Like President Reagan, President
Trump seems to be anti-Iranian. But perhaps this is only in appearance. While
the former drew up a secret alliance with Imam Khomeini, the latter may be
dealing with ex-President Ahmadinejad in the same way. This is Thierry
Meyssan’s heterodox theory.
On 16 August 2018, Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of the « Iran Action Group » tasked
with coordinating US policies after their withdrawal from the 5+1 nuclear
agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) [1].
This
announcement was made as President Trump decided to postpone sine die the
implementation of his plan for the Middle East (The Deal of the Century). But
nothing can change in Palestine without the support of Iran.
Let’s remember, by the way,
that Barack Obama’s JCPoA Treaty was not conceived only to guarantee that Iran
is not making nuclear weapons. This was only the pretext. Its true aim was to
prevent Iran from having access to high-level scientists and developing state
of the art techniques [2]. Incidentally, the agreement forced Iran to
close several faculties.
According
to the US Democratic opposition, the Trump administration is reprising the
neo-conservative policy of régime change, as indicated by the choice of the
date of the announcement – the 65th anniversary of the Anglo-US coup d’etat
against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. However, although «
Operation Ajax » of 1953 did indeed inspire the neo-conservatives, it occurred
years before their movement was born, and has no connection with them. Besides
which, the neo-conservatives served not only the Republican Party, but also the
Democrats.
During
his electoral campaign and for his first few days in the White House, Donald
Trump continually stigmatised the globalist thinking of the neo-conservatives,
and swore that the United States would no longer seek to change the régimes of
foreign countries by force. As for the Secretary of State, he claimed that the
coincidence of dates was simply fortuitous.
The people known as «
neo-conservatives » form a group of Trotskyist intellectuals (thus opposed to
the concept of nation-states), militants of Social Democrats
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USA, which worked with
the CIA and MI6 to fight the Soviet
USA, which worked with
the CIA and MI6 to fight the Soviet
Union. They were associated
with Ronald Reagan’s power structure, then followed through all the US
political mutations, remaining in power under Bush Senior, Clinton, Bush Junior
and Obama. Today they conserve the control of a common Intelligence agency
connected with the « Five Eyes » (Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, UK, USA) –
the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) [3]. Partisans of the « World Revolution »,
they have popularised the idea of « democratising » régimes by way of « Colour
Revolutions », or directly by means of war.
In
2006, they created the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group within the Bush
Junior administration. It was directed by Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of
Vice-President Dick Cheney. At first, they were housed with the Secretariat of
Defense, then transferred to the Vice-President’s offices. The group had five
sections.
The transfer of weapons to
Iran and Syria from Bahreïn, the United Arab Emirates and Oman ;
The support for the
Trotskyists and their allies, in Iran (the Peoples’ Mujaheddin) and Syria (Riad
al-Türk, Georges Sabra and Michel Kilo) ;
The surveillance of Iranian
and Syrian bank networks ;
The infiltration of
pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian groups in the « Greater Middle East » ;
The penetration of the medias
in the region in order to broadcast US propaganda.
The transfer of weapons to
Iran and Syria from Bahreïn, the United Arab Emirates and Oman ; The support for the
Trotskyists and their allies, in Iran (the Peoples’ Mujaheddin) and Syria (Riad
al-Türk, Georges Sabra and Michel Kilo) ; The surveillance of Iranian
and Syrian bank networks ; The infiltration of
pro-Iranian and pro-Syrian groups in the « Greater Middle East » ; The penetration of the medias
in the region in order to broadcast US propaganda.
In
2007, this group was officially disbanded. In reality, it was absorbed by an
even more secret structure tasked with the strategy for global democracy
(Global Democracy Strategy). This unit, under the command of neo-conservative
Elliott Abrams (who was involved in the « Iran-Contras affair »), and James
Jeffrey, spread this sort of work to other regions of the world.
It is
this Group which supervised the planning for the war against Syria.
When
the new President had a long meeting with Abrams at the White House, the US
Press, which is violently anti-Trump, presented him as the first possible
Secretary of State for the Trump administration. It obviously came to nothing.
However,
the fact that ambassador James Jeffrey has just been nominated as a special representative
for Syria makes the accusation that the Trump administration was attempting to
resuscitate this strategy more credible.
Jeffrey is a career «
diplomat ». He organised the application of the Dayton agreements in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was on post in Kuwaït during the Iraqi invasion. In
2004, under the orders of John Negroponte, he supervised the transition from
the Coalition Provisional Authority (which was a private company [4]) to the post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi
government. Then he joined Condoleezza Rice’s cabinet in Washington, and
participated in the Coalition Provisional Authority. He was one of the
theorists for US military redeployment in Iraq (the Surge), implemented by
General Petraeus. He was also the assistant of National Security Advisor
Stephen Hadley during the war in Georgia, then Bush Junior’s ambassador in
Turkey and Obama’s ambassador in Iraq.
If we look a little closer,
we may note that his entire career since the collapse of the USSR has been
centred around Iran, but not necessarily in opposition to it. For example,
during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran fought alongside Saudi Arabia under
the orders of the Pentagon. On the other hand, in Iraq, Jeffrey opposed the
influence of Teheran. But when Georgia attacked South Ossetia and Abkhasia, he
did not defend President Saakashvili, since he knew that he had rented two
airports to Israël to facilitate an attack on Iran.
Mike
Pompeo named Brian Hook as the head of the Iran Action Group. He is an
interventionist who was the assistant for Condoleezza Rice, working with
international organisations. Until now, he was tasked with elaborating
strategies for the State Department.
According
to Pompeo, the aim of this new group is not to change the régime, but to force
Iran to change its politics. This strategy appears while the Islamic Republic
is navigating a major economic and political crisis. While the clergy (doubly
represented by the Cheikh President and by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic
Revolution) is clinging to power, there are demonstrations against it all over
the country. Contrary to the image we were presented in the West, Ayatollah
Khomeini’s revolution was not clerical, but anti-imperialist. The protests can
therefore either lead to a change of the régime, or to the continuation of the
Khomeinist Revolution, but without the clergy. It is this second option which
is represented by ex-President Ahmadinejad (today under house arrest) and his
ex-Vice-President Baghaie (imprisoned for 15 years and held incommunicado).
On 21 May last, before the
Heritage Foundation, Mike Pompeo presented his 12 objectives for Iran [5]. At first glance, this seemed to be a long
list of demands which are impossible to satisfy. However, when we look closer,
points 1 to 3 relative to the nuclear question do not go as far as the JCPoA.
Point 4 concerning ballistic missiles is unacceptable. Points 5 to 12 aim to
convince Iran to give up the idea of exporting its revolution by force of arms.
On 15 August, in other words,
on the day before Pompeo’s announcement, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic
Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recognised that he had been in error when
he allowed Cheikh Hassan Rohani’s team to negotiate the JCPoA agreement with
the Obama administration [6]. Note that the Supreme Leader had
authorised these negotiations before Rohani’s election, and that he – and the
eviction of Ahmadinejad’s movement – had been part of the preparatory
discussions.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who
makes a distinction between the policies of Presidents Obama and Trump, wrote
to the new President just after his election [7]. He demonstrated that he shared Donald
Trump’s analysis of the Obama-Clinton global system and its painful
consequences for the rest of the world and also for the citizens of the United
States.
When the demonstrations began
in December 2017, the Rohani government accused Ahmadinejad of being
responsible. In March 2018, the ex-President clinched his break with the
Supreme Leader by revealing that Khamenei’s office had misappropriated 80
billion rials belonging to humanitarian and religious foundations [8]. Two weeks before Pompeo’s announcement,
although he was under house arrest, he called for the resignation of President
Rohani [9].
Everything
therefore points to the idea that although the Obama administration supported
Rohani, Trump’s administration supports Ahmadinejad’s party. Just as when
President Carter and his advisor Brzeziński launched «Operation Eagle Claw »
against the Revolution, while President Reagan supported Imam Khomeini (October
Surprise).
In
other words, the White House could be quite comfortable with a return to power
of Ahmadinejad’s party, on the condition that Iran agrees to export its
Revolution only by the debate of ideas.
—
[1] “Remarks on the Creation of the Iran Action Group”,
by Michael R. Pompeo; “Briefing on the Creation of the Iran Action Group”,
by Brian Hooks, State Department, August 16, 2018.[2] “Who’s
afraid of Iran’s civilian nuclear programme?”, by Thierry
Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 27 July 2010.[3] “The
networks of “democratic” interference”, “NED,
the Legal Window of the CIA”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation
Anoosha Boralessa, Оdnako(Russia)
, Voltaire Network, 22 January 2004 and 16 August 2016.[4] “Who
Rules Iraq?”, by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, 13
May 2004.
[5] “Mike
Pompeo at The Heritage Foundation”, by Mike Pompeo, Voltaire Network, 21 May 2018.
[6] “The
Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution Rectifies his Views”, Voltaire Network, 18 August 2018.
[7] “Letter
by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Donald Trump”, by Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, Voltaire Network, 26 February 2017.
[8] “Ahmadinejad
accuses Ayatollah Khamenei of embezzling funds”, Translation Anoosha
Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 24 March 2018.
[9] “Iran:
Former President Ahmadineyad exhorts President Rohani to resign”,
Translation Anoosha Boralessa, Voltaire Network, 10
August 2018.
French
intellectual, founder and chairman of Voltaire Network and the Axis for Peace
Conference. His columns specializing in international relations feature in
daily newspapers and weekly magazines in Arabic, Spanish and Russian. His last
two books published in English : 9/11 the Big Lie and Pentagate.
The
articles on Voltaire Network may be freely reproduced provided the source is
cited, their integrity is respected and they are not used for commercial
purposes (license CC BY-NC-ND).
