Iran is in the crosshairs of both Western corporate media and the U.S. and Israeli governments. What started as a peaceful protest against rising inflation and the cost of living quickly exploded into something much more dangerous: an attempt to topple the government.
Corporate media framed this as a democratic uprising against a viciously repressive regime, who mowed down protestors in their thousands in a desperate attempt to maintain its grip on power. Dozens of outlets, from The Times of London to The New York Post, described it as a "genocide" - a word seldom used to frame Israel's actions in Gaza.
But under the surface, a different explanation was brewing, one of an attempted foreign-orchestrated regime change attempt. Both Israeli media and former CIA director, Mike Pompeo admitted as much, the latter tweeting that Mossad agents were in the crowds in Iran, directing the demonstrations.
Joining the MintCast today from Tehran is returning guest, Seyed Mohammad Marandi. Dr. Marandi is Professor of English Literature and Orientalism, University of Tehran. Born in the United States in 1966, he moved to Iran as a teenager, joining the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and fighting in the Iran-Iraq War. He is a regular feature in media around the world, discussing politics in Iran and West Asia more generally.
Today, Marandi discussed the reality of the situation in Iran, the aftermath of the protests, and the Western sources fueling much of the violence.
One of those sources is Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), an organization that claims the government has massacred 17,000 people in barely two weeks. HRAI is an NGO based in Fairfax, VA - only a stone's throw from CIA headquarters in Langley. Worse still, it is directly funded by the CIA cutout organization, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In 2024 alone, the NED quietly channeled over $900,000 to HRAI.
Regime change in Tehran has been a top priority for Washington ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979 that overthrew U.S.-backed dictator, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Pahlavi himself had been kept in place by the CIA, who engineered a coup against the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh (1952-53). Mossadegh, a secular liberal reformer, had angered Washington by nationalizing the country's oil industry, carrying out land reform, and refusing to crush the communist Tudeh Party.
The CIA (the NED's parent organization), infiltrated Iranian media, paying them to run hysterical anti-Mossadegh content, carried out terror attacks inside Iran, bribed officials to turn against the president, cultivated ties with reactionary elements within the military, and paid protestors to flood the streets at anti-Mossadegh rallies.
The shah reigned for 26 bloody years between 1953 and 1979, until he was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution.
The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein's Iraq, who almost immediately invaded Iran, leading to a bitter, eight-year long conflict that killed at least half a million people. Washington supplied Hussein with a wide range of weapons, including components for chemical weapons used on Iranians, as well as other weapons of mass destruction.
Since 1979, Iran has also been under restrictive American economic sanctions, measures that have severely hindered the country's development. During his first term, Trump withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal and turned up the economic pressure. The result was a collapse in the value of the Iranian rial, mass unemployment, soaring rents and a doubling of the price of food. Ordinary people lost both their savings and their long-term security.
Throughout this, Trump has constantly threatened Iran with attack, finally following through in June, bombing a host of infrastructure projects inside the country.
Protestors today, especially those in the Iranian diaspora in the West, are calling for the restoration of the monarchy under the shah's son, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. Also prominent at these rallies are dozens of Israeli flags. Pahlavi has promised Iran will become an Israeli ally if he is placed on the throne.
Watch this important interview now, and gain a unique viewpoint rarely shared in corporate media.
Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the non-profit media organization Behind the Headlines. Adley also co-hosts the MintCast podcast and is a producer and host of the video series Behind The Headlines. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh.