The US dollar has been strong of late. Even the Chinese yuan has been weak, but this is partly intentional to offset the threat of US tariffs on Chinese goods and services.
Most disturbing are reports of alleged chants by protesters in Iran claiming the US government is not Iran’s enemy, but that Iran's government is at fault for the economic distress. This is an absurd thought.
The US has been Iran’s enemy for many decades and not because Iran has done anything wrong per se, except oppose US hostility. Or at least it’s been the enemy of Iran’s people, simply because it has been a big, relatively rich country ripe for exploitation by foreigners. I have no idea about the depth or degree of corruption by Iran’s “elites”. I have no idea how distressed Iranians really are there about Iran’s leadership.
Actually, from a few Iranian friends I am hearing they either want to leave Iran, because being well-educated, they seek greater economic opportunities elsewhere during these difficult times. Or they are feeling proud of Iran, and perhaps having been away on a trip to Europe, they still are pleased to return home even though they are quite fearful about the future and remain dismayed at why Iran is treated as it has been.
You cannot destroy a deal like the JCPOA, considered by all as a keystone, threaten the country, humiliate its government and then call for further negotiations. Deals like the JCPOA are based on goodwill and trust, mutual accommodations and respect. Trump’s declarations that he would meet with President Rouhani without preconditions is simply a lie.
The preconditions, sanctions and the abrogation of the JCPOA, are already hurting Iranians. So Iran is expected to do what the US wants and only then will the sanctions be lifted? I don’t think so. And meanwhile Rouhani has no desire to threaten international waterways in the Persian Gulf, but he insists, and rightly so, that Iran be able to export its resources.
The US under Trump is going mad. Russia, already sanctioned, may be facing further sanctions if the GOP leadership in Congress has its way. Turkey, long a US ally, is facing sanctions, too, because Erdogan wants to deploy the Russian S400 missile defense system and may buy Russian aircraft. And even Europe may be sanctioned because of the Nordstream II gas pipeline into Germany under the Baltic Sea. And this is just the short list of threats to other countries. China appears to be a target, too.
I have no idea where all this madness is leading, but if it leads to greater cooperation among nations that will jointly try to find ways to continue business as usual and avoid the bite of US belligerence, then good. Above all, try to find ways to de-fang the US dollar as a weapon. Move to bilateral trade agreements in national currencies, or other assets like gold, and shun the very concept of the Petrodollar, if possible. Eventually, the US will have no friends except the craven Saudis, the UAE and of course the Zionists, who went too far with its recent “Jewish state” legislation. Even some notable US Jews are turning against Israel.
Iranians who are condemning Iran’s current leaders for the economic problems inside Iran now, in any event, are off-base. They are playing right in to the hands of the US, which seems primarily to want “regime change” and/or chaos. What kind of “regime” would the US support in Iran? One which solely did the bidding of the US, make no mistake about that. A government comprised of MEK members, whom Rudy Giuliani was courting recently in Paris?
A new Iranian government composed of US puppets, as the Shah was, and who was rejected by Iran in 1979? Such acceptance would mark regression for Iran. Yet one has to wonder that a new government that was secular, not Islamic, but still maintained rejection of US imperialism and support for Iran’s allies in the Mideast, and the Palestinian cause, would still not be acceptable to the US Neocons and the Trump Administration. Again, make no mistake. The US government wants nothing so much as subjugation to US diktat by Iranians, and nothing else. I am convinced of this. I watch the moves in Washington closely. I have my ear to the ground.
This is a bad time for Iran during which, for however long it takes, Iranians must hang tough and try to avoid internal discord as much as possible and the leaders there must not crack down so hard as to foment further unrest. They must listen, above all, and empathize and show flexibility and change what needs to be changed for the good of all Iranians. The difficulties will pass. But no one knows when.
MNA/TT
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