TRUMPING THE MUSLIM BAN IN IRAN: REALITY VERSUS RHETORIC
by Aryan Susangard / 2 February 2017
[Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece by a political editor of an English-language daily in Iran, which was not approved for publication due to the fragile nature of current attempts at low-level diplomacy between the American and Iranian governments. It has been submitted to us and is being published here in full without any revisions, alterations, commentary or conclusions on our part as an interesting counterpoint from the other side.]
"Barely two weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency, the political circus in the United States drowns itself in the furore over what has become widely known as a “Muslim ban” targeting seven Muslim-majority nations. However, in Iran the situation on the streets and in the political backchannels of the country’s Byzantine government is quite different. There is a general consensus among the many political factions that the ban is not exactly “Muslim” in scope and orientation, but rather a geopolitical maneuver by Trump intended to distract the American public by appearing to fulfill one of his major campaign promises to impose a moratorium on Muslim travel and immigration to the United States."
BUT what I found most interesting was this…..
"There is then also the issue surrounding the so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels and in particular, the Daesh anti-Assad terrorist propaganda front called “The White Helmets” who have become the darlings of American neoliberals like George Clooney and Grant Heslov, who are certainly guilty of treason against the American people and nation for supporting these murderous and cannibalistic barbarians. To quote Major General Qasim Soleimani of the Revolutionary Guards, “The White Helmets are Daesh terrorists. If you support the White Helmets, you are without a doubt supporting Daesh and their wars of genocide.” In spite of abundant evidence demonstrating the terrorism of the White Helmets and their indiscriminate murder of the Shia, Christians, Druze and other minorities of Syria, Clooney and other establishment figures who present themselves as “progressives” are intent on financially backing them and other terrorists linked to Daesh, which include al-Qaeda and al-Nusra, both of which constitute the overwhelmingly majority of the so-called “moderate” rebels.
Given this reality, it is not surprising that Trump would take action to prevent entry into the US anyone even remotely linked to Daesh. Clooney, Heslov and company have worked very hard since the beginning of the Syrian conflict to bring these terrorists to America, a move that was shamelessly backed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who herself was the chief architect of the Salafist (Wahhabi) uprisings and rebellions in Libya, Syria, Egypt and Yemen. To their credit, both Joe Biden and John Kerry opposed Clinton’s warmongering agenda and their own party’s blind allegiance to her. "