Axis of Evil – The Iranian Revolution – Around the Crescent Moon

President Barak Obama hailed the Iranian Nuclear Deal “a unique opportunity, a window to resolve important issues.”

In Iran, Sharia law governs, homosexuals are executed, women without veils or “bad hijab” are arrested, men cannot wear pony tails, or neckties, journalists are imprisoned.
Adulterous women are stoned to death, the legal age for marriage is 9 and girls are given as brides to adult men. News and websites are censored, academic freedoms are limited, and latitude of movement is restricted. 
 
Iran funds Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations, and is second only to China in the large number of citizen executions. 
 
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei vows opposition to the United States and criticizes America’s presence in the Persian Gulf.   General Hossein Salami threatens the United States with Iran potentially closing the Straits of Hormuz and references the 2016 American sailors taken hostage on the Persian Gulf.
 
Massive demonstrations in Tehran protest the United States and Israel; often Saudi Arabia is included in the burnt flags, torched effigies, and “death to America” chants.   Iran facilitates demonstrations by making subway travel free on demonstration days. 
 
In Paris, thousands of Iranians arrived on July 9, 2016 to campaign for reform at the annual National Council of Resistance of Iran event.  Supporters included former U.S. Congressional Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former New York Mayer Rudi Giuliani, and high-level representatives from France, Spain, Algeria, Jordan, and Egypt.
 
Iran is the latest incarnation of Persia, which pre dates the birth of Christ in the Empire of Cyrus the Great.  Alexander the Great, and dynasties of the Zoroastrian, religion ruled before the Arab invasion brought Islamic rule to Persia in the eight to tenth centuries. Iran was unified as an independent state and ruled by monarchy after 1501, this is also when the nation took Shia Islam as the official religion of the empire.
 
Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power during WWII; after Anglo-Soviet invasion forced the abdication of his father. The Shah embarked on a campaign to modernize and westernize the country. He teamed with Israel to develop a short-range system for missiles, and nuclear technology.  He banned the Communist party, and had strong support from the United States and the United Kingdom. Shah Pahlavi lost support from the clergy, and clashed with Islamists.  He was forced to leave Iran in the 1979 Iranian Revolution when Iran officially became the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini who had previously been kicked out of the country and was exiled in France.  He sought President Jimmy Carter’s help to return to Iran and overcome the military, which was loyal to the Shah.  Many claim that Carter was suckered.
 
Khomeini returned, purged the military, and became an adversary of the United States.  Khomeini proclaimed Iran an Islamic State, and reversed all pro Western policies. 52 Americans were taken hostage inside the US Embassy.  They were released the day that President Ronald Reagan took the oath of office. 
The exiled Shah died of cancer in Egypt the following year. 
 
Ali Khamenei was appointed Supreme Leader in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini died.    During the Clinton Administration Iran was a sponsor of terrorism, and sought to acquire nuclear arms; oil and trade sanctions were placed. 
 
The Bush Administration described Iran as an axis of evil and warned of proliferation of long-range missiles being developed.  IAEA found Iran in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Violations and warnings continued.     
 
The U.S, U.K, France, Russia, China, plus Germany and the EU negotiated with Iran for years. This resulted in the 2015 Iranian Nuclear Deal. It claims to limit Iran’s nuclear activity in return for lifting economic sanctions in addition togaining access to more than $100 billion in assets frozen overseas.
 
Ayatollah Khamenei is not Mikhail Gorbachev, and Obama is not Ronald Reagan.  After the Nuclear Deal, Iran conducted a series of tests of new ballistic missiles.  Language empowering member nations to take necessary measures to prevent missile technology transfer was replaced with weak language, which merely requests Iran not to continue its missile program for 8 years.
 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly opposed the framework “This plan threatens the survival of Israel.  Such a deal would not block Iran’s path to the bomb. It would pave it."
 
German Chancellor Angela Merkel denounced Iran’s blatant violations of UN regulations and a recent German intelligence report highlighted the fact that after the Nuclear Deal Iran continues to seek illegal nuclear technology.
 
Ambassador John Bolton asserted that the nuclear situation with Iran is perilous, that the next president of the U.S. will face a dangerous period where they must do the analysis required to come to a decision to use force.  Bolton voiced, “There is only one way to block the Iranians from building a nuclear bomb, bomb them first.”
 
The United States Institute for Peace affirms that Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East, and it should be able to develop Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles over time. Iran should be able to strike Western Europe after 2017, and the United States not before 2020. 
 
“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”  Albert Einstein 

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran
 
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/iranian-dissidents-rally-in-paris
 
Two Weeks in January: America's secret engagement with Khomeini; BBC