US Push for Regime Change in Iran Futile

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the US policy of regime change against Iran, which was recently reasserted by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, has reached a dead end.

Mattis said on Monday regime change in Iran will be necessary, if there is to be a rapprochement.

Bahram Qasemi also said on Tuesday that the US policy of regime change against the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic, and its ploys to sow division among them adopted by successive US administrations over the past four decades have all proven "futile", IRNA reported.

Mattis alleged that improving US relations with Iran will be particularly difficult because Iran is not really a democracy.

He criticized Tehran's regional role and said it has a "malign influence" on the region.

"Iran is certainly the most destabilizing influence in the Middle East," he said in an interview with a high school newspaper.

The US stance is skewed by the misperception that only countries that toe the American government are democratic and those who don't should be overthrown by sowing discord between the nation and the ruling system.

Mattis' hostile remarks also drew a harsh response from his Iranian counterpart, Lieutenant General Hossein Dehqan.

"US leaders and its secretary of defense had better focus on solving their own domestic issues instead of seeking to dictate their demands to other nations," he said

While campaigning for the White House last year, US President Donald Trump vowed to take a harder line on the Islamic Republic and frequently slammed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, championed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

The policy of regime change was first publically raised by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a hearing before the House Foreign Relations Committee early last month.

Responding to a lawmaker's question about the US administration's Iran policy, Tillerson said, "The US policy toward Iran is ... to work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government. Those elements are there, certainly as we know."

Tillerson's remarks sparked an angry Twitter retort from Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

He said US officials would do well to "worry more about saving their own regime" than pushing for a change in Iran, where the last presidential election in May saw a 73% turnout.

***No Room for Foreign Meddling

"The 1953 coup debacle [and] the 1979 revolution proved that the Iranian nation is impervious to outside attempts to decide their destiny," Zarif said.

He was referring to a US-led putsch against a democratically-elected government, which restored the Pahlavi king to the throne, but a revolution 26 years later ousted the US-backed monarch.

Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei recently said the US regime change policy regarding Iran is doomed.

"The Islamic establishment has faced various plots since its inception but the ill-wishers of the Iranian nation have not succeeded in doing a damn thing," the Leader said.

"Even when the Islamic establishment was a frail and budding sapling, they were unable to harm it, let alone now that this establishment has turned into a mighty tree."

Iran and the US cut ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which toppled the US-backed monarch.

Their engagement in negotiations leading to the nuclear accord raised the prospects of a détente between the two arch adversaries. But those prospects were blighted by the election of the current hawkish Republican administration.

Ayatollah Khamenei has vehemently ruled out any negotiations with the American side beyond the nuclear issue.