- Amid protests fueled by popular anger over the government’s handling of a downed passenger jet, some argue this is the most vulnerable the Islamic Republic’s regime has been since its founding in 1979.
- Thousands of Iranians are estimated to have protested the regime in recent days and are now being met with live ammunition and tear gas from Iranian security forces.
- Iran’s economy is buckling under increasingly heavy U.S. sanctions imposed after the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.
- But some former security officials worry the pressure will only make the regime double down and that those most in danger are the Iranian people.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Iran has had a turbulent past week, marked by more than a hundred Iranian deaths and dramatically increased tensions with the U.S. As it enters into the third day of protests fueled by popular anger over the government’s handling of a downed passenger jet, some observers argue this is the most vulnerable the Islamic Republic’s regime has been since its founding in 1979.
Asked about the possibility of regime collapse, General James Jones, who was Obama’s national security advisor in 2009 and 2010, said the risk for Tehran cannot be ignored.
“I think the needle is moved more in that direction in the last year towards that possibility than ever before with a combination of the sanctions, relative isolation of the regime, and then some catastrophic decisions have been made — assuming that we weren’t going to respond, which turned out to be a very, very bad decision,” Jones told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
The response Jones referred to was the U.S. drone strike that killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, a move that shocked the region and prompted a response from Iran in the form of missiles strikes on two military bases in Iraq that housed U.S. forces. No one was killed in the strikes. Washington says the strike was in response to the storming by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and purported threats cited by the White House of impending attacks on Americans.
Oil & Gas Publishers Note: Watch the rest of the Interview on CNBC with General James Jones, who was Obama’s national security. He says ” the risk for Tehran cannot be ignored.” This can impact more than just the world oil supply, but the world economy. “This was a powerful step, we’ll see where it goes,” Jones added, referring to the killing of Soleimani. “It’s a complicated region, but I think history will say that this was the right thing to do.” – Read the rest of the article and watch the interview on CNBC
