Iran is located in Western Asia bordered by countries like Afghanistan in the east, which is under US military occupation, Iraq in the west, another country under US influence. In the south it is bounded by the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf, with the American war-ships close by. Plus, the country is constantly under threat from Israel and Saudi Arabia.
For the last 200 years Iran has never attacked any country. And till 1953 Iranians always considered the American government as a friend.
In ‘ 53, the democratically elected Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh, was overthrown by the CIA, and replaced by the Shah, a dictator who ruled Iran for 25 years with an iron fist. Under his rule, freedom of speech was banned, and opponents were imprisoned, tortured and disappeared. The American government, from the time of Eisenhower until the time of the Iranian revolution turned their back on all the human rights abuses, in fact president Carter called the country ‘the land of stability’.
After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, United States again made their best effort to overthrow the revolutionary government of Iran. In fact, they encouraged and provoked the eight year war between Iraq and Iran. They supported Saddam Hossain against the Iranian government. And in this war thousands of civilians lost their lives.
The subject of Nuclear weapons was another opportunity to facilitate the US intervention in the Iranian internal affairs. The Iranian government always claimed the goal for the nuclear program was to produce energy – not weapons.
Under the Obama Administration in 2015, the anti nuclear deal was signed between the US, Western European countries, China, Russia and Iran. According to the deal, the Iranian government was not allowed to produce enriched uranium for up to 15 years.
The Iran deal diminished the threat of war, brought hope for future investment and much needed job-opportunities for the Iranian people, and finally a relief in the suffocating economy of the country. Iran did everything it needed to comply with the accord’s terms. According to International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has fulfilled its commitment, but all the violations came from the US government.
John Bolton, who has never stopped calling for the bombing of Iran, and seeks regime change, became the national security adviser. Mike Pompeo, one of the foremost opponents of the nuclear deal, is now secretary of state. The threat of war has returned, this time more imminent than ever before.
On May 8, in spite of world condemnation, Trump withdrew from the deal. Two weeks after, Mike Pompeo declared an economic war on Iran and promised: “unprecedented financial pressure in the form of the strongest sanctions in history.”
Pompeo’s list of demands were short on details and long on threats, with no plan to achieve them.
This administration has no clear strategy, but a list of wishful thinking that can only be translated as a call for regime change in Iran.
The war with Iran might happen in three months, six months, or nine months from now. Whenever it happens, May 8th, the day that Trump pulled out of the Iran deal, marked the beginning of that war.
Today, the young generation in Iran have been born and lived their entire lives under US led sanctions. And as Donald Trump tears up the agreement, the Iranian people are once again the ones who will suffer most.
