By what warped logic can a viciously anti-communist theocratic dictatorship that crushed left-wing parties, banned trade unions, and brutally murdered and disappeared thousands of Iranian left partisans and activists—the true anti-imperialists of Iran—be possibly considered a bastion of anti-imperialism and resistance?

Changing historical and material conditions can place reactionary states into progressive roles.

See: ww2, the damned British empire and that absolute asshole Winston Churchill.

More than four decades of the dominance of “political Islam” under the absolute rule of the Supreme Leader (the supposed “representative of God on Earth”) along with three decades of neoliberal programs have shaped Iran’s economy in accordance with the Washington Consensus and the interests of Western imperialism.

I guess they asked for the sanctions to shape their economy in accordance to Washington's consensus and the interests of Western imperialism.

This has meant that the balance of political forces in Iran has been tilted in favor of a powerful finance-commercial capitalist class whose interests are tied in with those of global capitalism, and it remains the regime’s crucial center of balance—the two being utterly co-dependent.

It is for these reasons that any ostensibly progressive act or alliance on the part of the Iranian regime—including its recent joining of what was the BRICS group—should be looked at through the prism of realpolitik as opposed to taken as somehow representing genuine anti-imperialist intent on its part.

Changing historical and material conditions is pushing reactionary states into progressive roles, whether they want to or not.

To defend the Iranian state as a force for anti-imperialism is, at best, naive—and, at worst, deliberately relegates the brutal repression, crushing poverty, and socioeconomic misery suffered by the people of Iran as inconsequential or unworthy of consideration.

Please lecture Stalin's grave about how he deliberately relegates the brutal repression, crushing poverty, and socioeconomic misery suffered by the peoples of the western allied states as inconsequential or unworthy of consideration.

It is also an affront to Iran’s left and progressive forces who continue to struggle valiantly to bring about the transition of their country from a situation of dictatorship to one where a national democratic transformation is possible.

The struggles for democracy, human rights, social justice, and against dictatorship go hand in hand with those for peace, sovereignty, and against imperialism. They are interdependent and inseparable.

I really do with them the best of luck with regards to their situation.

That said, material results of crushing America's and Israel's chokehold on the region speak louder than any written word.