Iran, Another US Foreign Policy Blunder – OpEd
The Trump administration has inflicted yet another wound on US’s foreign policy by prematurely sounding the death knell of the Islamic Republic after the onset of protests in Iran, which have quieted after a week and proved to be barely more than a tempest in a tea cup, instead of a regime change tsunami.
Declaring full support for the “peaceful protesters,” who incidentally turned out to be only partially peaceful, Trump’s bravado as expected won praise from the mainstream US media such as the Wall Street Journal hailing the commander in chief for “standing with the Iranian people.”
This coincided with huge pro-government rallies throughout Iran, which showed the strength of popular support for the government, much to the chagrin of Trump and company, including his bulldog ambassador to UN, NIkki Haley, whose rush to the Security Council to raise the Iran issue fell on deaf ears, i.e., yet another US embarrassment at the UN following the recent backlash at the General Assembly over Trump’s unilateral decision on Jerusalem.
Trump’s amateurish and entirely undiplomatic confrontational approach toward Iran will likely ignite the ire of Iranians for sometime, to the detriment of the moderate president Hassan Rouhani whose non-confrontational style appears out of sync with Iran’s foreign priorities, notwithstanding the White House’s unreconstructed hostility.
Under the guise of sympathy for the Iranian protesters, the Trump administration tried to push its regime change policy, which probably involves serious clandestine efforts by the CIA and other US spy agencies, keen on meddling in Iran and sowing anti-government tensions.
A rude awakening, Trump may soon realize that dislodging the Islamic Republic is beyond the pale of his administration and he will simply join the growing list of US presidents who failed the mission impossible. Arrogant to the core, it may take sometime for Trump to come to this realization, which will likely bruise his ego and thus compel him to engage in further mischief against Iran, such as taking fresh stabs against the Iran nuclear deal. That too would be a foolish mistake since the deal is in US’ own interest and serves definite non-proliferation purposes. Henceforth, this US administration is most likely bound to move from one erroneous Iran policy to another, with little learning in the process.
