Rhetorical Analysis

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Since entering office, President Donald Trump has taken a hostile stance towards Iran, and now threatens to end the era of rapprochement that prevailed during the Obama Administration. This would be a significant mistake that would bode ill for both the United States and Iran. While detractors of President Obama’s policy towards Iran argue that it strengthens the oppressive regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the opposite is actually true. Friendly relations between the United States and Iran undermine the fear mongering rhetoric of Khamenei and his hardliner allies and strengthen the arguments of the reformist coalition in Iran. The success of this more moderate faction of Iranians serves United States’ interests in that it eliminates an …show more content…

Unlike the harsh rhetoric espoused by his predecessors that were more closely aligned with Khamenei's hardline conservative faction, Khatami offered a much different vision that resonated with the Iranian people. Once in office, Khatami introduced the proposal of a “Dialogue Among Civilizations”, which sought to create a peaceful coexistence between Iran and the West where the two sides could reconcile their differences through constructive dialogue rather than saber rattling. Clinton responded by sending Secretary of State Madeleine Albright over to Iran in 2000, where she apologized for the United States’ meddling in Iranian politics during the shah’s reign and their misguided support of Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War (CNN). For the first time since the Islamic Revolution, the United States was making concrete steps towards rapprochement with Iran. Supreme Leader Khamenei attempted to undercut this effort in his response to Albright’s trip stating that, “The Iranian nation and its authorities consider the United States to be their enemy because America's past behavior is full of acts of hostility and treason” (BBC World News). However, with public support backing him, Khatami persisted, initiating meetings with French and German leaders as well, while he and Clinton continued to signal public statements of support to each