Iran Claims It Has “Hard Evidence” Of Foreign Meddling In Protests
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sat, 01/06/2018
Friday’s UN Security Council meeting didn’t disappoint in terms of the anticipated level of inflammatory rhetoric and accusations. Also not unexpected is that the US finds itself isolated after a week of the Trump White House going on the offensive: first by essentially calling for regime change in Iran after the onset of mass protests last week (the State Dept.’s first statement a week ago referenced “transition of government”), and then came the bombshell announcement that all foreign aid to Pakistan, which reportedly totals up to $2 billion in promised security aid, has been cut.
And not helpful to any of this was- some of Trump’s lashing out through a series off the cuff tweets aimed at Iran and Pakistan in the past days which may have precipitated Pakistan’s finally pulling the trigger on ditching the dollar in trade with China in retaliation.
These countries and others came out swinging at the UN. First, Iran’s ambassador told the meeting that his government has “hard evidence” that recent protests in Iran were “very clearly directed from abroad.”
According to the Washington Post, Iran’s highest legal authority previously claimed direct CIA involvement in the unrest which has now taken over two dozen lives, including at least one police officer and three Iranian intelligence officers who were reported killed during clashes in the western city of Piranshahr on Wednesday. The Washington Post summarized the allegations as follows:
Iran’s prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, alleged Thursday that an American CIA official was the “main designer” of the demonstrations. And Iranian Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo – whose country isn’t a Security Council member but was invited to participate Friday – said the protests had gotten “direct encouragement by foreign forces including by the president of the United States.”
The Trump administration has denied having any hand in the demonstrations, saying they arose completely spontaneously. The CIA declined to comment.
Ambassador Gholamali Khoshroo also accused the United States of abusing its power as a permanent member of the Security Council by calling for a meeting to discuss the protests. “It is unfortunate that despite the resistance on the part of some of its members, this council has allowed itself to be abused by the current U.S. administration in holding a meeting on an issue that falls outside the scope of its mandate,” he said.
Iran’s accusation was backed by Russia, whose envoy Vasiliy Nebenzia addressed the US head on, asserting “You are dispersing the energy of the Security Council, instead of focusing it on dealing with key crisis situations in Afghanistan, Syria Libya, Iraq, Yemen, DPRK, the African continent. Instead of that, you are proposing that we interfere in the internal affairs of a state.” The Russian representative continued, “We obviously regret the loss of lives as a result of the demonstrations that were not so peaceful. However, let Iran deal with its own problems, especially since this is precisely what’s taking place.”
The Rest…HERE
