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The Trump Administration has launched an online speech and communication offensive designed to foment the unrest and put pressure on Iran to end its nuclear program and its support militant groups, US officials said.
More than half a dozen current and former officials said the campaign, supported by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, should work in concert with US President Donald Trump. severe penalties. The move has intensified since Trump 's withdrawal on May 8 from a seven – country agreement of 2015 to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Current and former officials have stated that the campaign paints a stern picture of Iranian leaders, sometimes using exaggerated information or contradicting other official statements, including comments from previous administrations.
The White House declined to comment on the campaign. The state department also declined to comment specifically on the campaign, including on the role of Pompeo.
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A senior Iranian official rejected the campaign, saying the US had tried in vain to undermine the government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He spoke on condition of anonymity. "Their efforts will fail again," said the manager.
More critical posts
An badysis of the Farsi Twitter account of the State Department and its ShareAmerica website – which describes itself as a platform to spark debate about democracy and other issues – shows some number of messages critical of Tehran in the last month.
Iran is the subject of four of the first five articles in the Countering Violence Extremism section of the website. They include titles such as "This Iranian airline helps spread violence and terror".
In messages and speeches on social media, Pompeo himself directly challenges Iranians, the Iranian diaspora and a global audience.
On June 21, Pompeo tweeted titled graphics: "Protests in Iran are growing," "the Iranian people deserve respect for their human rights" and "the Iranian Revolutionary Guard becomes rich while Iranian families fight". The tweets have been translated into Farsi and posted on the ShareAmerica website.
On Sunday, Pompeo will deliver a speech titled "Support Iranian Voices" in California and meet Iranian Americans, many of whom fled the Islamic Revolution that toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
"Let's be clear, we are not seeking a regime change, we are seeking to change the behavior of the Iranian government," said a state department official in response to Reuters questions.
"We know that we are pushing Iran to make difficult choices, either that they may change their behavior, or that they have more and more trouble getting involved. in their malicious activities, "said the official under cover of anonymity. "And we believe that we offer a very positive vision of what we could achieve and what the Iranian people could have."
Aggressive Campaign
Some of the information that the administration has disseminated is incomplete or distorted, current and former officials said.
In a May 21 speech in Washington, Pompeo declared that the Iranian leaders refused to spend money on their people freed by the nuclear weapons agreement, instead using it for wars by power of attorney and corruption.
In contrast, in March, before a US Senate committee, Robert Ashley, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, said that social and economic spending remained Tehran's short-term priority despite some spending on military forces. of security.
Pompeo also accused "Iranian-sponsored Shiite militia groups and terrorists" of infiltrating the Iraqi security forces and endangering Iraq's sovereignty during any the duration of the nuclear agreement.
While opponents accuse Iranian-backed Iraqi militias of human rights abuses against civilians, which groups deny, militias have fought the extremists of the Islamic State and have them prevented from flying over Iraq in 2014 after the collapse of the Iraqi army. They then helped the US-backed offensives that liberated the IS-controlled territory and some units were incorporated into the Iraqi security forces.
The head of the State Department acknowledged that the militias, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, are legally part of the Iraqi security forces and have played a role in the fight against the state. Islamic in 2014.
"We understand, however, that some of the unruly PMF are particularly close to Iran, respond to Iran's guidelines and have a history of criminal activity and terrorism," said the official. . "These groups are as problematic for the Iraqi state as for us."
The experts said that the administration also exaggerated the proximity of relations between Iran and Taliban militants of Afghanistan and al-Qaeda by calling them co-conspirators.
The State Department did not respond to requests for comments on the accuracy of the information that it disseminated.
It is too early to determine the impact of the communication campaign of the administration, said US officials.
Two possible outcomes
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian expert from the Carnegie Endowment think tank for International Peace, said the strategy to strangle Iran economically and stir up public discontent towards the leaders was aimed at producing the One of two results.
"The first result is capitulation, forcing Iran to restrict not only its nuclear program but also its regional ambitions," Sadjadpour said. "Result 2 is the implosion of the Islamic Republic."
But some US officials and other experts have warned that by fueling the turmoil in Iran, the US administration could foster greater authoritarian power and a more aggressive foreign policy, increasing the threat of a US-Iranian confrontation.
Washington has long called Iran to the forefront of "sponsoring states of terrorism" because Tehran arms and funds proxy militant groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah. Iranian leaders call for the destruction of the United States and Israel, and Iranian prosecutors have killed hundreds of US soldiers and diplomats since the Islamic revolution.
This file provides the previous administrations with all the material necessary to conduct their own public relations campaigns against Tehran, including trying to communicate directly with the Iranian people.
The administration of President George W. Bush established Radio Farda, a US-funded broadcaster that sends Iran "objective and accurate information and information to counter state censorship and ideological media coverage ". The Obama administration launched a Farsi Twitter account – @USAdarFarsi – in 2011.
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