Iran’s regime sees its bluff called https://english.mojahedin.org/i/iran

Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Iran, July 28, 2018 - Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani found his miscalculated threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz, where one-third of the world’s sea-bound oil exports flow through, a bit too big to swallow.

In complete contrast to the policies adopted by the Obama administration, U.S. President Donald Trump and his team are employing a firm stance the mullahs are not used to, and frankly terrified of.

In a recent UPI article, former MEP Struan Stevenson said this about Rouhani and the mullahs’ saber-rattling.

“There is a famous Italian proverb that says: ‘Every dog is a lion at home,’ and there is little doubt that Rouhani's frenzied barking is a vain attempt to impress his domestic audience. But the U.S. administration is unlikely to be worried by the yelps of a Persian poodle like Rouhani.”

While also taking criticism from Beijing for their language, itself unusual, the mullahs faced a bombardment from U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pence saying the Iranian regime’s dictatorship “resembles the mafia more than a government.”

Stevenson went on to remind an issue Tehran continuously attempts to ignore.

“Pompeo said the United States is not afraid to tackle Iranian officials at the highest levels of the regime with renewed sanctions unless Iran agrees to a list of 12 new demands, including an end to its aggressive meddling in Middle East conflict zones and an end to its development of ballistic missiles,” he wrote.

Economically speaking, Stevenson reminded of a very telling reality for both Iran and Europe.

“Attempts to bully the EU into filling the financial void created by renewed U.S. sanctions are doomed to fail, as European companies realize that they would lose $1,000 in American business for every $1 they earn in contracts with the Iranian regime,” Stevenson continued.

“Pompeo is convinced that the new sanctions will cripple the regime and lead to the overthrow of the mullahs. On Aug. 4, American sanctions on whoever sells gold and food to Iran will come into effect. Three months later, at the beginning of November, the American siege on Iranian oil begins. The 80 million citizens of Iran, sick to death of the regime's brutality and corruption, are demanding regime change. Their daily protests are increasing in fury and intensity.

“The mullahs have blamed the main democratic opposition movement -- the Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI or MEK) and the NCRI led by Maryam Rajavi, for fomenting the unrest in Iran. After years of dismissing the PMOI as an insignificant irritant, they are now so terrified of Rajavi and her pledge to restore peace, freedom, democracy, human rights, women's rights, an end to torture and the death penalty, an end to the nuclear threat and an end to foreign meddling, that they even tried to bomb a PMOI rally in Paris on June 30.

“An Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security agent, listed as a diplomat in the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, was arrested by German police, while two other Iranians were stopped in Belgium, after admitting the so-called diplomat had provided them with explosives and ordered them to bomb the peaceful rally in Paris. These are signs of desperation. Clearly, the Iranian lion has been wounded and the American boot on its tail may turn out to be the least of its worries.