According to MSNBC, it’s the “rational” Iranians who must deal with the “unpredictable” Donald Trump as the world waits to see if the U.S. will escalate tensions. Appearing just prior to the President’s address on Wednesday about the latest actions in the Middle East, Mohyeldin mentioned an unidentified “colleague”: “He was saying that it’s unimaginable to think in this day and age it would be the Iranians who are signaling that they want to de-escalate. They're being rational.”
In contrast to the “rational” Iranians, Mohyeldin described Trump as unhinged and potentially dangerous: “It is the President of the United States that everybody is watching to see whether or not there's going to be unpredictability, whether or not there's going to be any kind of irrationality in the way he goes forward with this attack.”
In case you didn’t get it, the problem here is clearly Trump. Not the Iranian dictatoriship:
It's a very telling signal of how the times have changed, that the President of the United States is now the most watched person as he's about to deliver this statement to indicate whether or not this region goes in the direction of war or goes in the direction of de-escalation and calm.
Mohyeldin last week described Qasem Soleimani, the now dead terrorist, as “complicated.” The journalist suggested that the U.S. government isn’t credible in how it describes him. Speaking of credability, this is the same guy who, in 2015, smeared Chris Kyle, the real-life “American Sniper,” as a “racist” who went on “killing sprees.”
A transcript of Wednesday’s segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC Live
1/8/2020
11:16CRAIG MELIVIN: What does this part of the world, what do they need to hear in Iran to diffuse the situation?
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: Well, they need to hear very clearly from the President that the President does not intend to respond to last night's attacks in a direct way against Iran in Iran immediately. Anything short of that leaves the window possible that the United States may react and we've heard clearly from the Iranian government last night as they were firing these ballistic missiles into Iraq that if the United States and any American assets are used from the Middle East, are used in an attack against Iran, Iran would use its proxies in Lebanon as well as its own self-defense capabilities to attack and engulf the entire region. That is everywhere from northern Israel all the way to Dubia. So that is what key allies of the United States are going to be looking for from Saudi Arabia onwards as we've been reporting throughout the week, the Deputy Defense minister from the kingdom arrive here from Washington on an unannounced planned trip where he met with U.S. officials to convey to them the sense from the region that they want to make sure there is not an escalation.
Now, here's the interesting thing in all of this, Craig, I was speaking to a colleague of mine who actually was around at the time of the Iranian hostage crisis in '79 and 1980. He was saying that it’s unimaginable to think in this day and age, it would be the Iranians who are signaling that they want to de-escalate. They're being rational. That they have in the tweet of the Foreign Minister last night saying, “We do not seek war. We do not seek confrontation, but we will defend ourselves.” And it is the President of the United States that everybody is watching to see whether or not there's going to be unpredictability, whether or not there's going to be any kind of irrationality in the way he goes forward with this attack. It's a very telling signal of how the times have changed, that the President of the United States is now the most watched person as he's about to deliver this statement to indicate whether or not this region goes in the direction of war or goes in the direction of de-escalation and calm.
And more interestingly, on top of that there, is the concern that after this phase of what we're seeing, which is the killing of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general, this first response by the Iranians that things will return to the proxy and shadow wars that Iran has been doing. So, there was definitely a tremendous amount of pressure inside Iran for the regime to deliver some kind of military response. That is what they have done now. A lot of analysts are saying that was mostly for domestic political consumption as well as sending the message to the United States that they can reach military bases in the region and now they want to revert back to that asymmetrical war, using their proxies and allies in the region to try and wreak havoc on softer targets or American installations but, again, not directly on the Iranian government, the IRGC. That's what was so significant about last night that the Iranian government came out and announced its operation, claimed responsibility for it. But then by the end of the night were signaling we have no intentions to do anything beyond what we have done tonight.
