This statement was republished from the Bronx Anti-War Coalition. Its text content is unedited.
What Is Actually Happening in Iran — and the Only Correct Anti-Imperialist Position
Let’s be clear from the start: this is not complex, this is not nuanced, and this is not a situation where “two truths can exist at the same time.” That framing is pushed by reactionary diaspora figures, liberals, and pro–regime change fake leftists to obscure responsibility and blur political lines.
There are only two sides.
You either stand with Iran as it defends its sovereignty, or you stand with U.S. imperialism and Zionism, which are actively working to destabilize Iran through sanctions, riots, terrorism, and information warfare. There is no middle ground. There are no balanced takes. Neutrality here is collaboration.
What is happening in Iran is not a peaceful uprising. It is U.S.- and Israeli-backed riots and acts of terrorism, directed and encouraged by the United States and Israel, with the explicit goal of regime change and escalation. Any confusion that exists has been deliberately manufactured—by U.S.- and Israeli-aligned propaganda, corporate media, and reactionary diaspora networks—to hide the perpetrators and launder responsibility.
This is U.S.–Israeli hybrid warfare.
For anti-imperialists in the West, the choice is simple: we stand with Iran defending its sovereignty. Period.
Sanctions Are the Foundation of the Crisis
Any honest analysis must begin with U.S. sanctions, imposed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the Iranian people overthrew a U.S.-backed monarch and chose an independent path outside Washington’s control.
Since that moment, Iran has been subjected—decade after decade—to financial isolation, banking blockades, oil and trade restrictions, and collective punishment deliberately targeting civilians. These sanctions are not policy disagreements; they are economic warfare. They are designed to produce currency collapse, inflation, medicine shortages, infrastructure strain, and long-term social instability.
That instability is then weaponized. The U.S. government, which imposes these sanctions, points to the suffering it has caused and claims it proves popular revolt or internal failure. This is not accidental. It is the strategy.
People who genuinely care about Iranians must therefore call for the immediate lifting of cruel Western sanctions designed to punish ordinary people, cause misery, and provoke unrest. No country can “reform” or freely determine its future while it is under sustained attack by external enemies determined to subjugate it.
To discuss unrest in Iran without centering sanctions—and their origins in the punishment of Iran for overthrowing a U.S.-installed dictatorship—is to lie by omission.
These Are Not Protests — These Are Riots and Terrorism
Words matter.
What Western media calls “protests” are, in reality, U.S.- and Israeli-backed armed riots, coordinated arson and sabotage, and acts of terrorism against civilians and public infrastructure.
Reporting from inside Iran documents grocery stores, bazaars, mosques, and shrines burned; hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and firefighters attacked; civilians, including children, killed; police and security personnel targeted; and firearms and Molotov cocktails used to manufacture chaos.
That is not protest. That is terrorism.
Iran is not repressing peaceful demonstrators. Iran is responding to armed groups killing people in the streets, many operating in conditions created by years of economic siege imposed by the United States.
The Real Protests in Iran: Millions Defending Sovereignty
The actual mass protests are the millions of Iranians who have mobilized to condemn terrorism, defend sovereignty, support the Islamic Republic, and reject U.S. and Israeli interference.
The real protests in Iran are the millions of Iranians mobilizing against U.S. imperialism and Zionism, defending their sovereignty, and rejecting foreign domination of their country.
Western media erases this by stripping context and falsely labeling pro-sovereignty rallies as “anti-regime protests.”
The Islamic Republic of Iran flag represents sovereignty and resistance. The Pahlavi monarchy flag represents a foreign-backed dictatorship installed by Western powers. Confusing these symbols is deliberate.
Mossad and CIA Admit Their Role
There is no plausible deniability.
The Mossad issued a rare Persian-language message urging people to riot and declaring it was “with you in the field.”
Former CIA Director and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then confirmed the reality, tweeting: “Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets — also to every Mossad agent walking beside them.”
Former U.S. president Donald J. Trump added: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM… The USA stands ready to help!!!”
This is not solidarity. It is a threat. “Freedom” here means regime change, submission, and client-state status—the same promise made to Iraq, Libya, and Syria.
U.S. Hypocrisy at Home and Abroad
The same U.S. state claiming to defend “Iranian protesters” murders protesters at home, deploys militarized police, and uses lethal force.
In Minneapolis, U.S. police killed a protester, shot in the face, and the state closed ranks to protect the killers. This is not human rights; it is manufactured consent for escalation.
Elon Musk and Starlink: Infrastructure for Destabilization
Elon Musk enabled Starlink as a communications backbone for U.S.- and Israeli-backed riot networks, facilitating coordination with foreign handlers and evasion of security measures. Providing infrastructure to armed, U.S.- and Israeli-backed groups inside a sovereign country is participation in regime change, not “free speech.”
Positionality Matters for Anti-Imperialists in the West
Inside the belly of the beast, our job is sabotage
Anti-imperialists in the West benefit materially from empire and do not live under sanctions, bombardment, covert operations, or the constant threat of war. Because of this, their role is not to sit in judgment of the Iranian government, but to oppose their own state’s aggression first and foremost.
Anti-imperialists in the West exist inside the belly of the beast—at the center of the system that wages sanctions, coups, and wars across the world—and that position carries a specific responsibility. Their task is to attack U.S. imperialism from within, disrupt the machinery of sanctions and regime change, and assist revolutionary and sovereign governments in defending their revolutions, not to echo critiques that advance U.S.–Israeli regime-change narratives or lecture people defending themselves under siege.
Weaponizing Reactionary Diaspora: Iran, Venezuela, Syria — Same Playbook
What is being done with the Iranian diaspora follows a standard U.S.-led, Israel-backed regime-change playbook.
Sanctions create hardship. Reactionary diaspora are elevated and amplified by corporate media as “the people.” The masses inside the country are erased. Consent is manufactured for escalation.
The same model targets Venezuela, where reactionary diaspora are used to demonize Nicolás Maduro, justify sanctions, and normalize coups and even kidnapping—while popular support inside the country is ignored.
The end state is visible in Syria, where diaspora narratives provided cover for NATO and Israeli aggression that shattered the state and displaced millions.
Iran is resisting to avoid this fate.
The Pahlavi Monarchist Project
The monarchist current around Reza Pahlavi functions primarily as a Western-backed elite project with little to no real working-class or grassroots support inside Iran. While Pahlavi is promoted by segments of the diaspora and maintains close ties to U.S. and Israeli political circles, there is no organized monarchist movement with meaningful popular backing inside the country.
His base exists largely in Western capitals and media spaces, not among workers, students, or mass movements in Iran, making monarchist nostalgia a symbolic exile politics rather than a genuine expression of Iranian popular will or a viable domestic political force.
Anti-Imperialism Means Defending Iran’s Sovereignty
If a country is under attack through sanctions, sabotage, riots, and intelligence operations led by the United States and Israel, anti-imperialism means defending that country’s sovereignty.
That also means demanding the lifting of sanctions. No people can chart their own political or economic future while they are being economically strangled by foreign powers determined to break them.
There are no balanced takes here. Neutrality is collaboration.
Bottom Line
Iran is not erupting. Iran is being economically strangled and politically attacked by the United States and Israel.
The violence inside Iran is not protest. It is U.S.- and Israeli-backed terrorism operating on top of sanctions-induced hardship.
The real protests in Iran are against U.S. imperialism and Zionism, carried out by millions of Iranians defending their sovereignty and rejecting foreign domination.
Anyone who claims to care about Iranians must oppose U.S. sanctions, reject U.S.–Israeli regime change, and demand an end to foreign interference.
Stand with Iran.
Oppose sanctions.
Reject regime change.
Expose the lies.
Anything less is siding with empire.
Additional Sources:
@bxantiwar on Telegram or Twitter
From Vox Ummah via This RSS Feed.