FOREIGN POLICY/IRAN/LOBBYING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Trump administration is lobbying countries world-wide to support Iranians’ right to peaceful protest and is prepared to impose fresh sanctions if Iran’s government cracks down forcefully on the demonstrations spreading throughout the country, U.S. officials said.
The new U.S. sanctions would be imposed under existing authority to respond to human-rights violations and could be aimed at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in a bid to minimize doing economic harm to the Iranians carrying out the protests, the officials added.
The developments add a new and unexpected layer to the complex relationship between the U.S. and Iran, which had been radically shifted by President Donald Trump’s complaints about the nuclear accord and Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East as that of Islamic State declines.
President Donald Trump tweeted ‘TIME FOR CHANGE!’ on Monday [1-1-18] in strong support of the Iranian demonstrators. His administration’s outspoken stance has ignited a broad debate over how forcefully the U.S. should respond to the protests inside Iran and whether expressions of American support for the demonstrators would help or hurt their cause…
The protests are the largest in Iran since demonstrations during the country’s Green Revolution in 2009, with much of Iranians’ ire focused on economic concerns. As protests build, the discontent has widened to target Iran’s ruling system.”
-Michael R. Gordon and Felicia Schwartz, “On Iran, Trump Administration Encourages Support for Protesters,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 1, 2018 06:22pm