The Poisonous Fruit of Appeasing Iran's Mullahs

Iran is continuing to exploit the Palestinian issue to promote its expansionist schemes in the Middle East and meddle in the internal affairs of Arab countries, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.

Iran is doing so while its representatives continue to conduct indirect negotiations with the US administration in Vienna on reviving the 2015 "Iran nuclear deal," which Iran never signed.

Diplomats from Britain, France and Germany who are negotiating with the Iranians seem oblivious to the growing concern in the Arab world over Tehran's support for terrorism and its ongoing intervention in the internal affairs of several Arab countries.

The accusation that Iran is using the Palestinian issue to advance its schemes in the region was made by many Arabs in the aftermath of the recent war between Israel and Hamas, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on May 21.

During and after the 11-day war, Iran went out of its way to make known that without Tehran's financial and military support, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip would not have been able to fire thousands of rockets at Israel.

Many Arabs, however, are scoffing at Iran's claims and accusing it of taking advantage of the last round of fighting between Hamas and Israel to present itself as the defender of the Palestinian cause, Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Arabs clearly see what the Biden administration, Britain, Germany and France are refusing to see….

Saudi author Mohammed Hassan Mufti said that he was "completely baffled" by the "strange" statement of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif expressing Iran's intention not to abandon its duty toward Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"The truth is that such a statement may delude some people into thinking that Iran has never, and will never, actually abandon its support for the Palestinian cause, and that it has never failed to seek to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque," Mufti remarked.

"Isn't Iran the country that supports the Houthi militia with money and weapons to attack Saudi Arabia? The Houthi's missiles and drones nearly hit the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. How can Iran invest in the bombing of Saudi Arabia while claiming with the utmost enthusiasm that it seeks to liberate Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque? Iran's claim to support Islamic holy sites is not related to any religious beliefs. It is related to regional ambitions, expansionist dreams, and striving to export the Iranian revolution to various countries in the region.”

The Arabs, in other words, are telling the Americans and other Westerners that appeasing Iran by reviving the nuclear deal, lifting sanctions or giving it money will only assist its regime in perpetrating more crimes and increasing instability and terrorism in the region. This is the poisonous fruit of placating the mullahs.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17452/appeasing-iran-mullahs