Protests against the Iranian regime have dragged on for almost a week now, and have sadly descended into violence in several locations, leading to at least two deaths.
It has prompted President Donald Trump, and other prominent US political figures to tacitly stoke the flames of revolution against the Iranian government that they despise under a thin veil of 'humanitarian concern'.
It is difficult to take this at face value when looking at America's approach to Iran since 1950s which shamelessly put the lives of ordinary Iranians at the bottom of a pile of exercises in extreme RealPolitik designed to grab Iranian resources and stifle any regional influence the country has built. Under Trump, concern for Iranians has plummeted even further as economic sanctions were resumed against the nation when the nuclear deal - which Iran always complied with - was unilaterally reversed by the US.
Trump, perhaps hoping that everyone has forgotten about the executive order made just months ago which caused the economic strife that kick-started this political unrest, still managed put on his best 'sincere concern for human rights' mask and switch his usual Twitter points of interest from Rosie O'Donnell's weight and global warming being a hoax, to foment anger against the Iranian regime on Twitter. John McCain, who famously remixed one of the Beach Boys' most underrated songs to incorporate the lyrics 'bomb, bomb Iran', was also suddenly filled with a profound heartache for the citizenry of Iran which definitely wasn't fuelled by any sort of personal agenda.
The Iranian regime, whilst at least vaguely democratic and far more liberal than every other nation it borders, is certainly authoritarian with a particularly terrible record towards minority rights and freedom of speech. The violence towards protestors coupled with the shutdown of social media avenues used by dissidents should certainly be investigated by the UN Human Rights Council. However, it is a country capable of reform; indeed, over 28% of the popular vote and 8 out of 18 Ministers represent the Reformist party that call for a rerun of the 1979 referendum which established the Islamic Republic, with the view to move toward secularisation.
President Rouhani's assertion that 'foreign agents' are responsible for stoking the flames of revolution can hardly be viewed as paranoid delusions when the whole of Washington, in truly bipartisan fashion, are united in calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government. Clintons, Trumps, McCains etc. all took to Twitter this week to voice their support for a potential uprising. The irony that this all occurs during a Watergate-scale investigation into foreign 'meddling' in US democracy to rob Hillary Clinton of the Presidency is notably lost on Clinton herself, who Tweeted in support of the protestors.
In further evidence of Rouhani's supposed conspiracy theories of foreign involvement in Iranian protests, various Wikileaks cables have documented intense Western efforts to incite dissident movements in Iran. A January 2010 cable from Dubai to Washington claimed that UK and US agents were 'guiding' the 'rioters' (the cable uses quote marks for the word rioters) and colluded with the BBC and Voice of America to spread the contrived call for regime change to the rest of the world.
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10RPODUBAI21_a.html
Considering that Western media outlets, who are thoroughly disinterested in Iran at any other time in the year, have suddenly raised stories about Iran protests to headline spaces, who would bet against similar Western schemes being active behind the scenes?
Iranians are exercising the right to protest their government, and we should all wish them the best of luck in doing so. However, there is clearly a laboured interest by Western (predominantly US) forces to take advantage of political dissidence within the country to achieve their long-held geopolitical aims towards the ‘rogue nation’ of Iran. It does no favours to Iranians to allow McCains, Trump, Clinton et al. to have the final say on the future of the Persian nation.