They are not. It's the eastern imperialists that are causing this. And if it's a choice between eastern imperialists (China and Russia) and western ones, it seems that Iranian people by far prefer the western ones.
For three main reasons.
1. Culturally Iranians are way more aligned with west.
2. Western imperialism results in more democracy. Not 100%, but not this bad.
3. Economically countries under west's influence do much better. Iran is extremely poor right now.
Iran's government is an Islamic fundamentalist dictatorship. It has imprisoned and killed protestors[0], it hung over 700 political dissidents last year[1], it has imprisoned and executed people who have left Islam[2], it has beaten and imprisoned women who refused to wear hijab[3]. As for LGBT rights, Equaldex lists Iran 190th out of 197 nations[4]. Time Magazine reports[5] that some 30,000 people were killed in January for protesting the government.
Even the parent article reports first-hand that the Iranian regime is now labelling protesters as terrorists and calls for their arrests.
This, combined with the drought and economic collapse, has pushed the Iranian people towards revolt.
This is not the fault of Israel, America, Trump, Greenland, white people, or any other boogeyman. It's a feature of Iranian government, and the Iranian people want change.
To dismiss the impact of economic sanctions is at best intellectually dishonest. Economic sanctions aren't a natural disaster. Somebody is imposing them. Who, exactly? And why?
Also, US allies (ie Israel) can kill hundreds of thousands of people without any consequences. In fact, we bankroll the weapons they use to do it to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.
So why are the documented atrocities of one country not an issue at all but the transgressions of another country worthy of starving that country for decades? What's different between these two? And who is making that determination?
Iran has no one to blame for the sanctions but themselves. The conditions to drop them have been clear, they have refused. Fine, but you dont get to then turn around and blame the sanctioning countries for the situation you put yourself in.
US and Britain is largely the reason why they're in power in Iran today thanks to their coup and destabilization of the country. And more recently Israel just killed their diplomatic negotiators. Guess they shouldn't have had all that oil if they didn't want to get raped by American imperialism.
Always with the excuses lmao. Dictatorships exist because the people they rule over allow them to. The iranian revolution is yet another example of the people refusing to live under a government they didnt like. When your government sucks its the peoples fault, especially when the government isnt a foreign occupier but a homegrown political movement. Did the US meddling in iran hurt iranians? Sure, but they made the situation worse for themselves over and over again throughout the past 50 years instead of fixing the problem. Every country has had to deal with foreign meddling, some rise to the challenge and some wallow, only making things worse and worse
"People are responsible for their governments" is what I like to call the "Osama bin Laden defense". Put another way, if people are responsible for their governments, that makes any civilian a valid military target.
Taken further, the US has actively deposed or supported the coups of over 50 governments since WW2 [1]. That includes Iranian Revolution of 1979 (where the US supported Khomenei) and Pinochet in Chile. It also includes puppets like Saddam Hussein who committed all sorts of crimes as a US ally including using nerve gas on the Kurds. US sanctions killed half a million children in Iraq according to a UN report. When confronted with this, then UN Ambassador and later Secretary of State Madeline Albright said "the price is worth it" [2].
Economic sanctions are a sanitized way of saying "starving people" and the track record is bleak. Arguably the only time they've ever worked is apartheid South Africa. What they do instead is entrench the very government we supposedly want to get rid of eg North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Russia [3].
So I would respectfully put this to you: you haven't thought this through.
The only reason Iran is starving is because their corrupt, incompetent government diverted all the water to insider usage and agriculture imploded. A government that was installed by a domestic political movement with minimal foreign influence. As I said there are certainly instances where the people can’t end their government because of foreign influence, Iran is in no way an example of that. Their domestic political movement fucked themselves and they can only blame themselves.
A few years before Khomeini came to power, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi implemented the [White Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Revolution) to modernize Iran (including granting women the vote, land reform, etc.).
Khomeini opposed these reforms and considered them contrary to Islam.
Eventually, with support from some [communist parties](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudeh_Party_of_Iran) and promises of free buses, electricity, and similar benefits to peoples (like what Zohran Mamdani did), the king was overthrown and Khomeini took control.
Interestingly, Khomeini subsequently suppressed and eliminated the communist parties, seized factories and homes of those who opposed the Islamic Republic, and labeled many opponents as terrorists and enemies of Islam.
To understand what Khomeini and the Islamic Republic enacted:
- Chess was banned for a period as being against Islam.
- Sexual relations with children were publicly condoned by Khomeini in his writings.
- ...
The Iranian government is responsible of all sorts of human rights violations, and also for the drought (at least partly), but the economic collapse was triggered by the US.
Bessent said so at Davos:
"President Trump ordered our Treasury and our OFAC division (Office of Foreign Asset Control) to put maximum pressure on Iran. And it's worked, because in December, their economy collapsed. [...] So this is why people took to the street. This is economic statecraft". https://youtu.be/VQQXLnXlWqY?t=1722
Is this how America helps dissidents? Make them so miserable they can't bear it anymore? Anyways, it never works. It just makes civilians more miserable and the government more repressive. Look at Cuba or North Korea.
Yes, I concede the US is partly responsible for Iran's economic collapse. What a wonderful outcome should it result in the Ayatollahs losing their grip on power.
Make no mistake about Venezuela. The Maduro regime has caused untold pain and suffering to the Venezuelan people. Venezuela was no longer sovereign nation, Maduro was staying in power by force against the will of the people.
I get anti-West sentiment. I get anti-US imperialism. I get pointing out the double standard of the West regarding Israel, their atrocities and genocide. I get looking with cynicism at the great powers' manouevers.
I don't get—never have, probably never will—painting the Islamic Republic of Iran as saviours, freedom fighters, or the last bulwark of an axis of resistance.
If the Boston strangler was anti-imperialist, would you claim he was a hero? It feels like you would.
If the mullahs are so bad, why did the UK and US back them against the democracy of Mossadegh in the 1950s? Then Savak with CIA help slaughtered the secular left in Iran into the 1970s.
Westerners work to slaughter the secular left in a country, then use that as their entitlement to take over the country - "there is no secular force to take over".
This just happened in Syria - the West forced out a secular leader to replace him with a now celebrated al-Qaeda leader who the US had a $10 million bounty on fourteen months ago. Who is currently slaughtering every minority ethnicity in the country.
