Sanctions Against Iran: Same Old Song, New Verse
📰 THE STORY: The AP reports on new US sanctions, imposed by the Trump administration, against Iran’s interior minister Eskandar Momeni, accusing him of repressing protests. The European Union also sanctioned Momeni, with both bodies framing the protests as a challenge to 'theocratic rule' sparked by 'economic woes.' 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: In 1953, the CIA openly
orchestrated a coup to overthrow Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, installing the Shah and creating decades of resentment that fueled the 1979 revolution. This foundational act of Western meddling fundamentally destabilized Iranian politics, a history consistently ignored when discussing current 'protests' or 'crackdowns.' The US has actively imposed crippling
sanctions on Iran for over 40 years, exacerbating the very 'economic woes' the AP vaguely mentions as sparking unrest. Double Standard: The US frames Iran's internal security actions as 'repression' warranting sanctions, yet arms and supports governments (like Saudi Arabia or Egypt) that engage in far greater human rights abuses against their own populations, including the execution of dissenters
and mass imprisonment of critics, without similar punitive measures. The 2019 protests in Chile against neoliberal policies, brutally suppressed by police, received minimal condemnation or sanction threats from the US. Similarly, the US's own history of violent suppression of protests, from Kent State to Occupy Wall Street, rarely warrants international sanctions. Follow the Money: The