Rick Stengel, a former Obama official and MSNBC political analyst, recently ignited criticism, just three days before US President Donald Trump launched a B-2 bomber strike targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. Stengel, on June 19, praised Iran and questioned America’s alliance with Israel. Speaking on MSNBC, Stengel asked, “Why is it a foundation issue for Trump that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon? Why are we allied with Israel?”
Stengel described Iran as “the most Western nation in the whole Middle East,” claiming, “We have much more in common with them than a lot of countries that we do have alliances with.” He recalled a 2014 rally where Iranians chanted “death to America” and then approached him to say, “We love American culture. We love American movies.”
His remarks ignore Iran’s human rights abuses and anti-American ideology. Iran enforces strict Sharia law, criminalizes homosexuality, forces women to wear head coverings, and backs terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Just days before these comments, Iranian missiles struck an Israeli hospital, injuring civilians.
Stengel has faced backlash before. During his tenure as undersecretary of state, he declined to attribute ISIS’s violence to radical Islam, even following the execution of a Japanese hostage.
Critics slammed Stengel’s recent comments as dangerously naïve. While Iran’s regime chants for America’s destruction, Stengel claims cultural affinity as justification for reconsidering alliances. “Iran is not just misunderstood,” one analyst noted, “it’s a state sponsor of terrorism.”
As Stengel courts controversy, his defense of Iran raises serious concerns about the worldview guiding prominent voices in U.S. media and foreign policy circles.
