Berlin – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Saturday that the U.S. should take a stronger stance against Iran — or risk appeasing what he called an “insane” regime.
Giuliani spoke at a rally in Berlin organized by the exiled opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran. The organization is associated with the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, an armed resistance group that was taken off U.S. terror lists in 2012.
Giuliani claimed that the government in Tehran, which is seeking to reach a deal with world powers to lift crippling international sanctions, “has proven to us that it shouldn’t be trusted with any kind of nuclear capacity.”
Anyone who thought otherwise was “stupid” or risking the kind of appeasement that Britain tried with Nazi Germany in 1938, he said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has recently said Washington will endorse only an agreement with Iran that seriously and verifiably crimps Tehran’s ability to make atomic arms.
After his speech, Giuliani told The Associated Press that he believed President Barack Obama’s actions on Iran were reckless.
“What he (Obama) is doing with Iran right now is extremely reckless and it’s going to create an Iranian-controlled northern Middle East,” Giuliani said. He cited Tehran’s growing influence in Syria and Iraq, which he said could prompt a dangerous reaction from Iran’s Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.
To cheers from several hundred Iranian exiles at Berlin’s Velodrom cycling arena, Giuliani spoke strongly in favor of giving refuge to about 2,700 members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran living at Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base in Iraq.
The 10,000-seat Velodrom was filled mostly with students from neighboring Poland and the Czech Republic. Several whom the AP spoke to said they had been offered a return journey and hotel in the German capital if they attended the conference.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Saturday said that the United States should take a stronger stance against Iran and also criticized President Barack Obama over his “reckless” actions when it comes to the Islamic Republic, according to The Associated Press (AP).
Giuliani spoke at a rally in Berlin organized by the exiled opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, which recently warned that Iran has an underground top-secret site that is enriching uranium and has been hidden from the West for years.
The former mayor claimed that the government in Tehran, which is seeking to reach a deal with world powers to lift crippling international sanctions, “has proven to us that it shouldn’t be trusted with any kind of nuclear capacity.”
Anyone who thought otherwise was “stupid” or risking the kind of appeasement that Britain tried with Nazi Germany in 1938, he said, according to AP.
After his speech, Giuliani told AP that he believed Obama’s actions on Iran were reckless.
“What he (Obama) is doing with Iran right now is extremely reckless and it’s going to create an Iranian-controlled northern Middle East,” Giuliani said. He cited Tehran’s growing influence in Syria and Iraq, which he said could prompt a dangerous reaction from Iran’s Sunni rival Saudi Arabia.
Giuliani previously expressed support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress, telling Israeli television that Netanyahu’s speech came at the right time because it was given as Congress is discussing a possible deal with Iran on its nuclear program.
In a subsequent interview with the Israel Hayom newspaper, Giuliani said that most Americans share Netanyahu’s concerns over a nuclear Iran.
“You have to understand that I, as an American, fear a nuclear Iran no less than the Prime Minister of Israel and no less than Israeli citizens,” he said.
“Think for a second – a bad agreement with Iran would give a group of irrational and insane people nuclear capability. If I were Netanyahu, I would go to the ends of the earth to discuss Iran’s nuclear program – on any stage I was given and in every situation. In our case now, it’s the Congress,” he added.
Iran and the six world powers continue their talks which are aimed at turning an interim 2013 deal into a permanent agreement.
Talks to reach a permanent deal have continuously stalled and two deadlines for a final deal have been missed, with a third one looming on July 1 and an initial deal needing to be worked out by March 31.