{"id":562,"date":"2005-02-07T23:08:23","date_gmt":"2005-02-08T05:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=562"},"modified":"2005-02-07T23:08:40","modified_gmt":"2005-02-08T05:08:40","slug":"rafsanjani-iran-us-share-interests-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"Rafsanjani: Iran, U.S. Share Interests in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s difficult to tell whether this is meant to smooth over American-Iranian relations or just serve as a little <a href=\"http:\/\/www.japantoday.com\/e\/?content=news&#038;cat=8&#038;id=327115\">diplomatic trash talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Iran and the United States have a common enemy in the al-Qaida terrorist network and shared interests in Iraq, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in an interview published Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Rafsanjani, one of Iran&#8217;s most powerful leaders, said in the interview with USA Today in Tehran on Sunday that Iraq&#8217;s Jan 30 national elections went &#8220;well&#8221; and that al-Qaida terrorists &#8220;are our enemies, too. You are aware of what al-Qaida has done to our fellow Shiites in Iraq.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He characterized as &#8220;nonsense&#8221; statements by U.S. President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Iran&#8217;s &#8220;cleric-run government&#8221; and human rights record. &#8220;We say the United States wouldn&#8217;t dare to attack us, and they have tested it once (the failed hostage rescue in 1980),&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The United States is a big country, but unfortunately it seems it has the brain of a little bird not befitting the greatness of the country,&#8221; Rafsanjani said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I especially enjoy the bluster about the abortion that was the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Operation_Eagle_Claw\">Operation Eagle Claw<\/a> rescue attempt.  I assure you that Rafsanjani understands that today&#8217;s American military is not the charlie foxtrot of the post-Viet Nam hangover.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s difficult to tell whether this is meant to smooth over American-Iranian relations or just serve as a little diplomatic trash talk. Iran and the United States have a common enemy in the al-Qaida terrorist network and shared interests in Iraq, former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in an interview published Monday. Rafsanjani, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}