FM Zarif: US 'dreams of doing the same' on Iran coup anniversary

Rasa - Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has hit out at the US for setting up a team to coordinate its pressure campaign on Iran, saying it is yet another plot to topple the Iranian government.

News ID: 439173

Date: 20 August 2018 - 21:06

RNA - “65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mossadegh, restoring the dictatorship & subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years. Now an 'Action Group' dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation & demagoguery. Never again," Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mossadegh, restoring the dictatorship & subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years. Now an “Action Group” dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation & demagoguery. Never again. pic.twitter.com/ic3o652awn
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 19, 2018

As Iran marks the anniversary of the notorious US- and UK-engineered coup, observers say Washington is still pursuing the policy of “regime change” against the Islamic Republic.

Sunday marks 65 years since the coup toppled the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq. The putsch came after Mosaddeq nationalized Iran's oil industry which had become a monopoly of Britain.

After decades-long denial by Washington, declassified documents released last year revealed the CIA role. Known as Operation Ajax, the US involvement fueled the surge of nationalism in Iran and poisoned US-Iran relations well into the 21st century.

“The US has been trying to bring down the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Revolution. This is to protect American oil and Israel,” said Mohammad Ghaderi, chief editor at Tehran Times.

“The administration of US President Donald Trump has more than doubled its actions, adopting a more hawkish stance towards Iran, and reintroducing punishing sanctions. The White House is now openly using a subtle game of divide-and-conquer to disassemble the unity Iranians currently display,” he noted.

Back in May, Washington withdrew from its multilateral nuclear agreement with Tehran, and said it would reintroduce the sanctions that had been lifted under the accord.

On Thursday, the US State Department formed an Iran Action Group aimed at consolidating and intensifying the country’s efforts targeting the Islamic Republic.

It will be headed by senior policy adviser Brian Hook, who dismissed speculation that the new group’s creation during a week coinciding with the coup anniversary suggested that the US was pursuing regime change in Iran, calling the timing “pure coincidence.”

However, international news editor at Iran's Rasalat newspaper paper Hanif Ghaffari said both the Republican and Democratic parties have been trying to "dismantle the Islamic Republic either through soft power or military force.”

“I see no difference between the current and previous administrations. Their strategy on Iran entails regime change, and that’s been instituted,” he said.

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