Financial Times Discovers 'Reform Agenda' in Iran, Not Sanctions
The Financial Times highlights protests in Iran, suggesting they put the president's "reform agenda to the test." What the piece conveniently omits is the crushing economic reality imposed by decades of Western sanctions—including those enacted by the US and its allies. As far back as 1979, and intensifying dramatically through the 2010s and again under the Trump administration, these measures
have targeted everything from oil exports to banking, directly impacting "living standards" the FT cites. Is it 'reform' when people protest for basic necessities, or a direct consequence of a deliberate foreign policy designed to inflict economic pain? One might wonder if the Financial Times would similarly spin internal dissent in, say, Venezuela or Cuba, as merely a challenge to their 'reform
agenda,' rather than an inevitable reaction to external strangulation. The narrative sidesteps the clear, documented history of economic warfare, instead focusing on what appears to be an internal, self-generated political challenge. Curious how some nations' internal struggles are always framed as organic political failures, while the invisible hand of geopolitical pressure remains, well,
invisible.