Israel will not survive the next 25 years, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday, making a series of threatening remarks published online.
In a quote posted to Twitter by Khamenei’s official account, Khamenei addresses Israel, saying, “You will not see next 25 years,” and adds that the Jewish state will be hounded until it is destroyed.
The quote comes against a backdrop of a photograph showing the Iranian leader walking on an Israeli flag painted on a sidewalk.
“After negotiations, in Zionist regime they said they had no more concern about Iran for next 25 years; I’d say: Firstly, you will not see next 25 years; God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by next 25 years. Secondly, until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists,” the quote from Iran’s top leader reads in broken English.
The quote was apparently taken from a speech given earlier in the day.
The remarks came as US lawmakers began to debate supporting a recent nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers. Critics of the deal have pointed to fiery anti-US and anti-Zionist rhetoric as proof that the regime should not be trusted.
Khamenei’s statements also reaffirmed his view that the US is a “Great Satan” and that there would be no detente with Washington beyond the nuclear talks.
“We approved talks with the United States about [the] nuclear issue specifically. We have not allowed talks with the US in other fields and we [do] not negotiate with them,” Khamenei said in statements published on his website.
Quoting the founder of the Islamic Republic and his predecessor as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei tweeted: “@IRKhomeini stated “US is the Great Satan,” some insist on depicting this Great Satan as an angel.”
Russia, Iran and China are trying to stop the West and the Gulf countries from overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Middle East expert Michael Lüders during his interview with German channel N24 called such attempts by the United States and its allies absurd.
According to him, without the current president, Syria will, in all likelihood fall under the control of Islamic State terrorists.
Lüders further said, “Turkey and the countries of the West and the Persian Gulf are still determined to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. Russia, Iran and China, however, are trying to prevent this and continue to support him. This means the growth of confrontation.”
The German analyst further said that currently proxy wars are already in full swing in Syria. Before it was not in the open but now apparently there is no pretense. The main problem according to the analyst is the question of who would replace Assad if he were to leave.
“He still controls a third of the territory of Syria. If his regime by the efforts of a religious minority Alawites falls, then the power in all likelihood will pass into the hands of Islamic state militants. That is, to try to overthrow Bashar al-Assad, without having any idea how to stop the advance of Islamic State sounds a bit absurd,” Lüders concluded.
It’s rare for people to celebrate getting 41 percent of anything. If you score 41 percent on a test, you get an F. If you win 41 percent of the vote in a two-person race, you lose. If your tax rate is 41 percent, you’re likely to feel ripped off.
In the matter of his Iran deal, President Obama and his team have spent two months working relentlessly to secure 41 percent — and now they’re claiming an enormous victory even though by any other standards what they’ve achieved is nothing but a feat of unconstitutional trickery.
They worked throughout the summer to browbeat Senate Democrats so they could get 41 of them to say they would support the Iran nuclear deal. They’re up to 42 now — that’s a mere 42 percent of the Senate.
Why is the number 41 so magical? Why is a failure of this magnitude being greeted as a triumph?
Welcome to the Bizarro World that is Barack Obama’s Washington.
Under the Constitution, treaties require the support of two-thirds of the Senate. The deal with Iran is a treaty in every respect — a legally binding long-term agreement between sovereign powers, in which hundreds of billions of dollars will flow and billions of dollars in nuclear materiel will be destroyed.
Since this is a treaty and we have 100 senators, Obama should have been obliged to secure the backing of 67 Senators, not 41.
But Obama knew he could never get his treaty through Congress. You see, the American people have given the Republican Party majorities in both the House and the Senate.
The very fact that the American people did so to put a brake on Obama’s outsized ambitions just wasn’t going to hold this guy back.
After first informing Congress that he would simply implement it — as an executive action rather than a treaty — without submitting the deal to a vote, Obama relented.
Kind of.
He and Congress agreed the deal would be subject to a vote — not of approval, like a treaty, but of disapproval. It would be treated like any piece of legislation. It would be voted on by the House and the Senate, and if they turned thumbs-down, he could then exercise his presidential veto.
The Constitution requires a second vote by the two Houses of Congress to overturn such a veto — and in that case, the vote has to be by two-thirds.
That’s why for months people have been saying the president has turned the Constitution on its head — because instead of 67 senators having to support the deal to make it legal, 67 senators have to disapprove of it to render it null and void.
But now comes that infamous 41 number. Why is this important? Because of a weird Senate procedure called “cloture,” the only way to get a vote on the floor of the Senate is for 60 senators to agree to allow it to happen. So if 41 disagree, the bill cannot be voted on.
With 42 senators saying they will support the deal, Obama may have the raw numbers to block even the first vote.
Thus, it may well be that for the first time in American history, a president will simply impose a treaty on the country without even the pretense of seeking and obtaining the advice and consent of the Congress.
And how? With 42 percent.
And how? With 42 percent.
To call this a scandal doesn’t even begin to do justice to what it is. It really does suggest we are fast turning into a banana republic, whose leaders feel free to spit on a Constitution whose central purpose is to restrain the ambitions of strongmen and their shameful toadies.
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