Mouthing his government’s talking points in a speech at NYU, Javad Zarif openly threatened the U.S.—yet the American press gave him warm reviews, praising, among other things, his “perfect English.” Matthew Continetti writes:
Perfect English? Is that all it takes to have reporters and diplomats praise your suavity and charisma, chuckle at your jokes, cavil to your every demand? Bibi Netanyahu’s English is perfect, too—but hell will freeze before he sees Zarif’s press. . . .
What made Zarif’s appearance . . . nauseating was his pretense of moral standing. He has none. His lecture to the United States took place as his regime held a container ship it had seized in international waters, and as [fresh] evidence emerged of Iranian violations of UN sanctions. It is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies such as Hizballah and the Houthis and other Shiite militias that are fomenting and exploiting sectarian conflict in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. Iran’s human-rights record is abysmal. . . .
Our ability to make moral distinctions, to identify friend and foe, has become so attenuated that not only do liberals fail to recognize Zarif for what he is—a theocratic tool—they laugh at his jokes, identify with him, want to be his friend, [and] applaud him.
Read more on Washington Free Beacon: http://freebeacon.com/columns/the-appalling-mr-zarif/