US attempts to intimidate independent nations into accepting hegemony: Scholar

The United States by openly broadcasting its plans for regime change in Iran shows it is trying to intimidate the nations of the world into accepting American hegemony without challenge, says Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in which he censured the United States for setting up a team to coordinate its pressure campaign on Iran, saying it is yet another plot to topple the Iranian government.

“65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mosaddegh, restoring the dictatorship & subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years. Now an 'Action Group' dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation & demagoguery. Never again," Zarif tweeted on Sunday.

As Iran marks the anniversary of the notorious US- and UK-engineered coup, observers say Washington is still pursuing the policy of “regime change” against the Islamic Republic.

August 19 marks 65 years since the coup toppled the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The putsch came after Mosaddegh nationalized Iran's oil industry which had become a monopoly of Britain.  

After decades-long denial by Washington, declassified documents released last year revealed the CIA role. Known as Operation Ajax, the US involvement fueled the surge of nationalism in Iran and poisoned US-Iran relations well into the 21st century.

On the eve of the 65th anniversary of the US-led 1953 coup, the US State Department formed an “Iran Action Group” to coordinate and run an aggressive US policy toward the Islamic Republic.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the initiative would be "directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the State Department's Iran-related activity."

US renounces policy of ‘plausible deniability’ on regime change

“While the Soviet Union existed the US felt that it could not freely show its hand and expose its clandestine machinations when promoting and executing regime change against countries that did not do its bidding or which tried to exert any degree of national self-determination.  Any such attempt was decried as due to ‘communist influence’ which was justification enough to support the overthrow of any government the US disapproved of,” Professor Etler told Press TV.

“The fiction was always that it was a popular uprising, when in fact it was stage-managed by the CIA. The US always claimed what it called ‘plausible deniability’ even in the face of undeniable evidence to the contrary,” he stated.

“With the collapse of the USSR the kid gloves came off and the US has brazenly supported regime change throughout the world with little or no attempt to disguise its desire to do so. This has led to direct intervention by military invasion and economic warfare. But until the election of Trump as president the US still tried to maintain the fiction that the so-called ‘color revolutions’ which they supported were popular uprisings against corruption and autocracy, not US inspired coups to install political Quislings in office to do the bidding of US imperialism,” he said.

“Now, unlike 1953, when the US and UK engineered the coup that brought down the democratically elected government of PM Mosaddegh, the US has no qualms in broadcasting its plans for regime change and publicly turning the screws on whatever nation opposes it. The idea is to intimidate the nations of the world into accepting US hegemony without challenge,” the commentator said.

“If the nations of the world acquiesce in the attempt of US imperialism to bring Iran to its knees they will be asking for the same treatment themselves. The nations of the world must stand firm and oppose US economic sanctions against Iran, its attempt to quarantine Russia and Trump’s trade war against China and other nations,” he noted.

“Iran must rally the nations of the world to condemn US bullying and illegal economic sanctions that go against the will of the United Nations. The UN General Assembly must condemn the US actions and the UN Security Council must be petitioned to do so as well. It is the US that is in breach of international law, not Iran,” Etler concluded.

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