Trump’s State Department spent over $1m in Iran to exploit unrest for ‘regime change’, documents reveal
At
the end of 2017, a dozen cities across Iran, including the capital
Tehran, were rocked by spontaneous protests which continued into the
New Year. What role did the United States play?
Part
8 - Low wages, growing mistrust, collapse of financial institutions
and direct consequences of climate change
The
analysts told Scientific American that while the immediate factors
behind the protests were low wages, growing mistrust of political
leaders, and the collapse of financial institutions (much of which
has been amplified by ongoing US-backed sanctions), underlying
drivers include the impact of climate change.
Iran has
experienced a cycle of intensifying extreme droughts since the 1990s,
driven largely by climate change, but exacerbated by official water
mismanagement. This has impacted crop production, affecting the lives
of rural farmers and worsening already high unemployment rates for
young people, even as the state has responded by slashing subsidies
in response to mounting economic woes.
Drought
conditions are expected to worsen under business-as-usual climate
projections.
Meanwhile,
under Iran’s new budget fuel prices are pitched to rise by 50 per
cent, welfare payments to 30 million Iranians will be cut, while
sponsorship of religious and clerical institutions will increase.
Climate change, in other words, is amplifying an already
unsustainable economic path.
Insight:
The role of State Department funding in successfully exploiting
Iran’s various domestic crises – from environmental and economic
challenges, to systematic human rights abuses – should not be
overplayed. Even according to Iran’s intelligence minister, “It
cannot be said the entire situation was guided by foreigners.”
Having acknowledged that, however, these Congressional and State
Department records do provide clear evidence of ongoing US efforts to
exploit domestic grievances in Iran to undermine the regime from
within.
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