South Front | Iran vs US | 23-09-18

>Iran is ready to confront US with small mercenary states
- On September 23rd, Iran Presiden Hassan Rouhani accused the US of wanting to cause insecurity in Iran with the assistance of “small mercenary states” in the region, but Iran is ready to confront them. This is an obvious escalation in recent Iranian rhetoric.

“Americans want Iran to have no security. They want to create chaos and turmoil and set the conditions so that they can return to the country one day and take charge as they did in the old days, but none of these is possible,” the president said.

“These are unattainable dreams and America will never achieve any of these goals,” Rouhani added.

He commented on Washington’s hostile policies on Iran, regarding the sanctions and the US withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal. He called the reasoning behind the US withdrawal “delusional excuses.”

“Our people will resist and the government has prepared itself for this confrontation,” he said, adding that everyone will “join hands to put these difficult times behind us with the grace of God.”

“The Americans will regret what they did because they made a very wrong choice,” the president added.

According to the Iranian president the US is provoking regional states against Iran, citing the Ahvaz attack.

“It is entirely clear to us who did it, who they are and where they are affiliated to,” he said. “The sponsor of all these small mercenary countries in the region is America. Americans are provoking them and providing the right conditions for them to commit these crimes,” Rouhani added.

He further claimed that Iran “has stood up and resisted much bigger crimes,” and that these acts will not hinder the Iranian people.

Rouhani also condemned the US for allegedly abusing the UN which Trump, as reported by PressTV, plans to use for a series of speeches to push a hard line against Iran.

On September 22nd, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed that US sanctions were working in Iran and that the coercive measures could lead to a “successful revolution.”

“I don’t know when we’re going to overthrow them,” he told a meeting of Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group. “It could be in a few days, months, a couple of years. But it’s going to happen.”

Giuliani’s comments contradicted the Trump administration’s pronouncements that it was not seeking a government change in Iran.

Rouhani spoke before leaving for New York to attend the UN General Assembly. His statement also followed the terror attack on a military parade in Ahvaz in Southern Iran, killing 25 people, according to numbers provided by PressTV. CNN reported that there had been 29 people killed and at least 70 others wounded, citing Fars News Agency which, in turn, the deputy governor-general of Khouzestan province, Hossein Hosseinzadeh.

Furthermore, Reuters reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has vowed to take “deadly and unforgettable” vengeance against the attackers.

Sputnik reported that following the incident, Iranian Armed Forces spokesman, Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, said that the militants were linked to the United States and Israel. His opinion was echoed by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif who accused “regional terror sponsors and their US masters” of organizing the attack.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also voiced his concerns saying that the tragic incident “at the hands of the mercenary terrorists has once again exposed the atrocity and viciousness of the enemies of the Iranian nation … Their crime is a continuation of the conspiracies by the US-backed regimes in the region which have aimed at creating insecurity in our dear country.”

The Saudi-backed al-Ahvaziya terror group, which is based in Europe, has claimed responsibility for the assault. Saudi Arabia is the biggest ally the US has in the Middle East. Rouhani clamed that while Saddam Hussein was alive, the group was a mercenary of the former “Ba’ath regime.” According to PressTV “they switched their fealty to a “southern Persian Gulf state” which has undertaken to provide the terrorists with funds, weapons and political assistance.”

Rouhani described the Saturday attack, especially in a city which “valiantly withstood eight years” of attacks by Saddam’s forces, a “big crime” which will not go unpunished.

https://southfront.org/iran-is-ready-to-confront-us-small-mercenary-states/