@Lash,
Or so Trump claims, anyhow.
In reality, likely unrelated: the millions that were being made again when some sanctions were lifted and assets unfrozen didn't flow down to regular people anyhow (trickle-down economics doesn't work in Iran either); and mass protests have erupted in Iran every decade (1999, 2009, 2018, as well as more localized rebellions in eg 1992, 1994).
There's a tendency among Americans, and Westerners in general -- both those who cheer on the US and those who revile it -- to reduce everything that happens in the world to American influence (which, for sure, wrecks havoc enough); but just as often the main explanations can be found elsewhere.
The Iranian protests hardly emerged in isolation, after all: people have been rising up against authoritarian, corrupt regimes in countries across the region for a good few years. Now here, now there ... that will keep happening as long as authoritarian and corrupt regimes fail to provide either freedom or material well-being to the people. If one contends that Iran's protests can only be explained by US government's efforts to (re)instate sanctions, how do you explain for example the mass protests in Egypt, which was amply supplied with US funds? The real underlying causes are local, and they will keep triggering revolts in countries led by US allies and enemies alike.
