Fars News Agency, the main news agency in Iran, expressed the Iranian government’s hope for change in the United States’ treatment of the regime following the nomination of Chuck Hagel:
Iran on Tuesday expressed the hope that Washington’s foreign policy will witness practical changes after U.S. officials announced that President Barack Obama will nominate Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary. ”We hope that practical changes will be created in the U.S. foreign policy and the U.S. officials’ approach will change to respect the nations’ rights,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.
The Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei also announced today the failure of the West’s sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programs:
Despite the past, the arrogant powers now acknowledge very frankly that the goal of the sanctions is making the Iranian nation exhausted to provoke them against the Islamic Republic, increase pressures on Iranian officials and as a result make the (Iranian) officials change their calculations. He downplayed the effects of the enemies’ pressures and sanctions, and said, “But the inclination of the people of this great land to the principles of Islam and the Revolution and the national honor of Iranians are on the increase every day and this is exactly the counterpoint of what the enemies want.”
The Iranians are celebrating the failure of sanctions on the same day they herald the nomination of Chuck Hagel, one of the most outspoken opponents of sanctions on the Iranian regime. Perhaps the Iranians view the nomination of Hagel as an admission of American weakness in regards to Iran?