The impetus behind the protests is said to be economic discontent brought about by years of sanctions, government mismanagement, corruption, and the recently announced rise in the prices of fuel, eggs, and poultry, though, as longtime Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn argues, it could be that clerical hard-liners and conservatives "initiated or tolerated the protests as a way of undermining President Hassan Rouhani, seen as a political moderate, who was re-elected by a landslide last year."
Trump, as is his habit, took to Twitter and issued a characteristically juvenile taunt: "All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their 'pockets.' The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!"
The State Department also issued a statement condemning Iran's leaders for turning the country "into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos."
Comment: See SOTT's discussion of the Iranian protests, and the hilariously out-of-touch Western response, here:
- Behind the Headlines: Trump Wags the Iran Riot Dog, Kim Talks Korean Peace
The neocons (and Trump) don't care about the Iranian people. You can take that to the bank. They'd rather seem them starve and die even if the alternative was a secular but sovereign government. Human rights isn't the issue. Never was, never will be. It's all geopolitics. And Israel and Saudi Arabia are the only countries that have a real stake in keeping Iran down.