Explained: US, Israeli Support to Protesters in Iran
We must understand that many of the economic problems due to which the people are protesting have arisen in the first place due to various unjust policies adopted towards Iran by the USA led by President Trump
[Anti-government protesters in Iran who are supported by the U.S. and Israel]
Normally when someone in a high position extends support for protesting people, the tendency is to welcome this. However, it is difficult to extend this welcome to the strong support offered by President Trump to several protests in Iran recently. The reason is that many of the economic problems due to which the people are protesting have arisen in the first place due to various unjust policies adopted towards Iran by the USA led by President Trump.
During the tenure of President Obama, after very detailed negotiations, several countries had reached a combined agreement on Iran’s nuclear program which was meant to ensure that Iran can have its nuclear power program but would not acquire nuclear weapons. This involved close monitoring of the nuclear program of Iran, and the general consensus was that Iran had kept its part of the agreement.
Despite this, President Trump in his first tenure walked out of this agreement. Following this a lot of sanctions and restrictions were imposed on Iran. These have not only continued but increasingly strict even as wider restrictions have also been imposed. This is an important cause of the economic problems being faced by the people of Iran and the decline in the value of the Iranian currency.
This is not to say that Iran’s government has not made any mistake, or that social and economic reforms are not needed here. These are certainly needed, as in fact, is the case in most countries including the USA. However, it can be stated with confidence that such serious economic problems would not have existed if so many sanctions and restrictions had not been imposed on Iran. Secondly, before sanctions were imposed, Iran had been keeping its side of the nuclear program agreement and so the sanctions were not justified.
So if the people of Iran are facing a lot of problems today, the story starts to a significant extent with the unjustified actions against Iran by the USA.
We have to keep this wider reality in mind when we evaluate the strong support being extended to several protests taking place in Iran. On January 2 President Trump stated that we are locked and loaded ready to go to punish Iran’s authorities if they take strong actions against the protesters.
A few days earlier the Israeli spy agency Mossad had written on social media in Farsi (Persian), addressing the protesters in Iran, “Go out together into the streets. The time has come. We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field”. This statement, as reported by The Hindu newspaper on January 3, is more like instigation than mere support.
[Pro-government students protesting against, what they call, US. and Israel backed riots in Iran]
When seen in continuity with various hostile actions of Israel and the USA against Iran, it is clear that the support being expressed by them for the protests is not based on the concerns and the welfare of the people of Iran, instead it is part of wider efforts to weaken and disintegrate Iran, for the ouster of the present government and for its replacement by another government which is accommodative of the policies and interests of the USA and Israel.
The authorities of Iran must therefore act in a very careful way. Within their present day constraints they must seek as far as possible to meet the demands of those protesters who have genuine grievances, while at the same time issuing timely warnings to people not to be misled by those who are trying to create disruptions on the instigation of foreign forces or interests. Several people may say that this can be difficult at the practical level, but let us not forget that most people love and respect, and would never like to harm, their country. Hence the government should obtain the support of this vast majority of people by adopting genuinely pro-people policies, including policies that are more helpful for women and their equality.
In the case of those regions with some separatist tendencies, the government should accept all those genuine demands including decentralization that are truly helpful to them, and on this basis obtain their heartfelt acceptance for respecting the unity and the integrity of the country. In fact the government can even go so far as to apologize to people for any wrong decisions or actions it may have taken in the past, as long as this is helpful for ensuring the integrity and unity of the country, based on ensuring equal rights of all people of Iran, including women and minorities.
Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council wrote on social media, “With the statements by Israeli officials and Donald Trump, what has been going on behind the scene is now clear.” He added, “We distinguish between the stance of the protesting shopkeepers and the actions of disruptive actors…”
There is a wider lesson in all this for other countries, particularly in those phases of their national life when they are being targeted by powerful foreign forces including the most powerful countries. In these times, such as in Congo before the assassination of Prime Minister Lumumba or in Chile before the assassination of President Allende or in the context of the so-called anti-corruption movements which were aimed at removing left-of-center governments in Brazil and elsewhere, it is important to identify and isolate those who are implementing a harmful foreign agenda, with the help of genuinely pro-people and patriotic forces, and this in turn can be accomplished only by those governments which truly respect the equality and dignity of all of their people, avoiding all discrimination, and are led by the objectives of justice and social harmony.
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