Tension in Iran continues to rise as violent protests show no signs of slowing. An unfortunate look into humanity, Iran exemplifies dictatorship. Iran’s people are suffering from high oil prices and decrease in government subsidies, pushing them to revolt against the government. Responding as you would expect from a tyrannical regime, Iran fuels the fire saying the government understands the pain and declares the United States is to blame.
Igniting the unrest, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard spoke to “tens of thousands of people holding signs with anti-U.S. slogans” in Tehran where he threatened to destroy the United States and its allies reported Fox News. General Hossein Salami accused the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel of “fueling the deadly unrest.”
In his hate-filled speech, Salami threatened, “we have shown restraint…We have shown patience toward the hostile moves of America, the Zionist regime (Israel) and Saudi Arabia against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” And finally, he asserted, “If you cross our red line, we will destroy you. We will not leave any move unanswered.”
Unfortunately, the suffering Iranians were not told that it’s their government which forced the United States to remove itself from the 2015 nuclear deal and impose crippling sanctions. It is Iran that can reverse everything brought on by the United States and its allies that it claims ails them. They won’t, however, and we have learned it’s prudent not to take them at their word. A perfect example is noncompliance with the nuclear deal.
Further evidence is that Iran admitted it had considered striking U.S. bases before deciding to attack the Saudi Arabian oil field on September 14. Officials familiar with the discussions leading to the oil field attacks told Reuters that:
The decision to target the facility owned by Saudi Arabia’s Aramco state-run oil company on Sept. 14 came after top Iranian military officials huddled for a series of meetings in Tehran – one of which was attended by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ultimately signed off on the attack.
The Trump administration and Secretary Pompeo deemed the attack on the Saudi oil field was an “Act of War” by Iran. Iran declares war, then tells its people the United States and allies are to blame. Since only November 15th, at least 143 people have been killed, according to Amnesty International. The group “accused Iranian security forces of using firearms against unarmed protestors from rooftops and helicopters” noted the Fox News article. This is in addition to the Iranian government completely cutting off internet access to its people for several days to hide the unrest.
