Longtime Middle East expert Dr. Mike Evans says Iran is not directing a charm offense at President Obama, but the U.S. is deliberately making nice with Iran in a move that will only assure the mullahs there that the U.S. has no intention of doing anything to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons.
New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani uses much less incendiary language than former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The change in tone even prompted the Obama administration to seek a public handshake at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly last week. The Iranians refused, but Obama subsequently spoke by phone with Rouhani.
Most experts see all this as an effort by the Iranians to convince the U.S. and other critics of its nuclear program that it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and get the western powers to lift crippling economic sanctions. Evans says that conventional wisdom is wrong.
“I don’t really see this as a charm offensive by Iran. I see this is a charm offensive by President Obama,” said Evans, a longtime personal friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He believes Obama never had any intention of attacking Syria over allegedly using chemical weapons.
“Obama did this to try to send a signal to Iran that he was serious and also to send a signal to Netanyahu to get Netanyahu to back down from attacking Iran. He knew Netanyahu was ready. He knew the window was open and he didn’t want him to do it. So this was more saber-rattling for Iran and Netanyahu’s benefit than for the Syrians,” he said.
“President Obama’s not going to do a thing against Iran. He’s going to let Iran go nuclear. The reason he’s going to let them is he wants a quid pro quo. He wants to be an anti-war president. He wants to get out of the Middle East. In order to do it, he needs the world’s largest terrorist organization to give him a free pass to quit attacking in Iraq, to quit attacking in Afghanistan and back off a little bit. That’s what he’s going for. Nothing else. He could care less if Iran goes nuclear or not,” said Evans.
Evans met with Iranian diplomats last week while they were at the United Nations. Those diplomats reportedly divulged a two-headed diplomatic strategy of the Iranian regime.
“They said they propose to the president that they be the intermediary between the U.S. and Syria. I’m thinking, ‘What did you just say? You want to be the mediator to solve the Syrian crisis?’ That’s the fox solving the crisis with the chickens. That’s number one,” said Evans.
“Number two, they told me that they anticipate to begin negotiations (over the nuclear program) in three to six months with Obama. Well why three to six months? In three to six months, Iran will pass the threshold if they continue with enough enriched uranium to build a bomb,” said Evans. “Their plan is to stall and delay this thing and try to checkmate Netanyahu so he can’t do anything. Listen it worked.”
Evans says the softer diplomatic tone from Iran succeeded in attracting all the coverage at the UN and Netanyahu’s address was ignored by the media as a result of the Iran angle and coverage of the partial government shutdown in the U.S. He also says Israeli officials are very concerned about America’s apparent unwillingness to confront Iran and intent to prevent an Israeli strike.
“They’re absolutely horrified. I just came from Israel. They know what’s going on. They know the game they’re playing,” said Evans. “They’re not going to have a partner with Obama. Obama’s got his eyes on being a historical anti-war president. He’s never going to confront Iran. It’s just never going to happen. Period.”
“Israel is alone right now. They’re alone and they know it. Netanyahu knows it too. I don’t believe Netanyahu’s message that he gave at the UN was to the Iranians, to the world or to the American people. I believe his message was to the Israelis. He was speaking to his base, supporting and strengthening his base for what he’s staring squarely in the face and knows he has to do,” said Evans.
Much attention was given to last week’s offer from the Obama administration for a public handshake between Obama and Rouhani at the UN. Iran rejected the offer and Obama later called Rouhani for a brief phone conversation. Evans says those gestures were very telling and emboldened Iranian leaders.
“What they saw is the president bowing down. By the president calling Iran’s new (president), the former head of security that was over the Khobar Towers bombing and the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center bombing, by calling this mad mullah and congratulating him on his fraudulent election and all the other stuff he said was basically showing the weakness of the American president and empowering them and letting them know they have another Jimmy Carter in office on steroids,” said Evans.
“When Jimmy Carter was in office, he wire-transferred $7.9 billion from the Federal Reserve with 20 cooperating banks to the Bank of England to buy back the hostages. So why should Iran do anything except be rewarded for misbehavior. That’s what happened the last time,” he said.
