At $20,000 for speeches, being paid by MEK and NCRI to tell them what they want to hear is a good gig, but it’s more problematic when there’s some overlap with the White House.
Given that the Syrian conflict involves military action between Israel and Iran, the forces interested in Iranian regime change have a few options coming.
Giuliani’s comments were in contrast with the Trump administration’s policy of not seeking a change of government even though it is reimposing sanctions that are crippling Iran’s economy.
Trump ripped up a global deal on Iran’s nuclear program in May and his administration is snapping back sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including measures on its oil exports from Nov. 4.
Dog-wagging could be down the road as #TrumpRussia closes in.
(July 2018)
The guest of honour at last year’s NCRI conference was John Bolton, who has since become Trump’s third national security adviser. Bolton told the 2017 rally US policy should be to make sure the Islamic Republic “will not last until its 40th birthday” – 1 April 2019.
The policy of the Trump administration is not officially to call for regime change, though top officials have often hinted at it. Outlining his approach in May, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said it was up to the Iranian people to relieve the pressure on the country by changing their government.
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Around half of the attendees were Iranian. The other half consisted of an assortment of bored-looking Poles, Czechs, Slovakians, Germans and Syrians who responded to a Facebook campaign promising travel, food and accommodation to Paris for a mere €25. Hundreds of Syrian refugees settled in Germany also attended. Many snoozed under trees during speeches.
www.theguardian.com/...
UNHCR, HRW and the governments of the United States and France have described it as a cult.
Giuliani represents the President in the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and its possible ties to the Trump campaign. The former mayor of New York City does not speak for Trump on foreign policy. But his remarks—especially comparing U.S. policy on Iran to U.S. policy on the Soviet Union thirty years ago—were later echoed by Newt Gingrich, who was also at the event. Gingrich is one of Trump’s closest political allies, and his wife, Callista Gingrich, is the President’s Ambassador to the Vatican. “The Soviet Union looked unbelievably powerful, and then one day it disappeared,” Gingrich said. “The fact is that the Khamenei regime is much weaker than the Soviet Union ever was . . . . Freedom will come.”
www.newyorker.com/...