Blinken Admits Past 20 Years Of US Regime Change Efforts Abroad Basically A Failure
"I think if we look at the last 20 years, our experiments in regime change have not exactly been resounding successes," he responded. "So, I think we have to have an appropriate degree of humility in focusing in that way on a problem."
He also said at one point, "There’s no doubt this has not been a good year for Iran, and we’re seeing that play out every single day."
He laid out that Iranian leaders now have to make "fundamental" choices:
"One choice it could make and should make is to focus on itself and focus on trying to build a better, more successful country that delivers for its people … and to stop getting involved in these adventures or misadventures throughout the region."
Foreign media seized on the comments, particularly state media in Russia and China. For example, Russia's RT ran a headline which somewhat stretched Blinken's words to say "US admits attempts at regime-change in Iran."
"US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has publicly admitted that over the past two decades Washington has conducted experiments seeking regime change in Iran," the RT report said. "Efforts to topple the Islamic Republic's leadership, however, have failed, he admitted."
And China's Xinhua had this headline: "Blinken admits failure of decades-long U.S. effort seeking regime change in Iran."
The Chinese state media report also reads a lot into Blinken's words, claiming that he "publicly admitted Wednesday that his country's efforts spanning the last 20 years to seek regime change in Iran did not yield much success."
Blinken also had some interesting words on Iran's nuclear program, saying that it is "not inevitable" that Iran will purse and achieve a bomb. "This is something that may be more a question now because they’ve lost different tools. They’ve lost different lines of defense," he said.
"Sure, you’re going to see more thinking about that, but the costs and consequences for them for pursuing that route, I think, would be severe," he added.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/blinken-admits-past-20-years-us-regime-change-efforts-abroad-basically-failure