Islam Times - US shouldn’t try propaganda to win over Iranians: Bloomberg

Islam Times - The US administration’s propaganda campaign to “persuade Iranians that their problems—economic and political—are the product of misrule in Tehran, rather than the sanctions imposed from Washington,” has failed to win over Iranians, according to a Bloomberg opinion.

“This message is being delivered over social media, and among its most striking components is a video featuring Brian Hook, the special envoy on Iran, in which he claims to shatter some ‘myths’ propagated by the Islamic Republic about the sanctions,” Bloomberg columnist Bobby Ghosh wrote on Wednesday.

“The campaign is flawed as much in conception as in execution. It should not be the goal of the Trump administration to ingratiate itself with Iranians. Governments are, as a rule, very bad at this,” he added.

“Iranians know propaganda when they see it, whether it comes from their own [government] or from the US. If the State Department’s campaign is to have any hope of success, it will need more than tweets, Facebook posts and the worst episode ever of ‘MythBusters,’” he stated.

“A good place to start would be to explain the administration’s Iran policy—this would be useful to Americans, as well as to Iranians. It is not enough for Trump to say/tweet that he does not seek regime change in Tehran. He should explain what he does seek,” he advised.

US President Donald Trump has maintained a hostile policy toward Iran since he took office in January 2017. He unilaterally pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated harsh sanctions on Tehran.

Last month, he announced new sanctions against Iran targeting Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).