Iraq.
Libya.
Egypt.
Syria.
Gaza.
Somalia.
No CIA- and Mossad-constructed regime change operation in the Middle East has ever made life better for the ordinary people of the country, nor even delivered the promised increase in personal and political freedoms.
The only limited improvement that might be gained comes from the lifting of Western sanction regimes. Apparently you can now buy M&Ms much more freely in Damascus. But that in itself is a reminder that the alleged “misgovernance” of non-puppet regimes is often the direct result of sanctions.
That is entirely true of the current situation in Iran, where the current unrest was almost entirely sparked by economic hardship attributable directly to Western sanctions on what should be a very wealthy country.
If anybody really wanted to help actual Iranians, they should be campaigning to lift the sanctions. Making that dependent on the installation of a Zionist Shah shows that this is actually about support for Israel, not about helping ordinary Iranians.
How many of those Western political and media commentators now obsessed with the rights of women not to wear a hijab, with the rights of gays, and with the stopping of executions, are campaigning for the violent overthrow of their Saudi Arabian ally on precisely the same grounds?
How many of them support the installation of the al-Jolani regime in Damascus, which is actively and newly imposing the very things they claim to oppose in Iran?
Did you know that the number of women in the Syrian parliament has just fallen from 28 under Assad to 6 under al-Jolani?
Did you know that over half of university students in Iran are female? That in STEM subjects it is over 60%?
Did you know that approximately 15,000 Jews live in Iran? The community has been there 2,700 years and their rights and synagogues are protected. There is even a dedicated Jewish seat in Parliament.
I do not paint Iran as a paradise. I am not, personally, in favour of theocratic government anywhere. I respect people’s right to live according to religious observance if they so wish, but not the right to compel religious observance on those who do not wish it or to impose law on the grounds of divine ordination.
If you wish to live in a pure religious society, then enter a closed religious order or wait until you reach your Heaven.
I oppose theocracy in Israel, in Saudi Arabia, in Iran; equally. I deplore the Christian Zionist influence bringing effective theocracy to the United States. I deplore bishops in the House of Lords.
I have a great deal of respect for the teachings of Islam. But religious leaders should not have the command of worldly affairs anywhere, on the basis of institutional appointment. Those who wish to live their lives outside of religious guidelines should be free to do so.
In addition to which, Iran is as susceptible as the rest of the world to the misuse of power by individuals, to corruption and to abuse of office, to inequality and the abuse of power. I should like to see reform in Iran, as I should like to see reform everywhere, towards a freer and more equal society.
But that reform will not be obtained by a violent movement of protest that seizes on the economic suffering under sanctions to whip up people to murder and arson.
Israel is boasting that it is arming and organising protestors in Iran.
Again I do not view the Iranian government as blameless. If it had allowed more space for reasonable reformists to operate, for opposition figures to campaign, then you would not have a situation where the crowds are shouting the name of the sickening Zionist Pahlavi stooge, simply because it is the only “opposition” name they have heard.
It does seem the moment of greatest madness has passed. I do hope that the Iranian government reflects on opening more political space in the medium term.
But I have nothing but contempt for those in the West who have jumped on the anti-Iranian bandwagon.
Iran is the only remaining power in the Middle East that stood up against the genocide in Gaza. The Iranian sponsored resistance have been the only military opposition to the expansion of Greater Israel. Houthis aside, those resistance forces have been set back badly in the last two years, though not entirely defeated nor disbanded.
The installation of the Zionist puppet al-Jolani was a great boon for the expansion of Israel. They are now gunning for Iran itself.
Those in the West who pretend this is about human rights, and not about eliminating the last elements of physical resistance to Greater Israel, are sickeningly hypocritical.
Opposition to the government of Iran and support for its violent overthrow has become the new entry ticket to the Overton Window Show of British media and politics. It is the new “Do you condemn Hamas?”
Those who bow the knee before the latest ruse of Western Imperialist conquest, in the interests of maintaining their establishment respectability, should be treated with contempt.
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I am very disappointed by this Craig, because you have no idea what it is like to live in Iran at this present time or for the past 46 years. There is hyperinflation, people can barely afford foodstuffs, but that is OK, because the mullahs and IRGC can fill their bellies. Have you any idea what life is like for women in Iran or gay people? These protests are not a new thing, they also occurred in 2009, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022 and now. I have relatives in Iran and we haven’t spoken to them for ten days. As for seeing reform in Iran, that will not happen until the theocracy is gone, because democracy and freedom are not compatible with the Islamic regime.
Oh FFS – fight the sanctions or fight Saudi. don’t be a hypocrit loyal to Israel.
And cutting the internet has saved a lot of lives. You know why.
It’s almost as if you completely failed to read the article itself and just wanted your voice heard. Nice critical thinking dude.
If the theocracy were the primary concern of western powers, there are ways of changing its behaviour, by leveraging sanctions relief. Carrot and stick worked with the JCPOA; Iran were abiding by its provisions until Trump ripped the hard won agreement up at Netanyahu’s urging. Sanctions could be lifted in stages, in return for democratic and human rights improvements in the country, objectively assessed by the UN – this would help reformist voices in the country too.
But alas, this has nothing to do with concern for those things, like freedom and democracy, this is about removing any obstacle to Israel’s expansionist agenda in the region. That along with making sure Iran becomes, geopolitically speaking, western aligned: sticks to the petrodollar and shuns China on command of Washington.
“Have you any idea what life is like for women in Iran…?”
Of course he does. Have you?
Everybody in Iran has to wear “modest dress” in public, meaning long trousers and long sleeves. Women additionally have to wear a headscarf covering most of their hair. Some women choose to wear a “chador” (a one-piece black coverall that leaves their face fully visible) but they don’t have to. The rules apply to tourists as well as residents. It’s extremely rare to see a woman covering her face in Iran, as they do in Saudi Arabia (actually the only woman I ever saw in Iran wearing the face covering was at Teheran airport, clutching a green passport, which I believe is the colour of Saudi Arabian passports). Women can study at universities etc and many do, as Craig points out.
The headscarf rule is annoying and many younger women push the boundaries – headscarf covering most of their hair, etc.
Yes – though I think you are exaggerating the size of the genuine element of the protests and have failed to notice the enormous pro-Governments demonstrations since.
This is HK or Belarus – never any intention that a small number could bring down a state, just the expectation that firing at Police from roof tops and in crowds would produce a retaliation that western media could exploit. And they did willingly comply with Intelligence expectations.
This was always a Psyop on the West not on Iran (where resistance to the West has hardened considerably in last week).
It was aimed at you and me, to make us complicit in a US lead war (for israel) on Iran.
It was aimed at Trump to convince he’d get popular support for such a war.
It failed for 2 reasons.
1. the violence was controlled just as soon as the internet was taken down.
2. The DoW knows full well that an attack on Iran might see a counterattack straight to the head – on Israel. This would be existential for Israel.
So Trump stood up to the deep state and called it off.
“The DoW knows full well that an attack on Iran might see a counterattack straight to the head – on Israel”. This is so true, in my opinion it might be existential for Israel, and for any of the Gulf Arabs who foolishly help US/Israel, their glittering glass towers and oil infrastructure would be easy pickings for the many, many short range missiles across the narrow Hormuz strait. As for Israel, Iran has said their cry of ‘Uncle’ to the US will not be heard until Iran has delivered existential damage. These blabbering threats from Clownus Maximus were only ‘just threats’ since China imports 85% of its oil from Iran, and Iran could easily close the Strait of Hormuz causing western economies to tank due to no oil. One good aspect for us Europeans reliant on Middle East oil, is we may all become Euro and pound sterling billionaires due to 1920’s German style hyperinflation, we will need Weimar Wheelbarrows for our local shopping.
I have no idea what “DoW” means.
Did you know that over half of university students in Iran are female? That in STEM subjects it is over 60%?
Fine but a misogynistic regime still sees women as primarily homemakers so few find proper employment after they graduate.
http://mei.edu/publication/where-are-irans-working-women/
I agree entirely with every word of this.
I knew about the high percentage of women in Iran who are studying sciences.
Well said Craig.
Well said Craig, yip I’m not a fan of any religion let alone a theocracy – and its the severe sanctions that are hurting the ordinary folk of Iran, Israel wants Iran neutralised, and it wants the US and its West Asian minions to do it, along with CIA sponsored Kurdish fighters infiltrating Iran via Iraq.
Sanction are war by other means – eagerly applied by the US ad the EU, and of course Britain – the people of Iran should decide what type of government they want, to govern them – and not some CIA installed puppet as is happening in Argentina.
Anyone remember when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a Channel 4 “Alternative Christmas message” in 2008, where he basically said “Merry Xmas” to the British, and the howls of anguished, righteous indignation it produced from the morality police in the UK?
Thanks Craig, a most apposite article. I have no experience of conditions in Iran, but I have lived and worked in Libya, which, before its savage and wanton destruction in 2011 by the usual gang of NATO thugs, was a functioning secular state with no poverty, no street crime, free medical services, free education to university level, equal numbers of male and female university students, freedom for women to dress how they wanted, and a committment to help other African countries improve their standards of living. From 2011 it became little more than a springboard for would-be migrants trying to reach Europe and a logistics hub supplying Islamist extremists in West Africa.
Oil producing states such as Iran which tries to have independent local and foreign polices different to US/Israel objectives will not be tolerated. The latest pro Iranian government protests estimated at 3 million were described by the BBC as numbering in their thousands.
This is why Trump back-pedalled to the chagrin of the chosen ones. The danger is not over, the US/Israel want Iran to cease uranium enrichment entirely, Iran refuses saying all states have the right to enrich uranium up to 2.5% for peaceful purposes, just as importantly US/Israel want Iran to stop production of missiles and not use proxies against Israel, they would, wouldn’t they, these are also none starters. Buckle up.
Professor Michael Hudson thinks oil is a major US factor in US aggression he mentions these countries….
“Iran (1953), Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), Russia (2022), Syria (2024), and now Venezuela (2026). The common denominator underlying the U.S. attacks and economic sanctions against all these countries is America’s weaponization of the world’s oil trade. Control over oil is one of its key methods for achieving unipolar control over the world’s broad trade and dollarized financial arrangements.
An overarching feature of U.S. national security policy is its power to block other countries from protecting and acting in their own security and economic interests. This asymmetry has been built into the world economy since the end of World War II, when the United States had enormous economic support to offer Europe’s war-torn economies. But today’s American power to coerce is backed mainly by its threats to cause injury and chaos by creating and exploiting choke points or, as a last resort, bombing weaker countries to force their compliance. This destructive leverage is the only policy tool left to a U.S. economy that has deindustrialized and fallen into foreign debt of a magnitude that now threatens to end the dollar’s dominant and lucrative monetary role”. https://mronline.org/2026/01/15/venezuelas-oil-seizure/
As Jacques Baud points out in his “Governing by Fake News” there have been so many lies told about Iran, which US, Israel. UK and Europe have used and are currently using to revert the country to its pre – 1979 harsh repressive rule, that invalidate any rational case for regime change. Iran’s mortal sin which has incurred the wrath of the great Hegemon and its paladins has been to stand up for the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people and oppose Israeli expansionism and its acts of genocide.
Spare a thought for Craig and Lindsay Foreman. They may have been unwise in entering Iran in the first place, with its paranoia against the UK (for good historical reasons, and similar motives to the US, namely OIL) but I hope they are released soon.
To characterise the opposition in Iran as “a violent movement of protest that seizes on the economic suffering under sanctions to whip up people to murder and arson” is unfair.
The Iranian regime has no claim on the loyalty of Iranians, given that (like the Putin regime) they control the ballot paper, rejecting “Godless” candidates.
Yes, the late unlamented Shah’s son is sniffing around… looking for access to power. And yes, he has the approval of Israel and I think the US.
But none of the above detracts from the right of Iranians to overthrow a theocratic government.
Just as Palestinians have the right to overthrow the racist Israeli rule of Gaza and the West Bank.
I have 2 female friends who have travelled around Iran. One went on a bus tour. The other dressed as a guy and hitch hiked with a female friend. The one who went on the bus tour visited modern cities, and met female scientists, professionals, and free and independent women. They wore make-up and their headscarves were small triangles allowing their hair to show. They were delighted to meet European women, who were for the most part, retired professionals, who were delighted to meet them too.
Okay, so they have pink taxis, driven by women for women, and any blatant or flagrant display of female charms does get the death penalty. But so much better educationally than Saudi, and infinitely better than Afghanistan in which the west abandoned its women to barbaric oppression.
Travelling on a shoestring in rural Iran my other friend met only kindness, and aided escape when the word got to law enforcement that foreigners were about. That is when I heard what the 1979 revolution was really about, and its hopes for western style democracy, liberty, and religious freedoms. The ayatollahs were presented as a power sharing compromise, which led to the arrests and deaths of the nascent parliamentarians who had supported the trades unions led revolution.
Like all regimes targeted for oil, it is socialist policies which are the green light for regime change.
No planes fly over Iran today. All non essential personnel are being urged to leave countries with US bases surrounding Iran. The Israeli airforce is on alert, though it did still find time today to obliterate a few villages in Lebanon.
This bodes ill for the region
I have no idea what “DoW” means.