How Iranian Hard-liners Stirred Up Anti-U.S. Sentiment Over the Nuclear Deal

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How Iranian Hard-liners Stirred Up Anti-U.S. Sentiment Over the Nuclear Deal

Politically motivated hard-liners are trying to paint the deal as bad for Iran.

Conservatives in the United States aren’t the only people who dislike the Iranian nuclear deal. Iranian hard-liners have been peddling the idea that its economic benefits have not materialized—and some believe that their rhetoric is reigniting anti-U.S. sentiment within the nation.

When the nuclear deal was announced on July 14, 2015, the Iranian reaction was mixed. Many in Tehran celebrated, but there were those who denounced the deal—reiterating what Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei used to say: “Until the U.S. and Israel say, ‘There is no God but Allah,’ we won’t accept it.” Just as in the U.S., the politics of the deal was not clear cut.

Four months have passed since the nuclear deal was signed on January 16, and Iranian hard-liners have latched on to any statements that indicate it hasn’t been beneficial. One of those statements, which some have taken out of context, was given by Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran. Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, he said:

Let me also give you a snapshot of what has happened over the last three months—the date of implementation of the jcpoa [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]: almost nothing.

Yet the hard-liners overlook Seif’s statement earlier in the speech where he noted that “the outcome of [the nuclear deal’s] efforts is very positive.” When he said “almost nothing” had happened, Seif was speaking mainly about the lack of foreign investment since restrictions had been lifted—European banks have been hesitant to rush into any deals. The latest round of criticisms from hard-liners was “unfair and ‘politically motivated,’” according to Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the chairman of the Expediency Council.

In fact, since the removal of sanctions, Iranian oil revenue has increased by 90 percent, and its non-oil trade balance was positive for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. South Korea has been negotiating a new trade deal with Iran worth billions of dollars, and the Iranian economy is expected to grow 5 percent in 2016-17.

In a previous attack, critics questioned whether Iran had really been readmitted to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communication (swift) banking system. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stepped in, saying, “Anyone who has any doubts can go to the swift room in the Central Bank of Iran and see for themselves that the banking system has already joined swift.”

Despite this, hard-liners have found support for their anti-U.S. message. An anonymous Iranian official told Al-Monitor that “if the U.S. fails to abide by the deal and continues to deprive Iranians of their rights, then things might get out of control.” Both in America and Iran, right-leaning politicians believe the other nation will not abide by the deal.

The official continued:

The only thing we can understand from what’s happening is that they want us deprived from our strength—not to make peace, but to launch a war while we are defenseless. This isn’t going to happen at any price.

Of course, anyone familiar with the current United States administration knows that launching a war against Iran is a political impossibility.

Ali Hashem, the chief correspondent for the pan-Arabist Al-Mayadeen news network, described the transformation of Iran since the nuclear deal:

Today, Hezbollahis [Iranian hard-liners] in Tehran continue to chant “Death to America” slogans and raise banners and posters depicting President Barack Obama as Shimr, the man who killed Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of prophet Mohammed and the third Shiite imam. Such moves would usually stir criticism from among the ranks of reformists and even pragmatic conservatives who back the jcpoa. Nevertheless, after all these months after the signing and implementation of the nuclear deal, it’s very unlikely to hear such voices. Instead, those who might have criticized anti-U.S. provocations might these days themselves be reading Iranian writer Jalal al-e Ahmad’s 1962 bestseller “Gharbzadegi” (West-toxication), a book seen as the mother of anti-Western discourse and sentiments in Iran, or in other words—anti-West 101.

Talk over the P5+1 nuclear deal in the United States has cooled in the four months since its implementation. Yet those discussions have not died down in Iran; many still believe they should scrap the deal altogether. The consequences of what Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry called “The Worst Foreign-Policy Blunder in American History” are still being determined, and anti-Western discourse doesn’t seem to be decreasing.