Ever since pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, which was considered to one of the landmarks of Obama administration, President Donald Trump and his government have taken a hard-line approach against Iran, even imposing many sanctions.
In recent times, it seems their strategy has changed. Here’s what Trump tweeted very recently, “To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”
Clearly, in the garb of protecting America’s goodwill, Trump is again at his display of egotistical machismo. He’s of view that just how his bet on North Korea turned out to be somewhat correct, same would be the fate of his dealing with Iran.
Even the leading names in his administration have opined similarly. To put the current Iranian government at backfoot, they are now openly in support of protestors in the country, who have been in significant rising as of late, dissenting against their president, Hassan Rouhani.
Continuing in their strategy, the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said that the US Broadcasting Broad of Governors, BBG, is trying to help Iranians break the internet censorship. They are planning to launch a 24/7 Farsi-language TV that will have a presence on TV, radio, internet and social media.
Indeed, it might look quite appealing that the USA, in its role of a leader, is helping the protestors in Iran to combat the atrocities of their present government. However, if looked closely and when factored the internal dynamics of Iran, the real picture stands in a very different way.
One, the protests in Iran is significantly pushed by a group called the “Mujahideen-e-Khalaq” or MEK or People’s Mujahideen of Iran. While originally the group was supposed to be a political party, it is no longer known just for its politics. Now in exile, the group was on the terrorist lists of USA, UK, Canada, and EU until 2012. It is still considered a terrorist group in Iran and Iraq. Currently, it is designated as a cult by UNHCR, Human Rights Watch, as well as many large media outlets.
Now, if President Donald Trump and his administration are finding ways to support the protestors just for the sake of putting the Iranian President on the backfoot, what they are doing is basically extending their support to a terrorist organization. In case, if the USA does manage to have any impact on the internal functioning of Iran, it will significantly pose a risk at the “pseudo-democracy” of Iran. This will cascade into putting lives of millions under severe threats.
Wikipedia documents, in the violent attacks of MEK since 1979, over 10,000 people have lost their lives.
In short, President Donald Trump’s egoist and thoughtless diplomacy with Iran could turn very fatal. Also, history has it, whenever the USA has tried intervening in the internal framework or functioning of different nations, bad things have happened.