{"id":18800,"date":"2020-01-23T14:50:55","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T19:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=18800"},"modified":"2020-01-23T14:50:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T19:50:55","slug":"how-protests-in-iran-have-set-tehran-on-a-path-of-foreign-policy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/2020\/01\/23\/how-protests-in-iran-have-set-tehran-on-a-path-of-foreign-policy-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"How protests in Iran have set Tehran on a path of foreign policy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"post single\">\n<div class=\"sentence\"><span class=\"text\">Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"post_content page_margin_top_section clearfix\">\n<div class=\"content_box\">\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\"><i>Analysis by PMOI\/MEK<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\"><b>Iran, January 22, 2020<\/b>\u2014Since the nationwide uprisings that spread across Iran in December 2017, Iran\u2019s socio-political landscape has completely changed. One of these changes is the Iranian regime\u2019s position in the Middle East region and the international front. After the protests, Tehran\u2019s foreign policy has been moving on a downward slope and has been suffering from consecutive blows in different domains. This downward trend reached its peak in the November 2019 uprisings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">\n<h2>Iran\u2019s regional and global crises<\/h2>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">A look at events in the past two months gives a clear picture of the current conditions of the Iranian regime:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The regime\u2019s greatest crisis in the region is the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/i\/iran-plots-against-iraqi-protests-20200121\">ongoing uprising of the Iraqi people<\/a>\u00a0and nationwide protests in Lebanon. These two movements have significantly hampered Tehran\u2019s agendas in two of its strongholds.<\/li>\n<li>Multiple rounds of sanctions by the U.S. and the intensification of the maximum pressure policy are tightening the noose around the regime. The continued tensions between the Iranian regime and the international community has put an end to any thoughts of using European countries as a loophole to escape sanctions.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/i\/qasem-soleimani-irgc-quds-force-commander-killed-20200103\">The death of Qassem Soleimani<\/a>, the second-most powerful person in Iran, dealt an irreparable blow to the regime\u2019s terror and fundamentalism apparatus. Absent their commander, the regime\u2019s proxy forces in the region have become paralyzed and are faced with a crisis of collapse and disintegration. The \u201cstrategic depth,\u201d as the regime calls its meddling in neighboring countries is faced with a serious threat.<\/li>\n<li>Tehran\u2019s European allies have started to distance themselves from the failed appeasement policy. Following the Iranian regime\u2019s declaration of the fifth step in retreating from its commitments to the nuclear deal, the three European signatories of the nuclear deal have triggered the dispute mechanism to hold the regime to account for the continued breach of its commitments.<\/li>\n<li>Honduras, Colombia, and Guatemala designated Hezbollah, Tehran\u2019s Lebanon-based proxy, as a terrorist organization. These are countries where the regime\u2019s been long campaigning to get a foothold through Hezbollah and other terrorist entities. This development further highlights the regime\u2019s growing isolation across the globe.<\/li>\n<li>The regime\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/i\/iran-fatf-rules-20191227\">failure to pass financial bills<\/a>\u00a0to become conformant with the regulations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has brought the regime closer to becoming blacklisted by the international financial watchdog.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/i\/albania-iran-embassy-tirana-diplomats-20200121\">Albania expelled two Iranian diplomats<\/a>\u00a0from its soil because they had violated their diplomatic status. The measure comes little more than a year after Tirana expelled Tehran\u2019s ambassador because of his involvement in terrorist plots against members of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/about-iranian-opposition-pmoi-mek\">MEK<\/a>\u00a0in this country.<\/li>\n<li>The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/i\/iran-ukraine-airplane-crash-maryam-rajavi-20200108\">shot down a civilian airplane on January 8<\/a>, killing all 176 passengers on board. The fiasco triggered a new international crisis for the regime and resulted in a new round of protests in several Iranian cities, in which demonstrators targeted Ali Khamenei, the regime\u2019s highest authority, and called for his resignation.<\/li>\n<li>The regime\u2019s isolation has expanded beyond the political front and moved into other domains. The Asian Football Federation banned Iran from hosting soccer matches because of security concerns and after several governments issued travel warnings to Iran.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">These setbacks show that the Iranian regime is running out of tricks in its foreign policy. Not only the regime is losing its traditional allies in the West, but also, its lobbies and agents are under investigation and the regime\u2019s officials are being criticized for their role in the downing of a passenger airplane.<\/p>\n<p class=\"selectionShareable\">As Hassan Rouhani, the regime\u2019s president has admitted, the December 2017 uprisings pushed the regime on a path of exacerbating foreign policy crises. Likewise, the November 2019 protests further intensified these crises. With\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/english.mojahedin.org\/i\/iran-student-protests-key-takeaways-20200117\">protests becoming more frequent and intense<\/a>, things are only bound to get worse for the regime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani Analysis by PMOI\/MEK Iran, January 22, 2020\u2014Since the nationwide uprisings that spread across Iran in December 2017, Iran\u2019s socio-political landscape <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/2020\/01\/23\/how-protests-in-iran-have-set-tehran-on-a-path-of-foreign-policy-crisis\/\" title=\"How protests in Iran have set Tehran on a path of foreign policy crisis\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[476,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18802,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18800\/revisions\/18802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}