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The U.S. replaced him with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah who amassed one of the worst human rights records in the modern period. (thread) https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1094969564549529606 In 1953, the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh after he sought to nationalize Iranian oil.The U.S. replaced him with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah who amassed one of the worst human rights records in the modern period. (thread)

When the Iranian Revolution erupted in 1979, President Carter referred to it as “terrorism and anarchy.”



In response to the takeover of the U.S. embassy, the U.S. froze $12 billion in Iranian assets, ultimately leading to a full trade embargo.





Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to Baghdad to assure Saddam that the U.S. would support him completely in the war. When the Iran-Iraq war began in September 1980, the U.S., upset with the overthrow of the Shah, shifted its support to Saddam Hussein.Reagan sent Donald Rumsfeld to Baghdad to assure Saddam that the U.S. would support him completely in the war.

The Reagan administration admitted to providing aid—military, economic, and otherwise—to Saddam to ensure his victory in the war.



The Commerce Department approved the sales of chemical & biological agents (including anthrax and the bubonic plague) to Saddam to use against Iran.

One of Saddam’s worst crimes—the gassing of thousands of Kurds in Halabja on 16 March 1988—had no effect on his positive relationship with the U.S. government.



The U.S., responding to international pressure to condemn Saddam, tried to accuse Iran for the attack in Halabja.

The Halabja chemical attack came one year after the U.S. imposed an embargo on Iranian goods and services, “as a result of Iran’s support for international terrorism and its aggressive actions.”

U.S. accusations that Iran supported “international terrorism” came at an interesting time: 18 months prior, Reagan was condemned by the International Court of Justice for the “unlawful use of force” in Nicaragua.

By the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of Iranians were killed.



In 1989, George H.W. Bush invited Iraqi nuclear engineers to come to the U.S. to study advanced weapons production.

The next major step taken against Iran, in concert with the 1987 embargo, was sanctions in 1996, banning “virtually all trade and investment activities with Iran.”



These were put in place right in the middle of the genocidal sanctions in Iraq, which killed over 500,000 children.





In one case, a hemophiliac boy died because of shortages in medicine caused by the sanctions.



theguardian.com/world/2012/nov… Sanctions have escalated since then, hurting the general population through shortages in food and medicine.In one case, a hemophiliac boy died because of shortages in medicine caused by the sanctions.

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