Hope for US Policy Shift on Middle East

Top military aide to the Leader of Islamic Revolution Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi expressed hope that US president-elect Donald Trump would change the country’s hostile policies toward Iran and the Middle East. “We hope that the US president-elect will make a tangible turn on Iran and the region to eradicate insecurity in the region,” Safavi told reporters in Tehran on Monday, Fars News Agency reported. Safavi said he is hopeful that Trump will withdraw US forces from Afghanistan and other regional states. The senior general noted that past experience shows that presidential candidates in different countries change their words after victory. “Such a shift by the US president-elect is also possible since the US is administered by a system and the system doesn’t allow the president to do whatever he wants,” he said. In relevant remarks last Wednesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi called on Washington to seriously reconsider its Mideast policy, after Trump won the US presidential race. “There should be a serious review of the US foreign policy with regard to the Middle East where extremism, war and political turmoil have made the region home to evil and terrorism,” he said.