Iran’s foreign minister called the U.S. policy of bringing about peaceful change in Iran “delusional” and “defeated”.
Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday tried to react to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s Wednesday statement, by sending tweets, arguing that negotiations are the only solution – just like the nuclear negotiations that led to the signing of a multi-partite agreement of 2015.
A day earlier, Tillerson told Congress that U.S. policy is to help bring about “a peaceful transition” in Iran. This can be seen as a change from the previous U.S. administration, which chose to enter negotiations with Iran on the nuclear issue, rather than work to change the regime.
But Zarif tweeted; “American authorities before returning to the illegal and delusional policy of regime change should study history and learn from it. The fiasco of the 1953 coup d’etat and the experience of the 1979 revolution proved that the Iranian people will foreign efforts to decide their fate.”
The U.S. role in the 1953 overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh and the subsequent full control of power by the Shah is a constant argument used by the Islamic Republic to blame the U.S. of unlawful interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
Zarif also wrote; “After decades of [pursuing] the defeated policies of regime change and sanctions, the U.S. government was forced to apologize and accept negotiation as the only solution.”
In 2000, during the Clinton administration, Madeline Albright indirectly expressed regret for the 1953 events but the U.S. has never officially apologized to Iran.
Zarif also tweeted about the high turnout in the recent election in Iran and jabbed at Washington. “It is better for Americans to think about saving their own regime rather than to try to change Iran’s regime where 75 percent of the people trusted the ballot box”.
In the May elections, the incumbent Hassan Rouhani faced a conservative cleric who was not trusted by the majority and many consider the turnout and Rouhani’s win more as a vote against his opponent. But the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei and his hardline supporters claim the high turnout as a vote of confidence for the regime.
