US seeks to cast doubt on Iran elections: Pundit

Press TV has interviewed Alexander Azadgan, professor of Strategic Global Management in California, to discuss the remarks made by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, warning against enemy plots to exercise influence in Iran’s upcoming elections.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Give us your thoughts on the recent comments made by Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei.

Azadgan: Well I fully concur with the Leader’s comments. Besides the fact that Washington is trying to block investment to Iran but more importantly they are trying to replay the old scheme from 2009 in an attempt to label the elections and the parliamentary elections as illegal, as a tool to delegitimize the elections and prepare the masses for foreseeable outcome which would be anarchy in the streets of Tehran.

Also another development that we saw with this is a few days ago we had three ultraconservative, very hawkish US members of Congress that literally walked over to the Iranian Interests Section within the Pakistani Embassy to personally hand in their application to visit Iran to “monitor” the elections. These were Republican Mike Pompeo, Republican Lee Zeldin and Frank LoBiondo. So I thought that was also a very interesting little correlation with these stories. These three senators incidentally have called the Iranian regime a fanatical regime, so I do not understand when you are insulting a country why would you want to come and monitor its elections? I think the goal is not to monitor the election. I think the goal is to stir the hornet’s nest as they did back in 2009.

Press TV: There were also the comments that came up in this recent speech of Ayatollah Khamenei, he stated that the US is planning to question the Guardian Council’s decision in a bid to undermine the elections and the parliament as being illegal. He also added that recent remarks made by US officials about blocking foreign investment in Iran show that still Washington cannot be trusted.

Azadgan: Again I fully concur with the Leader’s assertion. Washington cannot be trusted. If today they reach P5+1 JCPOA agreement, they are going to come up with another reason, they are going to, for example, question the Iranian ballistic technology.

I think this is another plot in making. They are trying to cast doubt on the elections in order for them to achieve what they really wanted to achieve which is anarchy, street mayhem in Tehran, in other big cities and yes, let us not forget the blocking of investments. If they do create anarchy and chaos as a result of delegitimizing the elections, certainly that will have an impact on capital entering the country, no country or no corporation would like to invest in a social, political or economic system that is unstable and I believe, many of us believe, that Washington is trying to create that instability in order for capital not to enter Iran.    

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