Khamenei 'foolish' to reject US talks and Trump is no paper tiger, senators say

Iran's Supreme Leader is unwise to dismiss nuclear talks with the United States and President Donald Trump will bring a muscular approach to confronting its Mideast foe, two US senators told Iran International on Tuesday.

Asked about Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's characterization of any negotiations with Washington over Tehran's disputed nuclear program as unwise, Republican Senator Rick Scott said, "I think he's foolish."

"If you look at everything he's been trying to do, it's failed," the Florida Senator said at the sidelines of a bipartisan luncheon, citing setbacks to Iran's network of militant allies in the region at the hands of Israel's US-armed military.

The 15-month campaign has put on the backfoot an array of Islamist armed factions in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have long been funded and armed by Tehran.

Israel decapitated the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon and helped bring about the downfall of the Assad dynasty in Syria, Iran's oldest Arab ally.

The blows and a direct attack on Iran on Oct. 26 have left Iran weakened and brought the issue of Iran's disputed nuclear program and a deal to resolve it in greater focus.

"Clearly everybody would rather them decide not to have a nuclear weapon and stop giving money to their proxies," Scott said. "We feel sorry for the people of Iran, but they're going to have to take matters in their own hand and get a better government."

Trump has said he much prefers a deal over Iran's nuclear program over any military confrontation but reimposed harsh sanctions from his first term.

The renewal of the so-called "maximum pressure" campaign has cheered Iran hawks in Washington, mostly Republicans, who long criticized what they viewed as a permissive attitude by the Joe Biden administration on Iran.

Democrats meanwhile have struggled to mount an effective opposition to Trump's blizzard of executive orders aimed at downsizing government and reining in policy priorities they championed under Biden.

Their qualms with Trump in the foreign policy sphere have mostly focused on the planned gutting of USAID, the world's largest donor of humanitarian aid.

"Quite honestly, Iran has gotten really used to a paper tiger in the White House," Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said. "They no longer have that. And I think we have to flex our muscles and then back up whatever it is we say."

Cramer told Iran International's Arash Aalaei that Khamenei's remarks ought not to shock Washington but rather bring into focus the nature of their adversary, expressing no misgivings about Trump's stated reluctance to punish Iran and preference for an agreement.

"I have no doubt that when (Trump) says he wants to sit down and negotiate, he's going to be negotiating with somebody who he's got a headlock on."