Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who has just secured a second term in office, will be faced with multiple challenges, as Trump expresses intention in realigning the White House with Saudi Arabia's and Israel's anti-Iran position during his tour to Saudi Arabia, said an Iranian scholar on Sunday.
Trump started his first overseas tour after taking office on Saturday with a 110 billion U.S. dollar arms deal with Saudi Arabia to help the Arab nation and the rest of the Gulf region fight against what the White House called terrorism and the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. Trump's nine-day trip also include stops in Israel, the Vatican in Rome and Brussels.
Foad Izadi, a faculty of World Studies at the University of Tehran, said the arms deal is clearly part of America's efforts in engaging its Arab allies in order to counter Iran's influence in the region.
"The Saudis don't like Iran; Israelis don't like Iran; some people around Trump don't like Iran; lot of people in the U.S. Congress don't like Iran. So there is something they can all agree on, which is [to deal with] Iran. So there are here to create what they call this 'Arab NATO' to put pressure on Iran," said Izadi, referring to what Trump calls a counter-terrorism alliance with Saudi Arabia and other Middle East nations.
Trump has been critical of Iran and a 2015 international nuclear agreement reached between six world powers and Tehran in which billions of dollars' worth of economic sanction are being lifted in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear weapons program.
Also on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Rouhani to dismantle Iran's "network of terrorism", and to put an end to its ballistic missile tests.
In response to Tillerson, deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, said on Sunday that boosting defense capabilities, especially missile defense systems, is a top priority for Iran given the current situation in the world, stressing that Iran will press ahead with its defense policies and programs.
He also underlined that the only thing leading to peace and calm in the Middle East would be U.S. forces' withdrawal from the region and an end to the "aggressive and terrorist operations by dependent and reactionary regimes against independent states."
Iran's national television, on Sunday, called Trump's trip abroad an "anti-Iran trip."
Izadi said Rouhani, who wants to build a more moderate and connected Iran, will now have to grapple with both the hardliners at home and a hostile United States outside.
"He does not want to have a fight with the United States; he wants to reduce tensions, but the problem that he has is that there are a lot of anti-Iranian forces in [the] U.S. Congress, in people around Trump. The Saudis are lobbying; the Israelis are lobbying to put more pressure on Iran," he noted.
REUTERS
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