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Appeasing Iran Will Only Give It More Room for Maneuver

(Asia Times-Hong Kong) Farhad Rezaei - Since 1979, Iran has adopted a unique posture involving the export of its own particular brand of Islamism; defiance of international norms; a pursuit of hegemony over the Middle East; a quest for nuclear weapons; and declaring jihad against the United States, which has failed to convey an adequate message of deterrence to the Iranian regime. Iran's Navy has been involved in numerous confrontations with American vessels patrolling the waters of the Persian Gulf since July 2015, with no response from the world's superpower. On April 14, 1988, U.S. forces sank two Iranian warships and three armed speedboats and attacked offshore rigs, in retaliation for Iran's mining of the Gulf and subsequent damage to an American warship. The U.S. must abandon the notion of the Obama administration that Iran might become a normal state in the global community. Goodwill gestures from Washington only embolden the Revolutionary Guards. As a high-ranking member of the Guards told me recently: "Washington's appeasement will only provide the regime with more room to maneuver." The writer is a research fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies (IRAM) in Ankara, Turkey.
2017-01-27 00:00:00
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