I think he picked Iran because it has problematically more “progressive” policies on trans people.

Right. and this is supposed to surprise us for the reasons I explained. The implication is that even Iran is more progressive than the US. You know what I mean? Can you see the rhetorical implication there? the implication being its supposed to surprise you because there's an established myth of supremacy that is assumed to be the default. In this case that myth being that the US is "progressive" by default and Iran is "backwards" by default. So when Iran is even "ironically" or "problematically" more "progressive" on a particular issue, it's supposed to be surprising to the American, who has internalized their supremacy to such an extent that anything which contradicts it is a statistical anomaly.

Also I doubt anyone here doesn’t know the history of the US involvement in iran.

I don't assume knowledge in others. I just say things, and if they say "I know that already." then I say "cool!"