Opinion

Iran doesn’t like US, no matter who is president

In defending his most recent Iranian nukes deal — an agreement to implement an earlier agreement — President Obama says we need to “give peace a chance.”

The Iranians have a different take.

President Hassan Rouhani claims the deal “means the surrender of big powers before the great nation of Iran.” An Iranian general says it signals the weakness of an America that has “failed in the military aspect in any country against which it has waged a war, including Iraq and Afghanistan.” Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister lays a wreath at the grave of a Hezbollah terrorist responsible for killing 220 US Marines and 21 other service members in the 1983 truck bombing of the Beruit barracks.

Even allowing for the usual dose of Iranian bluster, these responses underscore the main weakness of the Obama approach: the president and secretary of state do not recognize whom they are dealing with.

When Obama came to office, he thought the problem was Iranian anger at George W. Bush. What he hasn’t grasped is that, to this regime, there’s not much difference between presidents. That’s because its leaders rightly see America as the obstacle to their ambitions for the Middle East.

The president says diplomacy will tame Iran. But it’s likelier his diplomacy will persuade Tehran it has nothing to fear from Uncle Sam. Look at Syria, where Bashar al-Assad defied Obama’s red line by gassing women and children — and has emerged stronger for it, thanks to Obama diplomacy.

The Iranians understand America is the enemy and proceed accordingly. How much safer the world would be if the Obama administration would do the same.