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Source: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/iran-regime-jd-vance-normal-country-donald-trump-9ef0d8cb
Is Iran Really a "Normal Country"?
(Wall Street Journal) Editorial - Vice President JD Vance said on CNN: "What the agreement [with Iran] does is fundamentally set up a structure whereby if the Iranians behave like a normal country, then we want to treat them like a normal country and welcome them to the world economy." But the regime in Iran has never shown over 47 years that it wants to build a normal country or "join the international community." At every turn it has banked U.S. relief and concessions and used them to promote terrorism and spread its Shiite revolution. Every U.S. President since 1979 has had the same wish, only to discover the regime had other plans. Mr. Vance insisted that Iran's regime is "a much different group of people" for whom "something has fundamentally transformed." But there's scant evidence for it. Iran's new Supreme Leader says the only place for Americans in the Persian Gulf is "at the bottom of its waters." The regime fired on its Gulf neighbors, U.S. forces and commercial ships throughout the ceasefire and even after the deal was announced. Like so many before it, the Trump Administration wants to believe this regime is other than what it has shown itself to be. No matter what was intimated in back-channel talks, the unwillingness of Iran's regime to put substantive nuclear commitments in the memorandum of understanding is a warning.