The United States is pursuing a regime-change policy in Iran by exerting military and economic pressure and covert operations, according to American political analyst Keith Preston. RNA - Iran reiterated on Wednesday that chances that American and Iranian forces could engage in clashes in the Persian Gulf, or any other region, were high .
Preston, who had pointed out in an earlier interview that regime change was Washington’s standard "mode of operation" for gaining interests from countries resisting it, told Press TV in a phone interview on Wednesday that the US could intensify its efforts in Iran.
He said the US would pursue regime-change in Iran either via tougher economic sanctions, or by starting an all-out war against the nation.
The American analyst said the main concern was US provocation. Preston said the Americans were trying to surround Iran with naval vessels and military bases. "If you look at a map of where American forces are distributed throughout central Asia you see that there is an effort being made to encircle Iran," he said.
He said Russia and China were also targeted by the US. " If you look at a wider map of Asia, you will see an effort to encircle Russia and China," he added.
Preston reiterated that Washington used two main tactics for its regime-change strategy.
"There are two things you have to worry about: The US may be planning to launch an attack on its own forces,as a pretext to launch an attack on Iran," he said, adding that the second tactic was economic sanctions employed by US officials in the Trump administration, like US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
He said efforts were being made to tighten the sanctions.
"The purpose is to cause regime-change in Iran where the US wants to launch one of these so-called color revolutions," he repeated.
Preston explained that Americans have employed the same tactics in other places and at other times.
In the mid-sixties, the United State entered the war in Vietnam under the pretext of the false flag Gulf of Tonkin incident.
In 1964, then-US President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had twice attacked American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The false flag operation led to clashes between US forces and North Vietnamese troops
In 1953, the US launched operation "Operation Ajax" with the aim of overthrowing the democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
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