IRAN’S REGIONAL RECORD

by JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN

Foreign Minister Zarif’s effort at deflection portrays Iran as a beacon of democracy in a region of autocrats. He criticizes Middle East neighbors and American allies for their role in global conflicts, all the while ignoring Iran’s notorious domestic repression and record of sponsoring wars in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

President Hassan Rouhani’s re-election is touted as a symbol of the Iranian public’s desire to engage with the world, yet neither he nor his foreign minister has ever had control over Iran’s regional policies. The supreme leader drives policy and politics, and his decisions consistently support export of Iran’s radicalism and terrorism.

Tehran has provided plenty of its own “beautiful military equipment” — an estimated $6 billion a year — to prop up Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian regime with men and money, and arms are supplied to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

While fighting extremism in the region remains the challenge of our time, it is mendacious for Iran to portray itself as an innocent bystander. Its bloodstained record tells a different story.

 Originally appeared in the new York times