
The Biden-Harris administration has been so protective of the Iranian regime and generous with enriching it that at least some perceptive people in the region see Washington, not Moscow or Beijing, as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s most formidable ally.
Yet in recent days, as Prime Minister Netanyahu taken the new and unusual step of openly calling for a regime change in Iran, and as the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlevi, has called for a “transition to democracy” to replace the “tyrant in Tehran,” the tone from the U.S. has subtly shifted.
It may be too much to ask or hope that the American government would actively assist the Iranian people if they tried, perhaps with Jordanian, Saudi, or Israeli help, to end Ali Khamenei’s rule and replace it with something less aggressive and more peaceful. But the recent indicators offer at least some possible signs that the U.S. would not stand in the way of such an effort, especially if it were done in a way that didn’t dramatically disrupt oil markets in the weeks before the U.S. election.
In October 2 remarks at the United Nations, the American permanent representative, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said, “in a broad sense, Iran was complicit in the October 7th attacks on Israel –through its funding, training, capabilities, and support for the military wing of Hamas.”
In remarks at a UN Event Commemorating October 7 hosted by the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN, Thomas-Greenfield spoke of “Terrorist groups like the Houthis and Hizballah, whose Iranian-supplied missiles rain down on Israel. And the Iranian regime itself, which has repeatedly sought to take advantage of the current situation to advance its own destructive agenda.” Whenever U.S. diplomats—even in a Biden-Harris administration—start speaking about a “regime” rather than a government, it can be a signal that the regime is on its way to the exit.
And in her CBS “60 Minutes” interview this week, in a segment that didn’t make it to the broadcast but was left for online “overtime,” Vice President Harris was asked, “Which foreign country do you consider to be our greatest adversary?” She replied, “I think there is an obvious one in mind, which is Iran.”
“Iran has American blood on their hands,” Harris said. “And what we saw in terms of just this attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles, what we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power, that is one of my highest priorities.”
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