By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
Donald Trump’s
first international trip as US president has now ended. After all the
controversy about his campaign rhetoric regarding Islam and his executive
orders on travelers from some Middle Eastern countries, Trump’s choice of Saudi
Arabia — which he called “the heart of the Muslim World” — as the first stop on
his first trip came as quite a surprise to many.
Even more
unexpected was the presence of more than 50 Arab and Muslim heads of state and
representatives at the Arab-Islamic-American Summit, held during Trump’s visit.
The timing, place
and reception of the US president’s remarks should have come as no surprise,
however. They reflect the shared goal of Western and Muslim nations of “a
coalition of nations who share the aim of stamping out extremism,” as Trump put
it in his speech. And in that context, in comments long overdue for their
clarity and lucidity, the American president called out the world’s No. 1 state
sponsor of terrorism: Iran.
As Trump said: “No
discussion of stamping out this threat would be complete without mentioning the
government that gives terrorists all three — safe harbor, financial backing and
the social standing needed for recruitment… From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran
funds, arms, and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that
spread destruction and chaos across the region. For decades, Iran has fueled
the fires of sectarian conflict and terror.”
It was a statement
of policy long awaited in the Arab world and beyond. For too long, groups such
as Daesh and Al-Qaeda have hoarded the headlines with their vicious massacres,
bloody videos and offensive rhetoric. They were allowed to define the narrative
as “Islam versus the infidels,” to the dismay and outrage of Muslims worldwide,
instead of calling it what it is: Terrorism, plain and simple.
This is not about
Islam versus the West, or Arabs versus Persians, or Sunnis versus Shiites. It
is about the civilized peoples of the world — of all faiths and cultures —
joining together to defeat a barbaric, violent extremism that spreads
destruction and chaos in the region, and brutalizes civilian populations, most
of whom are in fact Muslim. To do so, they must recognize that the heart of the
leviathan beats in Tehran. That fact has been well known to the peoples of the
Middle East for almost four decades.
In comments long
overdue for their clarity and lucidity, US President Donald Trump called out
the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism: Iran.
As Trump stated,
Iran is “a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction
of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this
room.”
In addition,
Trump’s words were appealing to the ordinary Iranian people who the US
president characterized as “the Iranian regime’s longest-suffering victims.”
Iranian opposition
figures including Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council ofResistance of Iran coalition, welcomed the vision of peace, prosperity and
alliance against extremism propagated at the Riyadh Summit. She called on the
international community to confront the Iranian government’s export of
terrorism and fundamentalism, its ballistic missile program, its interference
in the internal affairs of other countries, as well as its destructive regional
and international role.
Iran’s “wilayat
Al-faqih” theocracy, with all its factions, pegs the hope of its own survival
on the dogged pursuit of the fundamental policies of export of terrorism abroad
and harsh suppression within Iran.
Its reckless drive
to extend its influence throughout the region provides Syria’s Bashar Assad
with the extremist reinforcements, funds and weapons he needs to massacre
Syrian civilians, drive millions from their homes, and turn city after city
into wasteland. None of those resources is turned on Daesh.
In Yemen, Houthi
militias armed and financed by Iran spread death and destruction. In Iraq,
militias led by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps incite sectarian strife, and
thwart efforts by Iraq’s central government to unite the nation in a campaign
to isolate and drive out Daesh.
To confront this
threat to the region and the world, the international community must cut off
the flow of funds and forces to Tehran. In a nutshell, when the Iranian people
and international community alter the Iranian government’s behavior of
exporting Shiite extremism, they will bring the goal of stamping out extremism
in the Middle East region that much closer. It is time to enable them realize
that task.
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