State Department Backs Iranian Protesters as Biden Admin Emboldens Hardline RegimeThe State Department is offering support to anti-regime protesters who have been storming the streets in Iran, even as the Biden administration negotiates a revamped nuclear deal that would provide Tehran with billions of dollars and help fortify the hardline government's grip on the country.
The latest protests follow the rigged presidential election of Ebrahim Raisi, who is best known for signing off on the murder of thousands of political dissidents in 1988. Scores of Iranian energy sector workers and other regime critics this week began protesting in what observers are calling the most widespread strike in decades.
The protests threaten to undermine the regime as it presses the Biden administration to grant full-scale economic sanctions relief. The Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign crippled Iran's economy and largely created the dire conditions that protesters blame on the government's military campaigns across the Middle East. The State Department, in comments to the Washington Free Beacon, said that the United States is not playing any role in the protests but that it supports those who have taken to the street. The comments reflect the Biden administration's delicate balancing act as it seeks to appease the Iranian government on the one hand while supporting democratic dissidents.
"While the U.S. government is not involved in these protests, the United States believes that the Iranian people should enjoy the universal right to freedom of expression," a State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon. "The Iranian government denies Iranians their human rights, including through severe restrictions on the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of association, and freedom of expression."
The State Department also called Raisi's election a sham: "Iranians were denied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process," the spokesman said........................
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/state-department-backs-iranian-protesters-as-biden-admin-emboldens-hardline-regime/
