Trump in Iran

13 December 2015 | 22:20 Code : 1954693 General category
The Republican candidate has constructed a strongly unfavorable image of himself among the Iranian media.
Trump in Iran

Despite more than thirty years of hiatus in relations, Iran and the US keep a close eye on each other's presidential elections . The prospects of the nuclear deal after Obama have turned the November 2016 elections in the United States more consequential for Iran however. Critics have been persistent in arguing that the nuclear deal sealed by Rouhani’s administration will lose effect after Obama leaves office.

 

Ups and downs of the electoral campaigns are thus closely monitored on a daily basis by the Iranian media. Despite their stark differences, Principlist and Reformist media are both been strongly critical and disparaging towards the presidential candidates, particularly the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. Like other non-American media, the Iranian press have been surprised by the level of egregiousness of his remarks, the worst of them on the need to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

 

The hardliner Principlist website “Jahan News” published a piece on Friday, calling Trump “Netanyahu’s missing half”, arguing that his presidency would fully serve Netanyahu’s ideals, including a destructive attitude towards the nuclear deal and keeping up the bogus appearance of fighting against Da’esh/ISIS in the Middle East. “Isn’t Da’esh doing the same thing in a narrower scope?” Reformist journalist Karim Arghandepour wrote in the Reformist Shargh Daily comparing Trump's inflammatory rhetoric to that of the terrorist group. “They may have inherent differences in beliefs, behavior and lifestyle, but the way they confront their opponents is the same: violence, demagoguery, avoiding rationality, megalomania and brutality.”

 

(Interlude: Trump's Twitter followers were surprised last month when the candidate retweeted from Press TV, the Islamic Republic’s official English-language, on a survey that showed his leading position against possible Democratic candidates.)

 

Trump’s outrageous remarks has attracted significant attention to the level that Hassan Rouhani and Hashemi Rafsajani have reacted to his statements. In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday December 2 Rouhani reacted to Trump’s remarks without mentioning his name. “There are some around the world who, under the pretext of fighting terrorism, call for banning Muslims’ entry into other countries,” he said. “But they are the founders and supporters of terrorism. This is the problem they created”.

 

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president and current head of the Expediency Council, also criticized Trump today, calling his demand for a ban on Muslims’ admission into the United States “unreasonable” and “irrational”. “This will harm American politicians first and foremost,” Hashemi said. “The White House promptly denounced the remarks and referred to them as being against American values.”