US SANCTIONS AIMED AT CHANGING IRAN GOVERNMENT: ANALYST

Washington, 10 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/10 February 2014 (MINA) – A political commentator says the United States has imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program in order to change the government in the Islamic Republic, Press TV reports.

“The idea behind the sanctions – not just the recent sanctions but the older sanctions that were imposed years ago – was in order to bring about poverty in Iran and hardship so that ordinary people would rise up and overthrow the political order,” said Dr. Mohammad Marandi, a Professor at the University of Tehran.

He added that significant amounts of WikiLeaks documents showed that senior American and European officials sought to create change in Iran through pressure, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Tuesday.

The analyst said that documents and speeches by influential figures as well as American and European think tanks revealed that the US and the West have repeatedly urged pressure on Iran in a way that the country changes to a “political state or political order” to their own likes.

    “So, I don’t think there is any doubt that the United States is trying to meddle in Iran’s internal affairs to bring about change that is favorable to the United States,” Marandi pointed out.

He said the US is proceeding with the “policy of empire” as it claims that it likes the Iranian people while imposing sanctions that have killed ordinary people.

The commentator noted that many cancer patients died in Iran last year as a result of a crisis with medicine in the country.

“And at that time [US President] Mr. [Barack] Obama and other senior American officials were professing their love for the Iranian people, while sanctioning the death of innocent children and women and other ill people,” Marandi pointed out. (T/E01/IR)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)