Iran offers to help U.S.

Apparently Iran is meant to be the one under pressure. You wouldn’t know it by the rhetoric coming from that country’s leader.

Last Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he is drafting a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama offering cooperation.

In an interview on state television, Ahmadinejad said Iran was the “only chance” for Obama to salvage the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The best way for him [Obama] is to accept and respect Iran and enter into cooperation,” the Iranian president said. “Many new opportunities will be created for him.”

The Iranian president said that President Obama

has but one chance to stay as head of the state and succeed. Obama cannot do anything in Palestine. He has no chance. What can he do in Iraq? Nothing. And Afghanistan is too complicated. The best way for him is to accept and respect Iran and enter into cooperation.

Stratfor commented that while this is not the first time Ahmadinejad has made offers of cooperation in order to extract concessions, “he has never been so direct about telegraphing his view that the United States is in a difficult position in the Middle East and South Asia, nor has he offered Iran’s help so that the United States can extricate itself from the region. What is important is that the Iranian leader is pretty accurate in both his description and prescription” (April 14; emphasis ours).

The ironic thing is, Iran has also been a major cause of America’s difficulties and casualties in the Middle East and South Asia. Tehran is the greatest state sponsor of terrorism in the world and can activate Islamist terrorists including Hezbollah, Hamas, and Shiite insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ahmadinejad in fact indicated in his television address that if America does not allow Iran to develop nuclear technology, Iran could activate these “resistance” groups across the region.

Iran’s influence in the region has increased to such an extent that it can either make it politically easy for the U.S. to withdraw, or quite impossible.

Stratfor continued:

The Iranian president is correct in that a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extremely unlikely. In terms of Iraq, the Iranians recently signaled that they are prepared to accept a sizeable Sunni presence in the next Iraqi coalition government. This will facilitate the U.S. need for a balance of power in Iraq, thereby allowing Washington to exit the country. Similarly, the Americans cannot achieve the conditions for withdrawal in Afghanistan without reaching an understanding with the Iranians.Therefore, the maverick Iranian leader was not engaging in his usual rhetoric when he said, “Mr. Obama has only one chance and that is Iran. This is not emotional talk but scientific. He has but one place to say that ‘I made a change and I turned over the world equation’ and that is Iran.” …The Iranians are trying to bring closure to their efforts of the last eight years in which they have been trying to exploit the U.S. wars being fought in their neighborhood to achieve their geopolitical objectives. Ahmadinejad is laying out his terms.In exchange for helping the United States, the Islamic republic first wants international recognition as a legitimate entity. Second, the global community needs to recognize the Iranian sphere of influence in the Islamic world. Third, and most importantly, while it is prepared to normalize ties with the United States, Iran wants to retain its independent foreign policy. …Iran has been emboldened by the fact that the United States is neither in a position to exercise the military option to prevent the Persian state from going nuclear, nor is it able to put together an effective sanctions regime that could affect a change in Tehran’s behavior. It is therefore using the regional dynamic as leverage to try and extract the maximum possible concessions on the nuclear issue. …It has moved to the final round of its efforts to use American weakness to its advantage, and at this stage it does hold a strong deck of cards.

Iran’s position of influence and leverage in the Middle East is a fulfillment of end-time prophecy predicting the rise of an Islamic power as the “king of the south” (Daniel 11:40). And since U.S.-led forces first invaded Iraq, the Trumpet has pointed out that U.S. involvement in the region would lead to an amplified Iranian position, contributing to the rise of that power. In June 2003, for example, editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote, “[T]he Bible shows that America will fail to contain Iran the way it hopes to. Already, it is clear that Iran is eyeing the situation for opportunities.” Now Iran is seeking to exploit those opportunities.