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| Ayatollah Ali Khamenei |
American officials have attempted to clarify Khamenei's intentions, but such efforts have been met with defensiveness. Khamenei claims that America is behaving illogically and refuses to speak with a country that was “pointing a gun at Iran.” He requests that all American-made sanctions be lifted before he agrees to hold talks, explaining that such restrictions were placed to deliberately "paralyze" the country. This obviously only raises more suspicion in regards to Iran's nuclear status.
Do you think Iran does have nuclear weapons? Do you think Ayatollah Khamenei meant his announcement to be a threat toward America? Do you think America is wrong in having these numerous sanctions on the Iranian government?
2 comments:
The multilateral sanctions quarterbacked by the United States last year did amount to a substantial burden on Iran's economy. That being said, Iran may very well be playing for time: sort of "Lift your sanctions and we'll talk" when in reality we'll be taking a breather before continuing to develop material to advance our "peaceful" nuclear program.
In terms of whether America was "wrong" in having these sanctions, right or wrong may not have as much to do with the status quo as necessity. A nuclear Iran would pose an unacceptable threat to stability in the Middle East. Not only would neighboring countries feel the need to develop a nuclear deterrent, but Israel would also face a major security crisis.
I think the US may be overreacting to Iran as a threat. While it is very possible that they are creating/do possess nuclear weapons, we aren't exactly sure. Imposing sanctions on them based on a hunch doesn't seem really fair just since we're bigger and more influential than them. I personally do think they have nuclear weapons since they denounce these sanctions while refusing to allow investigations, which seems contradictory. But only time will tell whether they do or not, hopefully not in a violent manner...
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