Dust-Up at the United Nations

"It [the current mullah-led administration of the Islamic Republic of Iran] has turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos."
"We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles."
"And we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program."
"I have decided...."
U.S. President Donald Trump

"[Iran] continues to flout the spirit of the Iran deal, destabilizing the region and brazenly threatening the security of sovereign nations."
U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence

"[Iran will not violate the nuclear agreement first], but it will respond decisively to its violation by any party. It will be a great pity of this agreement were to be destroyed by rogue newcomers to the world of politics."
"By violating its international commitments, the new U.S. administration only destroys its own credibility and undermines international confidence in negotiating with it or accepting its word or promise."
"The ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric filled with ridiculously baseless allegations that was uttered before this august body yesterday was not only unfit to be heard at the United Nations, which was established to promote peace and respect."
"This is a building the frame of which, if you take out a single brick, the entire building will collapse. This issue must be understood by the American officials. Either the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] will remain as it is in its entirety or it will cease to exist." 
"If anyone exits the agreement and breaks their commitment, it means our hand is completely open to take any action that we see as beneficial to our country."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Hassan Rouhani said Donald Trump’s speech was beneath the dignity of the UN. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

While the first two statements above are on the record of evidence eminently credible and a fitting response to the arrogance of a regime that continues to develop its long-range ballistic missile technology with the significant assistance of another 'rogue' regime on the world stage with whom the international community barely knows how to proceed, the spiked rejoinder by Iran's 'moderate' president is rife with non-sequitors. Iran complacently violates the peace and respect which the UN is meant to promote by openly stating its intention to destroy a member-state.

For ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric few rate as highly and expertly in that realm of spreading venom as the Islamic Republic. For deft deceit, circumlocution and sly smiles of accommodation while plotting to undermine the peace and security in the broader Middle East, no other country is as complicit as Iran, in its creation of a proxy militia dedicated to destroying Israel, as the avenging "Party of God" whose sacred word has been blasphemed by Israel's rebirth in a geography sanctified by the presence of Islam.

The previous American administration led by President Barack Obama, sensitive to Iranian values, failed to write into the agreement that ongoing development of ICBMs, and continuing plots to undermine stability in the Middle East be linked to the Republic's agreement to set aside for the length of the agreement, its search for the formulae in nuclear research enabling it to develop nuclear warheads to fit on those long-range ballistic missiles. Iran simply assented to wait a little longer for nuclear advancement, while focusing its attention on ICBMs.

And while Iran consistently denied accusations that it had dedicated itself under the controlling aegis of its elite Republican Guard Corps to the goal of accomplishing its search to a conclusion, to enable it to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons as its co-conspirator and great helper North Korea has done, it now threatens, should the United States find Iran to have been remiss in observing all aspects of the agreement, to return to its nuclear program; unambiguously verifying its end-purpose in one fell swoop of a rejoinder.

Iranian compliance with the agreement is certainly questionable given its focus on funding Hezbollah and Hamas for the end purpose of destroying Israel. In its unalloyed support for the slaughter carried out on the Sunni Syrian population of Syria's Alawite-Shia President Bashar al-Assad. In its providing weapons and support to the Shiite Houthis in Yemen in a civil conflict that is beggaring an already-poverty-stricken country. In its ongoing collaboration with the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-un's nuclear and ICBM programs.

The dramas that take place in the United Nations with the confrontations through speeches from various national leaders holding others to account, for their violations of human rights and impacts on the sovereignty rights of leaders who are guilty of persecuting their own populations do little to shame the transgressors for the fact that cliques like the non-aligned nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation remain bastions of human rights violators.

The sinister, creepy boldness with which Rouhani responded to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address stating that despite Iranian threats against the existence of the State of Israel in its determination to destroy the Jewish state, Israel will continue to exist irrespective of the plots Iran and its hegemonic terrorist groups plan for, brought yet another mind-boggling response from this master of intrigue:

"It is reprehensible that the rogue Zionist regime that threatens regional and global security with its nuclear arsenal and is not committed to any international instrument or safeguard has the audacity to preach [to] peaceful nations."

This, of a nation embattled and threatened since its re-establishment in 1948. A nation indeed in possession of a small nuclear arsenal and which has never threatened any other nation with its destructive force, unlike the clear intentions of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Applying the word 'reprehensible' to a nation that has absorbed as citizens with equal rights, Arab Muslims, Druze, Kurds, Christians all hoping to live in peace and security, speaks volumes of a country like Iran whose agenda is regional conquest and Shiite command.