Hassan Rouhani, the president selected by the supreme leader in Iran, is once again in New York to take part in this year’s United Nations General Assembly marking the 70th anniversary of this world body. As criticism of Iran’s gross human rights record increases, Rouhani will most probably attempt to dodge responsibility and blame it all on other bad actors in the Iranian regime ruining the show for him. However, this is a well-known game played by Tehran for years now, depicting one senior figure as “good cop”, while the others are “bad cps” committing unspeakable atrocities.
However, when one takes the time to have a closer took, it literally becomes impossible to deny that the good cop/bad cop are all just controlled by the mullahs’ senior figures, especially Khamenei.
There have been hopes of Iran stepping down its known meddling in the region, especially most recently in Yemen, and of course the atrocities it is committing in Iraq and Syria in supporting the ruthless dictator Bashar Assad. However, as we are witnessing two months after the nuclear deal signed in Vienna, the Middle East is in flames as ever, and there are no signs of Iran backing down or even thinking about limiting its deadly interferences. In fact, with Quds Force chief Qassem Suleimani meeting with Russian leaders and now Moscow’s armed forces building up their presence on the ground in Syria rushing to Assad’s support, one can understand that there is no change in Iran’s policy of meddling in the region.
Iran is bent on safeguarding its interests in the region, and seeing a weak hand from Obama and the rest of his administration, it is taking advantage full speed ahead and luring the Europeans into Iran for economic deals in order to silence any criticism from their part. This has been the case for decades as Iran’s meddling in the Middle East is now a known fact even for the smallest children.
While the world is engulfed with various crises such as migrants flooding into Europe, the ongoing war in Syria and oil prices falling in unprecedented fashion, one matter that we truly cannot afford to forget is Iran’s deadly meddling in the Middle East.
Rest assured that this is 100 times more dangerous than Tehran’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons. This is something preached by Iranian dissident rallying in New York and protesting Rouhani’s presence at the UN General Assembly. They are demanding the international community to condemn and take serious action on human rights violations in Iran and its meddling in the region.
Heshmat Alavi , an Iraninan human rights activist writes for regime change in Iran
