US officials have been denying reports that they are behind the growing protests in Iran, but that hasn’t stopped President Trump from repeatedly openly endorsing the protests, and promising “great support from the United States at the appropriate time.”
Trump’s repeated expression of support for the protesters, and the fact that the US has repeatedly backed such movements in other nations to try to impose regime change, has Iranian officials taking the matter to the UN, accusing the US of “grotesque meddling” against them.
Trump provided no indication of what the US support/intervention would ultimately look like, and US Ambassador Nikki Haley called on the whole international community to stand with the protesters.
Iran has no shortage of historical examples of foreign intervention against them as well, particularly American intervention, so they don’t need much convincing to believe that talk of eventual US involvement signals covert involvement that’s ongoing.
This is potentially trouble for the protesters, as the appearance of the protesters being a US-funded plot both discredits them among some members of the public and gives the government a pretext to crack down on them more.
Sources: www.antiwar.com, www.theantimedia.org
