Iranian unrest : Will US and Europe really back protestors?

Observers say the responses of the United States and European nations reflect the traditional commitment they have had to the cause of freedom and democracy in the contemporary world. They must do whatever they can to guarantee freedom to the Iranians.

Time changes. So does the approach of a nation's diplomacy to serve its foreign policy interests. The working of the United States and other leading Western democracies is no exception. In the wake of the protests and unrest which have plagued Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Iranian morality police last month, the focus of all of them has been on defending and promoting the basic rights of the Iranians.

In a recent statement, US President Joe Biden expressed his grave concern over " the intensifying violent crackdown on peaceful protestors in Iran" and announced that Washington would stand with " Iranian women and all the citizens of Iran" in this critical hour.

Last week, the White House spokesman John Kirby told the media that Washington was focused not on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal but on "holding the (Iran) regime accountable for what they are doing to these innocent political protesters."

The European Union's high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell urged Iran to stop the repression of protesters and to release those who have been detained. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with the Iranian protests. The government of British Prime Minister Liz Truss imposed sanctions on Iran's morality police and other top security officials.

Observers say the responses of the United States and European nations reflect the traditional commitment they have had to the cause of freedom and democracy in the contemporary world. They must do whatever they can to guarantee freedom to the Iranians. The protestors are calling for just and universal principles as enshrined in the UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For decades, Iran's regime has denied them to its people and suppressed their genuine aspirations through intimidation, coercion, and violence.

It would, however, be very difficult to say what the United States and Europe can really do in the present case of Iran. The radical Shiite Islamist regime in Tehran needs to be made to pay for perpetrating violence against its own people. Regrettably, the commitment of the United States and Europe to spreading freedom and democracy in Iran has been more apparent than real.

Way back in 1953, it was Britain's M-16 and the USA's Central Intelligence Agency that had engineered a coup to overthrow Iran's first democratically elected, erudite and charismatic Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The CIA did not do better afterwards. After the fall of the Shah, the United States has had no diplomatic presence in the country. The CIA has lost much of its spy network in Iran.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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