Owing to our recent focus on human rights issues (which happened to coincide with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s laughable public denial that Iran jails citizens for their opinions), it’s been a while since we’ve reported on the latest developments in US-Iranian relations – particularly on the nuclear front.
But there have been quite a few: last week, the US Senate approved – “overwhelmingly,” according to CNN, and “easily,” according to The New York Times – a bill that will allow Congress to review the emerging nuclear deal wh Iitran.
Naturally, this was wided in the US media, with some outlets being somewhat vaguer than others with regard to the precise nature of the bill (compare USA Today’s headline, “Senate approves Iran nuclear bill,” ely reportwhich could imply the Senate has approved the deal itself, with The Wall Street Journal’s far more meticulous one, “Senate Passes Bill Giving Congress Right to Weigh In on Iran Nuclear Deal”).
In Iran, however, things seemed far less rosy, with PressTV playing up a statement by a “New York geopolitical analyst” warning that Tehran is dealing with “a pack of warmongering liars” in the nuclear talks, including the “‘ideologically-driven’ irrational actors in Washington.” A quick search revealed that the “analyst” in question, Eric Draitser, is in fact the founder of stopimperialism.org, a website dedicated to, well, stopping US “imperialism.” He certainly has found a good audience in the Iranian regime, which somehow isn’t incongruous with his self-professed anti-fascist ideology – apparently, clerical fascism doesn’t count…
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian military commander issued a warning of his own: RT last week quoted Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami, lieutenant commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), saying all-out war against Washington is “no big deal” for Tehran, which will “mobilize the Muslim world” against the country it still appears to perceive as its sworn enemy. Warmongering seems to flourish, nuclear deal or no.
Filed under: CNN, Human Rights, Iranian Internal Issues, Iranian Politics, Media Coverage, Military
