“No Difference Between John Bolton, Brian Hook Or Elliott Abrams”: Iran FM

“There’s no difference between John Bolton, Brian Hook or Elliott Abrams,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a tweet with the hashtag #BankruptUSPolicy on Friday.

“When U.S. policy concerns Iran, American officials have been biting off more than they can chew. This applies to Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump and their successors,” Mousavi added.

Indeed in perhaps one of the greatest symbols or representations of the contradictions and absurdity inherent in US foreign policy of the past few decades, and a supreme irony that can’t be emphasized enough: the new US envoy to Iran who will oversee Pompeo’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign remains the most publicly visible face of the 1980’s Iran-Contra affair.

Elliott Abrams has been named to the position after Brian Hook stepping down. This means the man who will continue to push for the extension of a UN arms embargo against Iran once himself was deeply involved in illegally selling weapons to Iran and covering it up.

Most famously, or we should say infamously, Abrams pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 1991 following years of the Iran-Contra scandal engulfing the Reagan administration; however, he was also pardoned by outgoing president George H.W. Bush at around the same time.

“Pardoned by George H.W. Bush in 1992, Abrams was a pivotal figure in the foreign-policy scandal that shook the Reagan administration, lying to Congress about his knowledge of the plot to covertly sell weapons to the Khomeini government and use the proceeds to illegally fund the right-wing Contras rebel group in Nicaragua,” NY Mag reviews.

Some are noting this heightens the chances that Washington could get dragged into a war involving Israel and Iran.

New Iran envoy Elliott Abrams raises the risk that Israel will provoke Trump into conflict with Teheran https://t.co/G1zgSJUqVy

— Joe Catron ✊🏽 (@jncatron) August 7, 2020

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Recall too that Abrams has been Trump’s point man for ousting Maduro from Venezuela, and it appears he’ll remain in the post of special envoy for Venezuela as well.

this is how you write a headline pic.twitter.com/Ce6inYdCRS

— John Carl Baker (@johncarlbaker) August 7, 2020

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The Grayzone journalist, Anya Parampil, who has frequently reported from Venezuela, alleged this week that Abrams will “try and destroy Venezuela and Iran at the same time”.