Iran says Biden-Trump debate is too “emotional” to be taken seriously

Islamic Republic officials said Iran would hold its own presidential elections on Friday Newsweek failed to notice the greater significance of remarks made during the first 2024 election debate between President Joe Biden and former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Thursday night’s televised battle proved to be one of the most controversial in U.S. history, with many observers noting the incumbent president’s difficulty speaking coherently and accusing his rival predecessor of essentially misrepresenting the facts. While the candidates clashed on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues, both in particular sought to portray themselves as tougher on Iran at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

In Tehran, however, the spectacle was met with a largely dismissive reaction from official circles.

“We have no intention of interfering in the internal politics of the United States,” the Iranian embassy to the UN said in a statement released Newsweek.

“However, we do not give much credence to the remarks made during these debates and election activities,” the Iran Mission added, “because they are more emotional than logical and lack strategic support.”

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have escalated during both leaders’ terms in office.

After a brief period of de-escalation following the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached under former U.S. President Barack Obama, Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from the multilateral agreement in 2018. The Trump administration has significantly expanded sanctions on Iran, which in 2019 began gradually scaling back its own commitments to the deal.

This year has seen a surge in attacks by pro-Iranian militias on U.S. troops in Iraq, sparking a cycle of violence that culminated in Trump ordering the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander and Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his entourage in Baghdad in January 2020. Iran responded with an unprecedented barrage of missiles at U.S. military facilities in Iraq, wounding more than 100 American troops.

Biden has been critical of both Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA and his decision to eliminate the country’s most famous military leader.

When Biden ultimately won a tumultuous election against Trump later that year, he announced his intention to restore U.S. participation in the JCPOA. At the same time, he maintained Trump-era restrictions on Iran, and talks to revive the nuclear deal ultimately fell apart in late 2022.

The outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last October has, however, become one of the threats to regional stability in recent years. Iran backs Hamas and its allied Palestinian factions, and has also backed an informal coalition of militias known as the “Axis of Resistance” drawn from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which has actively attacked Israel throughout the conflict.

During Thursday’s debate, Trump assured that under his administration, “Hamas would never have invaded Israel in a million years,” even claiming that no terrorist attacks had taken place during his administration.

“You know why? Because Iran was broke with me,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t let anybody do business with them. They ran out of money. They were broke. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for anything. They had no money for terror.”

“That is why you have not felt any terror during my administration,” he added. “This place, the whole world, is exploding under it.”

Biden responded to Trump by pointing out that while he was in office, “Iran attacked American soldiers, killed them, and caused brain damage in many of them, and he did nothing about it,” and as he called the injuries “headaches” a few weeks later.

Biden also later admitted to “organizing the world against Iran when they launched a full-scale ballistic missile attack on Israel in April,” following Israeli airstrikes that killed Iranian military personnel at the Iranian consulate in Syria. Israel later reportedly carried out another attack on a military facility in Iran.

The first-ever direct exchange of attacks between the two main rivals has sparked discussions in Iran about potentially rethinking the country’s official ban on nuclear weapons and put the region on edge over fears of a wider war breaking out. Concern continues to grow over the possibility of wider conflict as clashes between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement intensify.

But as the White House’s push for a cease-fire agreement in Gaza and a return to calm on the Israel-Lebanon border appears to be waning, Biden himself is facing a wave of calls to step down as his debate performance has deepened existing concerns. regarding his age and mental acuity. Many Democrats began openly discussing the possibility of fielding a new candidate just 129 days before the election.

Amid these questions about US leadership, Iran is also preparing for a new president. Just 40 days after the sudden death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan, Iranians went to the polls on Friday to choose from five candidates, three of whom are considered front-runners.

The race is shaping up to be one of the most unpredictable in Iran’s recent history, with a reformist candidate leading in polls and two front-runners vying for support among different conservative camps, while the Biden administration has questioned the legitimacy of the election.

“As the Iranian regime prepares for the presidential election, the United States unfortunately does not expect a free and fair election or a fundamental change in Iran’s direction,” Abram Paley, US special envoy to Iran, said in a statement on Wednesday.

In response to the accusations, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani questioned the results of democracy in the US.

“The nations of the world have seen the results of American democracy in this country and in various parts of the world and have experienced its bitter taste,” Kanaani said. “For example, the result of American democracy and human rights in the occupied territories is criminals with an international reputation for occupation, racism, war, bloodshed and terrorist activities.”