US has attempted ‘regime change’ in Iran for 40 years

The strategy of Iran hawks in President Donald Trump’s administration is not military confrontation against Tehran, but to impose “regime change” in Iran,” Stephen Lendman said.

“The plan against Iran for the last 40 years… oing back to the Jimmy Carter administration in 1979 after the revolution, are planning regime change against Iran, wanting to transform the country back into a US client state,” Lendman said.

“Iran can certainly hit back very hard if its attacked...for the US its not like going to war against Afghanistan or Libya, or Syria or Somalia…it’s anentirely different situation attacking Iran,” he added.

The US president has ordered his administration to avoid a military confrontation with Iran, the New York Times and Reuters have reported.

The Times reported Friday that Trump, during a Wednesday morning meeting in the Situation Room, sent a message to his hawkish aides that he does not want the US pressure campaign against Iran to explode into an open conflict.

Tensions mounted between Tehran and Washington last May, when President Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and re-imposed harsh sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticisms.

The tensions saw a sharp rise on the first anniversary of Washington's exit from the deal as the US moved to ratchet up the pressure on Iran by tightening its oil sanctions and sending military reinforcements, including an aircraft carrier strike group, a squadron of B-52 bombers, and a battery of patriot missiles, to the Middle East.

On May 5, US National Security Advisor John Bolton — an ardent Iran hawk — said the deployment was in response to a “troubling and escalatory indications” of Iranian activity in the region, without giving details or evidence to support the claims.