Trump: US sent 'a lot' of weapons to Iranian protesters
Donald Trump says the US attempted to arm Iranian protesters before the regime change war, but Kurdish intermediaries withheld the weapons instead.
US President Donald Trump has revealed that his administration sent "a lot" of weapons to Iranian protesters during the January unrest, in a covert effort to facilitate regime change in Tehran. In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump explained that the plan had little effect because Kurdish intermediaries allegedly kept the weapons instead of delivering them to the demonstrators.
The protests in Iran, initially driven by economic grievances and marred by violence, were openly incited by Trump at the time, who threatened retaliation against Iranian authorities for suppressing the unrest. Tehran described the demonstrations as foreign-instigated and accused the US and Israel of fueling the movement, blaming armed provocateurs for deadly clashes.
During the early stages of the protests, former CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who led the 'maximum pressure' campaign against Iran in Trump's first administration, praised the rioting, sending his regards to protesters and "every Mossad agent walking beside them." In mid-March, the New York Times reported that Israel's Mossad intelligence agency sought to "galvanize the Iranian opposition" during the initial phase of the US-Israeli bombing campaign launched on February 28.
Instead of being overthrown by a mass uprising alongside targeted assassination of Iranian leaders, Tehran consolidated its control, and a Kurdish offensive in Iran, which Trump had also encouraged, did not materialize. This reflects the US's long history of supplying arms to groups aligned with its strategic goals, such as in Afghanistan in the 1980s or in Syria with the Timber Sycamore program.
