Iran Declares Victory, The New Persian Empire

Ali Younesi, former intelligence minister, is
a key adviser to Iran's President Rouhani

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: When Barack Obama ran for president in 2007, he stunned some observers by saying that he would talk with America's enemies without preconditions. In 2007 the New York Times wrote this:"Senator Barack Obama says he would 'engage in aggressive personal diplomacy' with Iran if elected president and would offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek 'regime change' if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues."Critics of Obama's approach said he was being naive and that he would give undue credibility and legitimacy to the world's worst actors. His critics were right. Six years into his administration, there is no measure by which Obama's "aggressive personal diplomacy" can be considered a success.

Iran is clearly not cooperating on nuclear issues. But Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif recently declared that no matter how the negotiations turn out, Iran has won. Zarif said:"We are the winner whether the negotiations yield results or not. The capital we have obtained over the years is dignity and self-esteem, a capital that cannot be retaken."Iran has won far more than just self-esteem. It has won territory too. Iran never "stopped meddling in Iraq" and now controls much of the country.

Ali Younesi, a former intelligence minister and key adviser to President Rouhani (a supposed moderate), said this week: "Iran today has become an empire like it used to be . . . and its capital now is Baghdad." Younesi continued, "All of the Middle East is Iranian."

If you're skeptical about the Iranian rhetoric, consider what Dr. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, a pillar of the elite foreign policy establishment, said yesterday on MSNBC:"What we have to understand is that Baghdad and the south [of Iraq] are now part of Greater Iran. . . . Iraq is over. Rest in peace. . . . What you're looking at is an Iraq that is an extension of Iran. . . . They've made that border [the Iraq/Iran border] irrelevant."Even the liberal Washington Post is alarmed by Obama's failed Middle East policy. In its lead editorial today, the paper warns, "Any nuclear deal should not result in Washington turning a blind eye to Tehran's activities." The editors continue:"According to news accounts, Mr. Obama has dispatched four private letters to the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The most recent one, in October, assured the ayatollah that the United States would not attack Iranian forces or those of its Syrian ally in operations against the Islamic State. . .

"Publicly, Mr. Obama said in an interview in December that he hoped a nuclear deal 'would serve as the basis for us trying to improve relations over time'; if Iran agreed to the accord, he added, it could become 'a very successful regional power.'"When did it become the goal of U.S. foreign policy to make the Islamic Republic of Iran -- whose leader refers to America as "the great Satan" -- a "very successful regional power"? Who voted for that? Is any member of Congress on board with this?

This isn't the only dramatic shift in U.S. foreign policy taking place. If Obama's anti-Israel stance wasn't obvious enough, it is undeniable now.

The White House recently promoted Robert Malley to be the Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East. Malley is so anti-Israel the Obama campaign fired him in 2008 after it was revealed that he had met with the terrorist group Hamas. Now Malley is directing Middle East policy at the White House.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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