US Treasury Secretary Admits US Hand in Iran Riots

Iran was in its first major crisis in nearly four and a half decades since the Islamic Revolution. Massive protests that began in late December due to economic hardship eventually turned into riots. According to official figures, more than 3,500 people lost their lives in the unrest. The country has accused the US and Israel of being behind the chaos from the beginning, but they have not been able to provide any irrefutable evidence. However, US Treasury Secretary Scott Kenneth Homer Besant himself has admitted that Washington was actually behind it.

Treasury Secretary Scott Kenneth has admitted that Washington intentionally created a US dollar shortage in Iran. This action caused a massive fall in the Iranian currency, the rial, and created economic pressure that set the stage for the riots last December.

On Friday (February 6), Senator Katie Elizabeth Boyd asked Treasury Secretary Scott Kenneth, who is also a member of the Senate, what steps the Trump administration has taken to strengthen its so-called “maximum pressure” policy on Iran.

“What we did was create a dollar crisis in the country, which came to a rapid and massive climax in December, when one of Iran’s largest banks went bankrupt,” the minister said.

“The Iranian central bank had to print money, the country’s currency plummeted, and inflation became rampant,” he said. In addition to creating a dollar crisis, Washington also reduced Iran’s oil exports to “zero” as part of the same pressure campaign. This tightened economic restrictions on ordinary Iranians and openly attempted to create financial instability in the country.

In an interview on January 20, US Treasury Secretary Scott Kenneth said that US sanctions were designed to weaken Iran’s currency.

When peaceful protests against the devaluation of the currency began on December 28, well-organized groups linked to Israel’s Mossad infiltrated the scene. They attacked protesters, security forces, government buildings and mosques, turning the economic anger of ordinary people into planned violence. Iranian police have arrested the rioters and their planners, including those who received money from abroad and were carrying weapons and explosives.

Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan explained that the rallies were initially “legitimate economic protests by market traders,” but “later they turned into riots.” He noted that several of those detained had admitted to working for dollars, indicating support from foreign NGOs and intelligence agencies.

Israeli media later confirmed the presence of Mossad-linked elements in the riots and anti-government attacks. In addition, extremists affiliated with Kurdish separatist groups based in northern Iraq also crossed into Iran to join the violence. For years, Iran has been the target of cross-border attacks by armed Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, which often operate with foreign support.

Trump and his Israeli allies have repeatedly used the “fabricated story” of Iran’s crackdown on protesters to build momentum for renewed conflict and war against Iran.

Press TV reported.