Iran Reacts to Nuclear Deal with Belligerence, Threats

The U.S. administration hopes the Iran nuclear deal signed this week “incentivizes” the Islamic Republic to roll back its destabilizing regional presence and its support for terror groups. Judging by Iranian reactions to the agreement, however, Tehran views it as a resounding triumph over the forces of “arrogance” – one that will only encourage further belligerence towards the United States and its allies.  

Websites close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) emphasized that deal or no deal, the struggle against the United States would continue. Basirat, a newspaper close to the IRGC, wrote Tuesday that America wants “to change the behavior of the Islamic Republic, meaning it would abandon its vocation … limit itself to its geographic borders … and give up the struggle against arrogance, opposition to Zionism and support to the weak … But as the Supreme Leader said, the Islamic Republic has only engaged in negotiations over the nuclear issue.”

Kayhan, the unofficial mouthpiece of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, struck a similar note, editorializing Thursday: “In spite of various pretentions and fantasies, this agreement will not lead to cooperation between Iran and America on regional issues.”

In the words of Ayatollah Abbas Ka’bi, a hardline member of the Assembly of Experts: “America is still the Great Satan! An agreement does not mean [an] end to struggle against arrogance.” And in those of IRGC Major General Mostafa Izadi, head of Strategic and Oversight Affairs in the Armed Forces General Staff: “Iran’s capability is at such a level that, per the orders of the Supreme Leader, if they [Israel] commit the smallest error, nothing will remain of Tel Aviv.”

These remarks from Tehran’s corridors of power show that the only lesson on “incentives” that Iran has taken from this week’s deal is that intransigence pays.

Ali Alfoneh is a senior fellow at Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @Alfoneh