The world must not fall for Iran's diplomatic overtures again - editorial

Iran takes the West in general, and the United States in particular, for fools.

How else to explain the current “charm offensive” by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Vice President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif in the US, where they are attending the opening of the UN General Assembly?

In his maiden speech to the UN, Pezeshkian, who won the presidential election in July – a vote held after Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter accident – sought to distance himself from his predecessor.

Raisi was a ruthless, hardline, uncompromising cleric known as the “Butcher of Tehran” for his role in overseeing the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s.

Pezeshkian wants to present a different image. A heart surgeon and self-styled “reformist,” he is attempting to set himself apart from his predecessor and offer a kinder, gentler Iran to the American public and the world.

Consider, for example, this quote from the Quran with which he opened his speech at the UN on Tuesday:

“Embrace the people with all your heart; show them kindness, and extend your compassion towards them,” he said. “Never treat those under your command with harshness or violence. For people fall into two categories: they are either your brothers in religion or equals in creation.”

As if that quote epitomized Iran. If anything, it is the exact opposite of what the Islamic Republic truly represents – a country that cruelly oppresses its own people and sows murder and violence around the world as it builds up proxies to destroy Israel and dominate the Mideast.

To listen to his speech about wanting “peace for all” and how his country seeks “no war or quarrel with anyone” is to be struck by its glaring disconnect from reality.

It is also to understand that with Tehran facing dire economic straits, it is once again trying to reach out to the West to get sanctions eased and put Iran on a path toward economic recovery.

We hope the West and the US will not fall for this act again and grant any kind of relief to the country that is the source of so much of what ails the region today.

We say “again,” because the international community has fallen for this routine before. In August 2013, another “reformer,” Hassan Rouhani, won the presidential elections and succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

A month later, Rouhani came to the UN and launched a charm offensive designed to set himself completely apart from his Holocaust-denying, Israel-will-be-wiped-off-the-map, notorious, wild-eyed predecessor.

With his soft voice, cuddly appearance, and warm smile, Rouhani worked hard to show a different side of Iran.

Netanyahu's warning

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the world should not be fooled, telling the General Assembly that year that Rouhani “is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. A wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community.”

Rouhani was greatly assisted in this campaign by Zarif, who was his foreign minister. And this charm offensive worked. Within three years, the West signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement with Iran, which paved the way for Tehran to acquire nuclear capabilities within a generation.

Pezeshkian is adopting a similar strategy: holding an interfaith meeting in New York with a group that included an American-Israeli professor and a transgender US rabbi who is a strong Palestinian supporter; telling reporters that Iran is “willing to put all our weapons aside so long as Israel is willing to do the same;” giving interviews to CNN and saying his country wants to enter negotiations with the US once again.

With wars raging in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, there will be those who desperately want to believe Pezeshkian; those who desperately want to believe that this is a new style of Iranian leader and that if the West would just open the door to engagement with him, all the Mideast’s problems would begin to disappear.

We implore the world not to be fooled, to look at all the fires Iran has ignited in the region, and not fall into this trap.

Not again.