions about President Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Our guests tonight are Hassan Etemadi, a member of the central committee of the Stockholm-based Secular Democratic Party of Iran and political commentator Dr. Mohammad Ali Toufighie speaking to us from Paris.
Later in the program Alireza Namvar Haghighi and Mehdi Djalali Tehran will also join in our debates.
President Trump has emphasized that the deal has not provided any security for the US and the Middle East region, as most of the monies that have been given to the Iranian regime after the lifting of the sanctions has gone to sustain terrorist groups and help Iran expand its destabilizing influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
However, the reactions from the Iranian leadership and officials have been predictable.
Ayatollah Khamenei has called Trump “a most unreliable damned person whose body will be eaten up by worms in his grave while the Islamic republic will still be around”.
The Majles deputies have burnt the US flag in their session while chanting ‘Death to America”.
Mohammad Ali Jaffari, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard has “congratulated” the Iranian people for Trump’s decision.
Hassan Rouhani has said that the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal will not have any effect on Iran’s economy.
In Washington in the meantime, the US National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned European companies to leave the Iranian markets as soon as they can to avoid being sanctioned by the US Treasury.
The chairman of the Arab League and leaders of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have supported Trump’s decision.
Hassan Etemadi:
The main reason for US withdrawal as you mentioned must be found in Iran’s behaviour in the region, rather than the shortcomings of the nuclear deal itself. They include support for the Lebanese Hezbollah and other terrorist groups, Iran’s open interventions in the affairs of Iraq and Syria and the continuation of its ballistic missiles program.
Dr. Mohammad Ali Toufighie:
I believe President Trump has made a huge mistake by pulling the US out of the nuclear deal. He is just trying to undo all Obama’s achievements as he had all along said that he despises the nuclear deal.
Hassan Etemadi:
Iran has not taken the warnings from the US and international community seriously. It has insanely carried out its nefarious activities in the region unabated as if there are no international laws in place. I believe the US has shown a great deal of restraint so far but could not tolerate it any more. So much so that today the European nations have called on the Iranian regime to show some kind of rationality.
Alireza Namvar Haghighi:
Mr Trump’s lists of Iran’s violations of the nuclear deal were not factual as all inspections of Iran’s nuclear activities since the deal indicate otherwise. However, the Obama administration had offered more concessions to Iran but ayatollah Khamenei did not take them up and continued with his interventionist regional policy and we are now faced with this situation.
Mehdi Djalali Tehrani:
The Iranian regime has wasted the wealth of the Iranian people to support terrorist groups and enough was enough. I personally welcome President Trump’s decision and hope this will lead to the fall of the regime in our country.