By Theodore Shobat
Tensions are rising in Iran, as anti-government demonstrations take place throughout the country. Just recently nine people were killed, and 100 people were arrested. Among the nine people killed were six people who attempted to steal guns from a police station in Qahdarijan.
Another person killed was a member of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the town of Najafabad. In these last six days in which the demonstrations have been occurring, it is said that twenty people have been killed. In the last three days, 450 people have been arrested.
There are many videos online showing how colossal these demonstrations, with tens of thousands amassing together against the regime:
There are also Kurdish demonstrators participating in this nationalist protest, as this video purports:
Knowing the US’ involvement in regime change in Iran, with the CIA’s and MI6’s facilitation of the overthrow of Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, and the overthrow of the Shah in 1979, it is not far fetched to suggest that this demonstrations in Iran are part of a CIA backed conspiracy to bring further instability to the Middle East.
This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that Trump has openly expressed support for the demonstrators:
The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their “pockets.” The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
Before, Mohammad Mosaddegh needed to be taken down in the 1950s, and the Shah Reza Pahlavi needed to be put in power; and then the Shah Reza Pahlavi needed to be taken out, so the US backed the Islamic revolution. Now the United States is supporting another revolt in Iran, and looking at the US’ record of causing instability in the Middle East, this praise for the demonstrators by Trump cannot be for a good reason, but just another action of foreign policy.
It was confirmed by the Wall Street Journal last year that the CIA has been doing covert operations in Iran. As the WSJ stated:
“The Central Intelligence Agency has established an organization focused exclusively on gathering and analyzing intelligence about Iran, reflecting the Trump administration’s decision to make that country a higher priority target for American spies”
CIA Director Mike Pompeo stated:
“We’re actively engaged in a lot of work to assist the president, making sure he has an understanding of where the Iranians are complying and where they might not be”
In fact, I don’t think the president has even much say so in these sorts of conspiracies and policies. As we have said many times on this website: In America, parties change, but foreign policy does not. The policy that was being done in Syria against Assad under Obama, is continuing on under Trump, with the US allowing Turkey to expand its hegemony further into the Middle East.
As we wrote in July of last year, “the Americans simply want the rebels to form a new collective body, and that there is a possibility that the US is merely delegating Turkey to configure and facilitate rebel activities”. The Americans have also been working with pro-Iran militias in Syria, “Allowing pro-Iranian forces an uncontested presence in Syria’s southern desert” as one report states.
So it looks like the US is playing both sides. The US is allowing Turkey to expand its influence and hegemony in the Middle East and Africa, and it is backing pro-Iran militias, and at the same time supporting anti-government demonstrators in Iran. Turkey, America’s NATO ally, is working more closely with Iran, as we wrote in August of last year:
Ibrahim Kalin, senior adviser to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “An agreement was reached to hold further high-level visits from now on” adding that: “a series of activities will also be held to boost military cooperation.”
What could be the purpose of the US’ instigation plans in Iran? Its possible that the United States wants the demonstrations to take place so as to give Iran an incentive to increase its own government power. Where there is disorder, there is always a reaction for reorder. Its also possible that the US wants Iran to do ‘police brutality’ on the demonstrators to make good propaganda on Iran, in order to push Iran to reform itself. Trump’s support for the demonstrators may actually do more harm than good, because it gives ammunition to the pro-government factions to point the finger on the protestors as “American backed” agents. Murat Yetkin, writing for the Hurriyet Daily News, made this observation:
public encouragement of protesters by the U.S. president (and also by the Israeli intelligence minister) only contributes to them ultimately being denounced in Iran as “foreign agents.” It will only damage the demonstrations against price hikes and unemployment at a time when huge budgets are given to the Revolutionary Guards to fight in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. Protesters may also be exhausted by living under the strict rules of a theocratic regime in which women are granted little place.
Responsible Americans like Philip Gordon, who was the Middle East coordinator of former U.S. President Barack Obama, have voiced objections to Trump’s words. “High-profile public support from the U.S. government will do more harm than good,” Gordon wrote for the New York Times on Dec. 30, adding that it would be better for Trump to “keep quiet and do nothing.”
Iran is blaming Saudi Arabia for also causing the demonstrations, and this is only going to further justify Iran’s hatred for the Saudis, a hatred that will culminate in Iran bombing Saudi Arabia.
Regardless of what the US is doing in Iran, its going to bring nothing good given the US record in the Middle East. Looking at how the US and NATO has been behind the chaos in Syria and Iraq, I cannot imagine the US having any serious interest in perpetuating peace and ‘fighting tyranny.’ The decade of the 1990s saw the fragmentation of Yugoslavia into individual countries (Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Albania, Croatia), and this was a result of Germany and the US exploiting ethnic and religious tensions in the Balkans. In the early 2000s, the US continued, and continues, this policy of chaos in the Middle East. Europe is just beginning to fragment, with Brexit and the tensions between Catalonia and Madrid. Nationalism and fanaticism is erupting everywhere. The conditions of another world war are developing.