President Trump's new personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told reporters Saturday his client is "committed to regime change" in Iran, which Giuliani cast as a way to make Tehran a U.S. and Israeli ally. Trump suggested as much on Twitter in December, responding to news of anti-government protests in Iran by saying "Iran is failing at every level" and it is "TIME FOR CHANGE!" He did not specify whether he meant forcible, U.S.-led regime change, like that in Iraq and Libya.
The United States' last round of regime change in Iran — the 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup that ousted a democratic government; installed a pro-U.S. monarch; and set in motion the events that created the present Iranian government — is the basis for poor U.S.-Iran relations to this day.
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