Reported yesterday by
U.S. News:
Iran says its ballistic missile strike targeting the Islamic State group
in Syria was not only a response to deadly attacks in Tehran, but a
powerful message to archrival Saudi Arabia and the United States, one
that could add to already soaring regional tensions...
It also raises questions about how U.S. President Donald Trump's
administration, which had previously put Iran "on notice" for its
ballistic missile tests, will respond.
Context via
Jobsanger:
Understandably, the Iranians were upset with Trump. His statement infers
that Iran supports the group that attacked Tehran (ISIS). It's just a
continuation of his claims that Iran supports the terrorists that are
attacking Western nations. None of that is true.
Iran does offer support to a couple of groups defined as terrorists --
the Houthi in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon (and Palestine). Those are
shiite muslim groups, and Iran is a shiite muslim state. But those are
not the groups that attacked Iran, and they are not the groups
responsible for attacks in Europe and the United States.
The groups mainly responsible for attacking Europe and the United States
are sunni muslim groups -- ISIS and al-Queda. They get no support from
Iran. Their support comes mainly from a country that Trump calls a
"friend" -- Saudi Arabia...
Trump seems to want to lump all islamic fundamentalists into a single
group of terrorists that hate the West. That is far too simple. It shows
he is either lying and misleading Americans, or he doesn't understand
the truth -- that the trouble in the Middle East is basically a
religious civil war being fought between shiite and sunni muslims. He
seems to have sided with the sunnis without understanding that they are
where ISIS and al-Queda have originated. He also seems not to understand
that ISIS was created when an American president (Bush) overthrew the
secular government in Iraq and installed a shiite muslim government in
its place (which caused sunnis to rebel against that government and the
shiite government in Syria by creating ISIS).
Blaming Iran for terrorism in the West is ignoring the reality of what
is happening. It would make more sense to blame Saudi Arabia. But Trump
doesn't want to do that, because they have too much oil that we want and
have plenty of money to spend on U.S. weapons. In effect, Trump has
taken the side of the sunnis in the religious civil war -- the same side
that is attacking the Western nations.
I'm going to close comments for this post; I just don't have time to moderate/curate them. Move on.