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Iran Says U.S. 'Action Group' Will Fail To Overthrow Islamic Government


The State Department's director of policy planning and head of the Iran Action Group, Brian Hook, speaks about the "Iran Action Group" during a press briefing at the State department in Washington, August 16, 2018
The State Department's director of policy planning and head of the Iran Action Group, Brian Hook, speaks about the "Iran Action Group" during a press briefing at the State department in Washington, August 16, 2018

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said on Sunday that a new Iran Action Group in the U.S. State Department aimed to overthrow the Islamic Republic, but would fail.

He was speaking on the 65th anniversary of a U.S.-backed coup that overthrew a democratically elected Iranian prime minister, an occasion when the Iranian regime tries to whip up sentiment against the U.S.

Comparing fresh U.S. sanctions on Tehran imposed by President Donald Trump with the 1953 coup that ousted nationalist Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, Zarif said Tehran will not let history repeat itself.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on August 16 named senior policy adviser Brian Hook as special representative for Iran in charge of the Iran Action Group to coordinate Trump's pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic following Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

President Trump argues that the nuclear agreement is weak and cannot prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He also says Iran must stop meddling in the affairs of regional countries, support militant organizations and destabilize the Middle East.

Zarif tweeted: "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."

The United States and Britain played a major role in the removal of Mossadegh after he acted to nationalize Iran's oil industry, restoring to power Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The Western-backed shah was toppled in Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

This was also a time of heightened Communist agitation in Iran that worried the Western powers.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the coup was the best historical lesson that Americans cannot be trusted.

"How dare you talk about the freedom of the Iranian nation with your dark record of the Aug. 19 coup, and the appointment of a puppet totalitarian regime," Larijani was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA, referring to the shah's rule.

"Americans are imposing sanctions but they claim they are supporting freedom, human rights, and global and regional security," Larijani said.

The 1953 Anglo-American coup remains an open wound in Iran’s relations with the West. In March 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright became the first senior American official to acknowledge the American role in the coup, calling it "a setback for Iran's political development".

With reporting by Reuters

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