National Security

Mattis’ Call For Regime Change In Iran Infuriates Its Defense Minister

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Russ Read Pentagon/Foreign Policy Reporter
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Secretary of Defense James Mattis seriously angered Iran’s radical regime after he called for a change in government in a recent interview.

Iranian Minister of Defense Gen. Hossein Dehqan responded to Mattis claiming he “talks like a patient who has hallucinations due to high fever.”

“Instead of deciding for other nations, the U.S. defense secretary and the country’s ruling body had better care about the resolution of their own internal problems and examine the underlying causes that, most probably and in the not too distant future, will both wipe out the current U.S. government, and bring more serious challenges for the country’s political system,” said Dehqan on Tuesday, according to Tasnim News, a state-affiliated outlet.

Dehqan’s response comes after Mattis gave a recent rare interview to the Mercer Island High School Islander. When asked about the future of U.S.-Iranian relations, Mattis gave a dim view of the future, noting that better relations would be difficult to achieve under the current regime.

“Until the Iranian people can get rid of this theocracy, these guys who think they can tell the people even which candidates they get a choice of. It’s going to be very, very difficult,” Mattis told The Islander.

The former Marine Corps general added that Iran was his “biggest problem” while serving as commander of U.S. Central Command. Mattis has long seen Iran as a negative actor in the Middle East, having once pursued the possibility of engaging in a retaliatory strike on Iran after they supplied rockets to Iraqi insurgents who killed U.S. forces.

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