Press TV - US Secretary of State Pompeo�s feigned concern for the Iranian people is pure hypocrisy. The wise Iranian people understand the machinations of the US hegemonists, according�to Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has had a decades-long interest in international affairs.

On Saturday, gasoline price hikes and rationing in Iran sparked protests. Peaceful rallies were held in several Iranian cities with people urging the government to reverse its decision. The demonstrations, however, turned violent in some cities, and clashes with security forces were reported.

Pompeo, the former CIA chief, expressed his support for protesters in Iran.

�As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you,� Pompeo said, retweeting a Persian-language tweet he sent out in July 2018 that referenced a speech he made that directly addressed the Iranian people.

Professor Etler (pictured above) said, �Pompeo�s support of protests in Iran over increases in the price of fuel oil is the culmination of the US policy of squeezing the Iranian economy with illegal sanctions after the US withdrew from The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (aka Iranian Nuclear Deal). While the rationale for the sanctions was to pressure the Iranian government to come back to the negotiating table to strike a deal more to President Trump�s liking, the real intent has been to make life miserable for the Iranian people in the hope that by sabotaging the Iranian economy the Iranian people would eventually rise up in a US-sponsored �color revolution� that would result in regime change and the formation of a US-friendly government as existed under the Shah.�

�This is an absurd pipe-dream that will never come to fruition as the Iranian people have demonstrated time and time again that they will not kowtow to foreign interventions in their internal affairs and will resist US imperialism�s efforts to do so to the end,� he told Press TV on Sunday.

�As in any country, Iran has its internal contradictions. On occasion, they will flare up in protests. This is to be expected. The US, however, will opportunistically try to use these protests to push its own agenda. It will lend both verbal and material support in order to convert legitimate grievances into sedition against the state in order to install its own proxy regimes,� he added.

�This is the standard operating procedure of US imperialism and has been employed time and time again. Quite frequently it succeeds because the targeted country has a fifth column embedded within it that will serve the interests of the US with the hope of gaining power for themselves at the expense of national sovereignty and dignity,� he said.

�The Iranian people, however, are wise to these machinations of the US hegemonists and will have nothing to do with such attempts. Pompeo�s feigned concern for the Iranian people, just as the US feigned concern for the people of Venezuela and elsewhere is pure hypocrisy. Over decades of foreign wars of choice, the US has clearly demonstrated that it has no concern for human life or the well-being of any nation�s people. As in Syria, it is only out to enrich itself at the people�s expense,� he noted.

�Pompeo and other US officials saying that they feel the pain of Iranians and empathize with them is a cynical ploy when, to begin with, they have been trying to exploit for their own benefit the situation they created by imposing harsh economic sanctions on Iran,� he concluded.