Trump Takes to Twitter Again in Response to Iran

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of political science in the Maxwell School, was quoted in the Think Progress story “Lion’s tails and ‘demented words’: Sunday night’s intense U.S-Iran exchange

Iranian President Hassan Rouhoni made a speech Sunday night that President Trump was quick to respond to. He took to Twitter to post his threats back to Rouhoni. Professor Boroujerdi, expert in Middle-Eastern politics says that this tactic may have worked for North-Korea, but may not work for Iran. “Frankly, knowing something about the psychology of Iranian leadership, they are going to harden their discourse … because they won’t believe that at this time, they can appear as a set of divided elites,” he says.

In response to Mike Pompeo’s, Secretary of State speech Boroujerdi says,  “It wasn’t the type of speech that will really resonate inside Iran.” Pompeo attempted to call out the corruption taking place in Iranian’s government. “Iranians realize that they have problems and, aren’t about to “embrace their corrupt leaders,” but that does not mean they will throw them under the bus in service of the regime change the U.S. wants,” he continues.