Yesterday (May 21, 2018) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo presented a wish list of 12 demands as part of the Trump administration new policy against Iran. At the Heritage Foundation, he delivered his remarks and was merciless in criticizing those who made the “failed” nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 from the American John Kerry to the European Allies alike. He declared that the Iran deal “put the world at risk because of its fatal flaws.” Among the many unfounded lies against Iran, Mr. Pompeo insisted that even today, a nuclear “program exist” in Iran and “the Iranians took great care … protect, hide and preserve the work of the gang of nuclear scientists.”
To prove his claim, Mr. Pompeo referred to the recent ridiculous display of Iran’s “stolen nuclear archive” by Mr. Netanyahu and proudly stated: “… as we have seen from Israel’s recent remarkable intelligence operation, Iran has lied for years”! Over all, Mr. Pompeo presentation “After the Deal: A New Iran Strategy” was not coherent enough to excite neither the International Community nor the pundits! Mr. Pompeo rather than naming the supportive counties of this new strategy, instead he literally named a dozen of countries (from Australia to UAE) and asked them “to join in this effort against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”! When Ms. Jones the President of the Heritage Foundation politely asked
“How are you going to bring them [allies] on board?”,
Mr. Pompeo replied:
“My team is going to work diligently to do that”!
Over all, the immediate reactions from the experts on Iran to Mr. Pompeo and his “plan B” strategy were not too optimistic. The Financial Times wrote
“Many analysts described the demands as unachievable. ‘It’s completely unrealistic and a total pipe dream; he’s asking for unilateral surrender by the Islamic Republic of Iran,’ said Barbara Slavin, Iran expert at the Atlantic Council.”
But noticeably, Mr. Pompeo had a different tone toward people of Iran. He directly addressed the “Iranian people” over and over during his speech. Mr. Pompeo spoke of the pompatus of love, but every Iranian -regardless of their political affiliations – in Iran or Diaspora, knew very well that the Secretary of State was talking about “Regime Change”. Although the Iranian people are known to LOVE the American people, there is no doubt that they don’t TRUST the American government. In this regard, they share the same sentiment with their brothers and sisters on the East and West of Iran.
The history of the destructive policies of the U.S. government in Afghanistan and Iraq is still fresh in the collective memory of the Iranian people. In 1957 a few years after US/UK coup in Iran, it was the CIA which created SAVAK the most hated and feared organization in Iran. When Mr. Pompeo team was busy writing the speech for their boss, they underestimated how deep the scare of SAVAK/CIA torture is on the consciousness of Iranian society. Ironically, Mr. Pompeo right after his speech had to be whisked away to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the new CIA Director, Gina Haspel, who is the personification of TORTURE in American history. When Mr. Pompeo warns Iran that “the sting of sanctions will be painful”, the Iranian people and for that matter other nations who have been the victims of the U.S. sanctions know very well that they are the one who would suffer from these “painful” sanctions, not their governments or the wealthy 1% in their countries.
The animosity of the U.S. administrations -since 1979 Iranian revolution- is against the Iranian people who rose up and cut off the second Imperial power foothold and the most important geopolitical country “an island of stability” in the “Middle East” after Israel. The working people in the cities and rural areas in Iran fought for their independence and became an aspiration for freedom in late 70’s. What Mr. Pompeo and Mr. Trump administration, like the administrations before them are afraid of is not the government of Iran, it is the energized people of Iran who will never be subjugated to the pre-revolution Imperial rules again. The 1% in Iran has no future without the Imperial economy, but the 99% in Iran only prospers with an economy that is not tied up with thousands of visible and or invisible connections to the Wall Street in the U.S.
In general, the people of Iran share the same values as the American people. They seek a decent life for their families and a brighter future for their children. They are against spending their tax money in building nuclear bombs in order to wipe out the other nations. As peaceful people, they are not interested in having strong military bases in foreign lands, in Syria or other places. The working people don’t have the WAR gene in their DNA, but they do fight for their freedom and peace. It is time that the Imperial powers realize that the 21 century is the century of Independence and self-determination for all oppressed nations.
True peace activists believe that peace without independent participation of the working people around world is impossible. True peace activists understand that a long-lasting peace manifest itself when those who produce and run the economy will end the system that puts profit over human needs and benefits from the endless wars.
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Massoud Nayeri is a graphic designer and an independent peace activist based in the United States. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from the author.
