Source: The Guardian
Translation: Telegrafi.com
What can be done to dispel illusions about Western intervention? This is not a question aimed at avoiding the barbarity being inflicted by Iran's theocratic regime. Because the regime has cut off the country's connection to the internet, the facts are difficult to verify, but the respected organization Human Rights Activists in Iran has confirmed that 544 people have been killed and over 10 have been arrested - figures that are probably significantly underestimated.
This is a regime that consolidated power in the 80s by massacring leftists – with the help, it should be noted, of MI6 and the CIA, which supplied them with lists of alleged Soviet agents. Today, trade union activists are arrested and tortured, while women’s rights activists languish in prison. The economic catastrophe caused by sanctions may have helped fuel the recent protests, but millions of Iranians are tired of life under a fundamentalist regime – as evidenced by polls showing declining religious belief and widespread opposition to the compulsory hijab.
But those who believe that freedom will come on the back of Western bombs seem incapable of learning from the disasters that have marked this century. Donald Trump continues to threaten to bomb Iran, prompted by Reza Pahlavi - the son of the overthrown Shah. The only advantage is that Trump - unlike his predecessors - does not usually try to disguise his interests with grand moral ideas. He incites coups in his own country, and after the recent attack on Venezuela, he made it clear that oil was his main concern. He has formally mentioned the protests in Iran. But as early as 1980, he had publicly declared support for intervention in Iran, saying that "we would be an oil-rich nation now" if the US had done so. Likewise, the assassination of Qassem Suleimani and the attack on the Fordow nuclear facility at a time of extreme regional tension were hardly for the good of ordinary Iranians.
And long before Trump, the US had no problem supporting tyranny in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia - which beheads dissidents and has reportedly committed war crimes in Yemen, such as the bombing of a school bus full of children with US bombs. Trump's new national security strategy, recently released, even abandons the pretense of supporting democracy, vowing to abandon the "misguided experiment" of "rebuking" Gulf autocracies for breaking away from their historical traditions and forms of government. And, moreover, aiding the Israeli genocide should have been more than enough to dispel any remaining illusions about the motivations of American power.
Iran’s nightmare began with Western intervention. It was Britain and the United States that staged a coup against the democratically elected progressive government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953. This act was justified by the then US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, on the grounds that the “free world” would be left “without the great wealth represented by Iran’s oil production and reserves.” The new Shah told a CIA agent: “I owe my throne to God, to my people, to my army, and to you.” The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was born out of the brutality of this dictatorship.
And what happened to Western interventions in the Muslim world? The catastrophe of the Iraq war is well known, but little attention has been paid to the role of the Iraqi exiled politicians who returned to the country. They sought to establish legitimacy through religious sectarianism - which helped spark the devastating massacres between Shiite and Sunni militants that tore Iraq apart.
In Afghanistan, the plight of women under Taliban rule was used as a justification for Western intervention: but, after two decades of bloody occupation and the Taliban’s return to power, women’s plight is worse than ever. In Libya, the pretext was to protect protesters from the regime’s violent repression. A bloody civil war, exploited by jihadists, ensued, and 15 years later the country remains without a central authority, as two rival governments vie for power.
Iran is much larger than all these examples, and much more ethnically and religiously diverse. Its population is three and a half times larger than that of Iraq at the time of the invasion. Its mosaic includes Persians, Azeris, Kurds, Lurs, Arabs, and Turkmen. There is no doubt that the vast majority of the Iranian people have lost patience with the corrupt theocracy that rules them. But this regime has a much larger and more entrenched base of support than in the previous examples. Millions still vote for ultra-conservative candidates.
Unlike previous protests, we have seen attacks on religious holy sites. This clearly stems from the anger that has erupted among some Iranians over living under the pressure of enforced religious dogma. But it also hints at the kind of divisions that could erupt, especially if Pahlavi comes to power, given the chauvinist and ultranationalist positions of many of his key advisors.
And Israel is waiting. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: “Happy New Year to every Iranian on the street. And also to every Mossad agent walking by them.” An Israeli minister boasted that “our people are working there now.” We have seen how Israel has tried to undermine post-Assad Syria, both through sustained attacks and by encouraging the country’s disintegration. It is clear that Israel believes that its relative strength in the Middle East is better ensured through weak and divided neighbors than through a truly free and democratic Iran.
Given such horrific precedents, it would be foolish to believe that, despite all these failed Western interventions, what will finally succeed will be something under the leadership of Donald Trump. The truth must be clear - the US is not guided by the best interests of the Iranians. It would be a tragedy if this lesson - written in the blood of Iraqis, Afghans and Libyans - were to be ignored again. /Telegraph/
