US has been playing mouse-and-cat game with terrorists: Pundit

Press TV has conducted an interview with Seyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a political commentator from Tehran, about remarks by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The Leader in his speech today touched on many important points, three of which we will discuss today. About the first point, which was the failure of the United States in being committed to the recent nuclear agreement with Iran, and that even if Iran relinquishes its right, the US will still transgress. What does this tell us and the world for that matter about trust and confidence in the United States?

Khoshcheshm: As a matter of fact this is no secret that the United States has resorted to every possible means all throughout the last 37 years in order to change the regime in Tehran and they have resorted to coup, to various efforts, to sanctions, to steering unrests and so on and so forth in order to change this regime. And they have been not shy of saying that they would do that, they would use every possible means and they would do every effort in order to change the Islamic Republic in nature or topple it.

It was three springs ago before Hassan Rouhani rose to power, it was clear the election results were announced and it was clear the he had won the election. Some of the very influential actors in the US Senate who were responsible for sponsoring the toughest sanctions against Iran, that’s the crude and banking sanctions, and they stated that they would not dismantle the regime of the sanctions against Iran even if Iran dismantles all its nuclear facilities.

They would seek other pretexts and excuses like human rights, like support, as they say, for terrorism and also the missile industry that Iran has developed indigenously in order to keep the main structure of the sanctions regime in place against Iran, because their ultimate goal, as stated today again by the Leader, is toppling the Islamic Republic or changing the Islamic Republic in nature, so that it becomes a country like Saudi Arabia or like Iran before the Revolution, so that this clash of interests with the United States comes to an end.

So that’s the main reason why the United States is now showing ... and it’s not complying with its undertakings. And it was clear right from the beginning. And the Leader if you remember when he issued the permission for the start of the nuclear negotiations under President Hassan Rouhani and Mr. Zarif, the foreign minister, he said he was pessimistic, because he knows and many Iranians they know how the United States feels about the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic as a role model in the region and it would not allow the Islamic Republic to grow.

So even if it signs some undertakings as soon as it sees that if Iran has complied with its undertakings and it has done its part, it would start retreating from its word and backing on its words.

Press TV: The second point the Leader made was about the fact that the United States, the UK and Israel being the arch enemies of Iran and the Iranian Revolution. What do you think is the cause of this enmity?

Khoshcheshm: The Islamic Revolution and its seven principles that the late Imam has taught us, these principles have caused the clash of interests between the United States and its allies and Tehran. Why? Because Iran is trying to develop as an independent nation and it will soon become a global power at global levels, I’m talking, because it enjoys every possibility that you need as a nation to develop into a regional and global power. You have skillful and educated young generation and population. You are located in a strategic position in the world, in the most sensitive part of the world, in the Middle East. You have the largest combined gas and oil reserves in the world. You have any kind of minds that you need in order to develop your riches.

And you enjoy any kind of natural riches that you need as a nation. And you have a strategy and ideology in order to develop and you’re resolved to develop an independent nation. And the United States doesn’t want such a nation to develop, to become a regional and global power, to become a role model for other nations in the region like Ansarullah in Yemen, the Bahrainis, the people in eastern Saudi Arabia, in Iraq, Syria, everywhere, they have picked up Iran as a role model. They want to become independent and make progress for themselves and not be the gendarme of the United States in the region as Iran was before the Revolution, the regime of Pahlavi was that.

At the time of the Revolution one of the main slogans chanted by people in the streets and one of the seven principles that Imam presented was independence. Independence means that you work on your own interest and you would not become an obedient actor for the United States or any other country in the world, no matter it’s Israel, it’s Russia or so former Soviet Union or the United States. So they don’t want an independent actor in this most sensitive part of the world. That’s why they want to show to the whole world that the role model of Iran is not working and they would get disappointed from going the same path.

Press TV: One of the other points that he made was that he said if Iran were to take part in a US-led plan in Syria, it would have meant that Iran would lose its political independence. How smart was Iran not to fall for Washington’s plan in Syria?

Khoshcheshm: It’s no secret any more. Everybody knows that the United States enjoyed much from this double-standard policy of good and bad terrorists that they are doing.

It was seven-eight month ago that the former intelligence chief of the Pentagon, General Michael Flynn, acknowledged in an Aljazeera America interview that’s also available right now still that they knew that terrorists who were gathering in eastern Syria and western Iraq some five, six years ago. And they knew that they intended to establish a state, the so-called Islamic State. And also it’s no secret that Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, explained in her book that how they lobbied with tens of countries to support this plan, the plan of establishing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, Daesh, whatever it’s called. So you can see as Joe Biden also confessed that it was the United States’ allies, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, that launched this terrorism in the region and the entire world.

Why? Because the United States is pursuing a double-standard policy. It’s using terrorism as an instrument. It’s making an instrumental use of terrorism all throughout the world whenever it’s the Israelis that they come and they assassinate Imad Mughniyah or they assassinate some other officials of Hezbollah and nuclear scientists of Iran. They don’t call it terrorism. They call it special black ops or special operation. But as soon as their terrorists in northwestern Syria are bombed by the Syrians and by the Russian fighter jets, they call it terrorism and they start hue and cry through their media hegemony that they have prevailed all throughout the world, through their mainstream media, they represent them as terrorism.

So whenever they are useful for the United States they call ISIL, al-Nusra and others as terrorists, but whenever they are useful for the United States they don’t label them as terrorists they call them moderate militants standing against Bashar al-Assad or others. But as soon as they jeopardize their own interests they say that they are the bad terrorists and they should be punished. This double-standard policy is not meaningful to Iran.

Iran believes that terrorism is hazardous to every nation in the world and it should be confronted very toughly and severely. And now it’s been joined by some other nations like Syria, Iraq, Russia and Hezbollah and others in this front and it has gained much progress in the last one or two years both in Iraq and Syria.

So it shows the achievements that Iran has gained on the ground in Syria and Iraq they prove that Iran’s approach has been advancing and has been successful, but what the United States is doing is just playing the game with the terrorists, playing the mouse and cat game.

And that’s not meaningful just not to Iran to any other nation in the world, because it’s been proved all throughout history that if you just give a little room to these terrorist groups, they will come and backbite and they will threaten your own interests no matter you’re Iran or you’re Saudi Arabia or the United States of America or Paris or Brussels.

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