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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani being interviewed by Ann Curry of NBC News.
(Washington, D.C.) — Brace yourself. The Iranian “charm offensive” is about to go into overdrive.
Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, has arrived in New York City for meetings at the United Nations, and he is doing everything he can to convince U.S. and Western leaders that he comes in the name of peace, even as the centrifuges keep spinning, Tehran keeps enriching uranium, and the mullahs keep moving closer to an arsenal of nuclear weapons.
Yet in recent days, Rouhani has made an important mistake. He was interviewed by NBC News and asked if he agrees with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust is a “myth.” Yet Rouhani dodged the answer. He couldn’t say no. He couldn’t part company with his Radical predecessor. He couldn’t admit what all the world knows, that the Nazi regime in German in the 1940s systematically murdered six million Jews, including 1.5 million Jewish children.
Well, Rouhani could have, but he didn’t. Rather, he dodged the question like the wolf in sheep’s clothing that he really is.
“I’m not a historian,” Rouhani replied. “I’m a politician.”
“If you watched the portion of Ann Curry’s interview with new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that aired last night during NBC Nightly News, you may have come away with the image of a reformer who wants to work with President Obama and vows never to build nuclear weapons,” reports the website, Mediaite. ”But a slightly different picture emerged in remarks shown this morning on the Today Show. Curry asked Rouhani point blank about comments his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made in the past about the Holocaust being a ‘myth.’ She asked Rouhani, ‘Do you agree?’ The answer he gave may not exactly be comforting to Jewish people in America, Israel or anywhere else in the world. ‘I’m not a historian,’ Rouhani began. ‘I’m a politician. What is important for us is that the countries of the region, and the people, grow closer to each other and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice.’”
“Curry did not press Rouhani for a firmer answer on that question, but rather went on to ask if he, like Ahmadinejad, wants to ‘wipe Israel off the map,’” Mediaite noted. “Again his answer avoided specifics in favor of generalities. ‘We do not seek war with any country,’ Rouhani responded. ‘We seek seek peace and friendship among the nations of the region.’ He took a similar tack when Curry asked about Iranian access to websites like Twitter and Facebook. Rouhani did not say specifically whether his government would remove its censorship, but rather that ‘people must have full access to all information world wide.’ Before signing off, Curry told Today’s Savannah Guthrie that Rouhani’s ‘non-answer’ about the Holocaust ‘will likely raise a lot of eyebrows.’”
As I’ve reported before (see here, here, and here), Rouhani is no moderate. He is a dangerous man trying to buy time for Iran to build not just one nuclear warhead, but an entire arsenal. He and his regime must be stopped before it is too late.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.
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Joel C. Rosenberg’s Blog
