Ghaleb ABu Zeinab, Member of Hezbollah Politburo in an interview with Al-Manar (March 13, 2013).
Member of Hezbollah Politburo Ghaleb Abu Zeinab told Al-Manar on Monday that Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah had prior knowledge of the deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which was announced in Beijing last Friday.
In an interview with Al-Manar’s “Maa Al-Hadath”, Abu Zeinab said there have been an anti-Hezbollah propaganda aimed at claiming that the resistance movement had no idea about the rapprochement between the Islamic Republic and the Saudi Kingdom.
“They (Hezbollah rivals) wanted to propagate that just as they did not know about the surprise deal, Hezbollah also had no idea about it,” Abu Zeinab told Al-Manar.
As he dismissed such claims, he stressed that ties between Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran are based on mutual respect and trust.
“His eminence, the secretary general knew about the deal. It’s normal to have prior knowledge of the issue. The only side who was not surprised by the agreement is Hezbollah.”
“Sayyed Nasrallah has repeatedly elaborate on the nature of relation between Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic, which is based on respect, trust and consultation rather than recruitment.”
“The problem lies here,” Abu Zeinab said further, as he slammed Hezbollah’s rivals over their relation with some foreign embassies which lies on recruitment, according to the official.
Sayyed Nasrallah has repeatedly stressed that Hezbollah is “eyed like a master” by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei.
“I’ve said it before: We (Hezbollah) are regarded as masters by the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, but you? Go and utilize from your friendship and alliance with the US and obtain a sanctions waiver from the US Embassy in Beirut,” the Hezbollah S.G. said last January in Beirut.
Iranian leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim stress that the poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls amounts to a crime.
Iranian leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei meeting with the head and members of the Assembly of Experts, Feb. 23, 2023 (Khamenei.ir)
Iranian leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei on Monday considered the poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls in recent months an “unforgivable” crime amid the spread of suspected poisoning across the country with hundreds of girls hospitalized.
“Authorities should seriously pursue the issue of students’ poisoning. This is an unforgivable crime… the perpetrators of this crime should be severely punished,” Sayyed Khamenei was quoted as saying by state media.
Over a thousand Iranian girls in different schools have suffered “mild poison” attacks since November, according to state media and officials.
In most cases, the schoolgirls suffered respiratory problems, nausea, fatigue, and dizziness.
The spreading attacks that started in November in the city of Qom in central Iran have spread to at least 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces.
An Iranian official revealed that a suspicious fuel tanker that was found near a school in a suburb of Tehran, after being spotted in two other sites near other schools in Qom and Bourjerd, is suspected to be responsible for the poisoning. The tanker was reportedly apprehended and the driver was arrested.
Poisoning schoolgirls amounts to crime, inhumane act committed by enemies
On his part, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday underlined that the poisoning of Iranian schoolgirls amounts to a crime and an inhumane act committed by Iran’s enemies.
“The enemy’s new conspiracy of creating fear in the hearts of students… and their parents is a crime and an inhumane act,” Raisi said in a cabinet session.
The Iranian head of state ordered officials to swiftly investigate the matter and inform citizens about its whereabouts to alleviate their concerns, underlining the importance of pursuing the main culprits and dealing with them seriously.
Raisi pointed out that the poising of schoolgirls is “another link in the chain of the enemy’s plots” aimed at creating chaos in the country, manipulating public opinion, and infusing fear among the students.
On Friday, the Iranian President said he had tasked the ministers of intelligence and interior with pursuing the matter, adding that “through its hybrid war, the enemy sought to create despair among the people. And recently through its psychological war… the enemy sought to create stress and fear among students and parents so as to spark riots.”
Illustrative image prepared by Al-Manar Website on the French mission which was foiled by Iranian authorities in May 2022.
Iran had been in late 2022 the scene of protests which turned violent, allegedly over living conditions and the death of a young woman at police custody. The suspicious riots last September, led to the death or injury of tens of Iranians, including security forces, as well as the arrest of dozens others.
Amidst all this chaos, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei said it all: Role by foreign intelligence in the riots was obvious.
As he urged the government to meet people’s livelihood demands, the insightful leader warned against repeated schemes by foreign services to destabilize the Islamic Republic.
The September riots were preceded by several protests held by members of teachers’ syndicates in Iran in May 2022. However, it became evident that the suspicious demonstrations were aimed at fomenting unrest across the Islamic Republic, but failed to do so as the Iranian intelligence announced the arrest of two French spies who were stoking the protests.
“The Special Mission” Documentary
In a documentary, Al-Manar Channel disclosed details on the activity of the two spies, Jacques Paris and Cecile Kohler, and how they were spotted and busted by the Iranian intelligence and security bodies.
The nearly 30-minute documentary, entitled “The Special Mission – Spies of France”, was aired earlier in February. It shows the chronicles of the French intelligence mission since the two spies landed in Imam Khomeni International Airport in Tehran on April 28, 2022.
Al-Manar’s editor of Iranian affairs Hasan Haidar speaks to our website on the documentary:
French Spies
Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, who traveled between Iranian cities such as Tehran, Kashan, and Isfahan, were the French mission’s protagonists. The two spies of the French intelligence agency were arrested in May while visiting Iran as ordinary tourists.
Both well-prepared, Kohler and Paris appeared in the documentary confessing to carrying their mission. They revealed how they were trained at the French intelligence service’s headquarters that specializes in Asia, primarily the Islamic Republic of Iran. Kohler’s department was also dedicated to collect data on Iran’s technological, industrial, and scientific progress.
French spy Cecile Kohle appears in Al-Manar’s documentary “The Special Mission”.
Cecile Kohler is a member of the French External Security Service’s Intelligence and Operations Service (DGSE), since 2018. Similarly, Jacques Paris has been a member of DGSE since 2000. He serves as an agent in the Iran office, in a syndical and political framework, the spies said, as disclosed by the documentary.
According to Kohler, the DGSE utilized the International Labor Organization (ILO) to destabilize and exert pressure on states that oppose it. In addition, the International Organization for Education granted federal aid to any syndicate seeking to overthrow and destabilize regimes hostile to imperialism.
“We came to set the stage for the overthrow of Iran’s Islamic Republic regime. France is also interested in pursuing the nuclear program”, Kohler added in the documentary.
How It Was Going?
After members of the illicit Iranian syndicates reached out to the DGSE, the mission began in earnest. The DGSE agents started to outline the mission’s goals, which include contacting the syndical members and guiding them on how to organize the country’s so-called ‘revolution’ on the International Workers’ Day (Labor Day).
Kohler and Paris held joint meetings with the aim to “mobilize saboteurs to overthrow the government.” As was foreseeable, the Iranian intelligence service was actively monitoring their movements since the day they landed, the documentary revealed.
French spy Jacques Paris appears in the doccumentary “The Special Mission”.
The agents appointed people like Reza Shihabi, who was previously backed by French intelligence and a member of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorist organization, as well as Shaaban Mohammadi, who was in a connection with the terrorist Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, according to the documentary. It is worth noting that both organizations were involved in agitating several sabotage activities across the Islamic Republic.
During the meetings, illicit syndical members expressed their willingness to take up weapons and riot against the police to demand their ‘rights’. Thereupon, the agents explained to the syndicalists the Fourth International (FI) revolutionary conceptual framework and emphasized the significance of assembling all employees, young and old, to enhance the level of impact of the demands. Consequently, the French money was utilized to hire syndical figures and to subsidize the costs of demonstrations, a procedure Kohler alluded to as “purchasing demonstrations.”
After a few days, the participants present at the meeting became protest leaders. The foreign-backed Iranian opposition media hastened to assist them in broadening the scope of their demonstrations.
Scheme Foiled
However, many demonstrators were unaware of those meetings, as well as the plans and funds spent on protesting. Despite all of their efforts, they failed to parlay the demonstrations into activities that could contribute to Iran’s destabilization at the time (May 2022). As members of syndicates, they were the first to demand their rights. That is because people’s first concern was to demand their rights as citizens, the documentary “The Special Mission” revealed.
Kohler and Paris as they appeared touring Iranian cities in “The Special Mission” documentary.
Eventually, Cecile Kohler acknowledged in the documentary that the objective of the US embargo, which was endorsed by European states, is to bankrupt the Iranian government and force it to make unpalatable decisions by raising taxes and gasoline costs, increasing public anger and creating internal conflict and division. She also affirmed that the mission’s ultimate goal was to destabilize the Iranian regime, overthrow it, and bring forth a regime that advocates imperialism and fulfills the agendas of French imperialism and the US, as well. Hence, all of these efforts, as evidenced by the newly aired documentary were focused on flaring the civil war in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Lastly, the documentary displayed scenes of the operation in which the French spies were arrested, demonstrating the immense effort of Iran’s security and intelligence authorities to safeguard the country’s security and divert Western efforts to overthrow the republican regime.
“The Special Mission” is just an episode in a series of documentaries uncovering the Western conspiracy against Iran, with the eyes being on the next episodes that Al-Manar will air soon and will tackle other schemes against the Islamic Republic.
Report by Marwa Haidar, Documentary translated by Areej Fatima Al-Husseini.
Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered on Thursday a speech on the Islamic Resistance Martyred Leaders Day.
As Sayyed Nasrallah condoled with the families of the martyr leaders, he recalled their sacrifices.
His Eminence further congratulated Iran, its people and the Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei on the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
“The international and Arab media neglected the millions who poured into the streets to celebrate 44 years of the Islamic Revolution while they used to focus on gatherings or riots that had a few people,” he added, pointing out that “All who betted on toppling the Iranian revolution, especially the Zionists, made a mistake, and I advise them not build their calculations on such mirage.”
On the Lebanese side, Sayyed Nasrallah hoped that the agreement with the Free Patriotic Movement continues. “The Mar Mikhail Agreement is in a critical situation and we hope it will be preserved for the sake of the national interest,” he mentioned.
Moreover, His Eminence condoled with the Lebanese and the lovers and advocates of late PM Rafik Hariri on the anniversary of his martyrdom.
Meanwhile, the Resistance Leader hailed the sacrifices of “the oppressed Bahraini people, who won’t abandon their national cause, nor that of Palestine and occupied Al-Quds.”
Regarding the celebrated anniversary, he underlined that “Our martyr leaders clung to the option of resistance despite all the difficulties, betrayal and stabs in the back of the resistance.”
“Our achievements were scored thanks to the blood of our martyrs, leaders and all martyrs in the resistance movements, the Lebanese army, the Palestinian factions and the Syrian army,” Sayyed Nasrallah added, cautioning that “Since 2019, Lebanon has entered into a new scheme to return the country into the era of US hegemony.”
In addition, His Eminence underscored that “The liberation of Lebanon, its water and oil, and the revival of hope through the Palestinian intifada in 2000 are among the main achievements against the enemy.”
“Former US President Barack Obama admitted that toppling regimes needs only to alter the public opinion with ‘spam’,” he said, noting that “Obama himself explained the US tools to overthrow regimes by making people lose confidence in their leadership, and this thought is adopted by Biden administration.”
According to Hezbollah Secretary General, “We’re facing the challenge of confronting the US media, political and economic tools, on top of which is the game of dollar price.”
“What helps the Americans in their scheme is the presence of corruption and errors in the administrations of the targeted countries,” Sayyed Nasrallah explained, noting that “We must take the initiative, plan and cooperate in order to overthrow the scheme of chaos, domination and tampering with our people’s minds to control them.”
Recalling that “In October 2019, the slogan was ‘All means all’, because what was required is that the Lebanese lose their confidence in all officials,” he confirmed that “The US embassy, along with some NGOs, were manufacturing leaders. However, this project failed.”
On the regional level, Sayyed Nasrallah renewed Hezbollah’s condolences with the Turkish and Syrian governments over the devastating earthquake. “We’re facing a great human tragedy, and what happened is a test to the humanity of every person, party, association and country,” he said, noting that “Syria’s earthquake revealed the US administration’s failure in the test of humanity in and its brutal criminal face.”
The Resistance leader went on to say “In the 1st days of the earthquake, the American administration left the people die in Syria through its severe sanctions.”
His Eminence also slammed “The international community’s discrimination and double standards that were clear at various levels in dealing with the repercussions of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria.”
“The West’s double standards in dealing with the devastating earthquake in Syria and Turkey is a resounding human failure,” he said, urging “all sides to help Syria and Turkey to return to normal life, and this is the most difficult challenge.”
Sayyed Nasrallah cautioned that “According to experts’ expectations, Lebanon is facing a new challenge, which is the possibility of an earthquake.”
“The Lebanese government – even if it is a caretaker one – must initiate contingency plans in anticipation of a possible earthquake,” he stated, noting that “Despite its modest capabilities, Lebanon can set contingency and comprehensive plans to face the possibility of an earthquake.”
In parallel, Hezbollah Secretary General underlined that “Among the first steps the Lebanese state must consider is fixing the cracked buildings.”
“Directly after the earthquake, the buildings in the northern Lebanese city, Tripoli, were the first to come to my mind, and I confirmed our readiness to help,” he uncovered.
Sayyed Nasrallah praised the Lebanese government’s steps in sending the official delegation to Syria, and offering all kinds of assistance. “Lebanon would benefit the most from breaking the siege on Syria,” he stated.
Moving to the “Israeli” front, Hezbollah Secretary General explained that “The internal ‘Israeli’ situation is unprecedented, especially in light of the entity’s officials fear from a ‘civil’ war.”
“The ‘Israeli’ occupying entity’s President acknowledged his fears of an imminent internal explosion and the collapse of the entity,” he mentioned, praising the “Palestinian people’s new uprising, particularly the heroic operations of the Palestinian youth in Occupied Al-Quds, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
According to His Eminence, “The foolish Zionist government may push for escalation in the entire region, not just in Palestine, and this is a possibility, especially in case of attacking the Al-Aqsa Holy Mosque.”
On the internal Lebanese front, Sayyed Nasrallah unveiled that “There is nothing new in the presidential file and we all saw what happened in Paris. It is true that the Lebanese are responsible.”
“Efforts must continue to search for agreement and understanding in order to resolve the issue of Lebanese presidency,” he said, noting that “No one can impose a president on Lebanon and the effort should be domestic.”
His Eminence went on to say that “The uncontrolled rise in the dollar in face of the Lebanese Lira must be dealt with, and the demands of the public sector are very justified.”
“What is happening in Lebanon is mainly caused by American pressure and the policy of withdrawing funds and deposits in a planned manner,” he stressed, adding that “The Americans sent a lot of messages to Iran in order to conduct direct negotiations, but Tehran refused that. We must seek to achieve a strong economy in our country and search for other markets, such as China and Russia.”
Moreover, Sayyed Nasrallah urged the Lebanese “not to accept any procrastination by the companies in the oil and gas file.”
To the Americans, the Resistance Leader sent a sounding message: “The resistance’s environment that you are seeking to target with chaos, suffering and pain will not give up its principles.”
He warned against any procrastination in extracting oil from water, and the Americans must be told to stay away from such move
To the Americans, the Resistance Leader said: “If you’re to sow chaos in Lebanon, you will lose everything. If you push Lebanon into chaos, you must wait for chaos in the entire region, particularly ‘Israel’. Those pushing Lebanon into chaos and collapse must anticipate everything and things that can’t be imagined.”
“Just as we were ready for war in defense of our oil, we’re ready to hit your protégé, ‘Israel’,” he vowed, noting that “Tomorrow is close.”
Iranians mark the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by IRNA)
Millions of Iranians have taken to the streets across the country to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed Pahlavi regime in 1979.
The rallies in the capital Tehran began at 9:30 a.m. local time (06:00 GMT) on Saturday, with demonstrators from various social strata and different parts of the city marching toward the iconic Azadi (Freedom) Square.
People waved photos of the late founder of the Islamic Revolution Imam Khomeini, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and legendary General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a 2020 US terrorist attack in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, as well as the martyrs of the Revolution.
Iranian people mark the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by Fars news agency)
The flight of colored balloons and iridescent papers from the Azadi Tower, the performance of professional parachutists of the Armed Forces and the mass recital of Iran’s national anthem were among the celebratory events held in the Azadi Square.
On the eve of the 44th anniversary, fireworks displays were performed in Tehran and other cities at 9:00 p.m. overnight, as people chanted Allahu Akbar (God is the Greatest) in an expression of support for the Islamic Revolution.
Covered by 6,000 media personnel across the country, the foot processions, which came after three years of motorcade marches due to the coronavirus pandemic, were held in 1,400 Iranian cities and 38,000 villages.
An Iranian demonstartor flashes the victory sign on the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by Fars news agency)
The mass rallies on the 22nd of Bahman in the Solar Calendar, which corresponds with February 11, are held each year with tremendous patriotic fervor in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Iranian nation overthrew the despotic regime of Pahlavi, which was fully supported by the United States in the winter of 1979. The struggle against the shah regime reached full fruition on February 11, 1979.
By December 1978, millions of Iranians had taken to the streets in protest against the policies of the shah – Shah – on a regular basis.
Imam Khomeini returned to Iran from exile on February 1, 1979. He was received by millions of people weeks after the departure of the shah in mid-January 1979.
The collapse of the Pahlavi regime became certain on February 11 when the military renounced its loyalty to the shah and joined the Revolution.
Raeisi: Bahman 22nd day of victory of ‘truth over falsity’
Delivering a speech at the Azadi Square, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi lauded the 22nd of Bahman as the day of the triumph of “truth over falsity,” the day of the victory of “the oppressed over the arrogant,” and the realization of the “miracle of the century.”
Raeisi said the epic day put an end to tyranny and dependence and marked the beginning of independence, freedom and the Islamic Republic, adding that the day brought about the crystallization of the will of the great nation of Iran.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi delivers a speech at the iconic Azadi (Freedom) Square on the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in the capital Tehran on February 11, 2023. (Photo by president.ir)
Crowds of millions in Iran… Why?
Stressing that both the establishment and the continuation of the Pahlavi regime was against the nation’s will and accompanied with a coup d’état, the Iranian president said, “They committed crimes and treason during their rule, and they were unconcerned about [Iranian people’s] great capacities, and only cared for the pleasure of the global hegemony and the United States.”
“Pahlavi’s despotic rule only brought backwardness to this nation and country,” Raeisi added, “They came to power against the principles of the Constitution and with a coup.”
‘Enemy cannot stand Iran’s achievements’
Pointing to the country’s achievements in various areas, including science and technology, economy, defense, health and medicine, Raeisi said, “Today, we rank first in the region in many fields and we are in the fourth, fifth and sixth place in many arenas in the world. This is for our self-discovery, self-confidence, and reliance on God. Our dear nation has conquered many peaks but the enemy cannot stand it.”
The president said when the enemy saw that the country was progressing in all fields and was not stalled, they started hatching another plot and thought that they could stop the country with chaos.
“They implemented the chaos project and thought that they could bring the country to a standstill with turmoil, and for this reason, they launched a hybrid war in this field,”
Raeisi noted, referring to the recent violent riots after the mid-September death of a woman in Tehran.
“They initiated a combined work in the form of a political, economic, media, psychological and perceptual warfare, unaware that the Iranian nation knows them and their tricks.”
The president underlined, “Today, despite the threats and sanctions, Islamic Iran enjoys the growth of fixed capital, investment growth, economic growth, and growth in other indices.”
Iran in ‘claimant’ position in nuclear issue
Elsewhere in his speech, Raeisi said Iran stands in the position of a “claimant” in the nuclear issue, adding, “We have accepted the inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and these inspections continue. The agency has for 15 times announced that Iran has no involvement in nuclear activities, but this is you who have a nuclear warhead, you have a nuclear bomb, and you are in the position of the accused.”
Pointing to the fight against terrorism, Raeisi said Iran is also in the position of the claimant, noting, “You formed, supported and armed Daesh; and scourged the lives of Muslim people, but the Islamic Republic sacrificed dear General Soleimani in the fight against Daesh. You are the accused and must be held accountable to the world and humanity.”
The Iranian president also touched on the issue of Palestine and Afghanistan, saying, “Seventy years of oppression of the Palestinian people as well as 35,000 disabled children is the result of your presence in Afghanistan…You committed crimes and acted against human rights, you must answer why you violated human rights so much.”
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Nasser Kan’ani, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, last month justifiably declared that the Western hybrid war, which has been continuously waged against Iran in military, economic, political and psychological campaigns, has suffered a complete failure. Precisely because of this, the USA is now rapidly preparing the military aggression of the unnatural coalition of Israel and regional Arab countries against Iran, which, along with Russia and China, is undoubtedly the biggest American enemy. The task of this military conglomerate would be to deal deadly blows to Iran that would lead to its disintegration and the establishment of a puppet regime on the remains of the country. There is no doubt that the USA could participate in the planned aggression. The recently held, largest in history, joint US-Israeli military exercises “Juniper Oak 23.2” clearly hint at such a possibility, although it is not impossible that the US’s European allies could also participate in this massive operation. Military analysts from the West estimate that a military intervention against Iran, a kind of repetition of what we have already seen in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, could begin this summer, but this publicly stated assessment is probably just an attempt at deliberate deception. There is evidence that the attack on Iran could happen much earlier.
The drone attacks on the Iranian city of Isfahan for which Israel is certainly responsible, either directly or through the use of Kurdish terrorists as its proxy military forces, was undoubtedly a deliberate provocation meant to force Iran into hasty and disproportionate retaliation. Such a reaction, no matter how justified it may be in fact, would be used by the US and Israel to portray Iran as an aggressor in front of the “international community”. The reporting of some Israeli media such as “The Times of Israel” in which they announced, or rather, wished for “Iranian retaliatory” attacks on Israeli civilian targets, clearly testifies to sinister intentions of Israel. Тhere is clearly an Israeli plan to provoke Iran as soon as possible. What we might soon expect are Israeli false flag operations that would be blamed on Iran. It is more likely that the territories of the Arab vassals of the US and Israel would be attacked, rather than Israel itself. In this way, Israel would also ensure the igniting of anti-Iranian hysteria among its Arab allies and at the same time ensure the earliest possible start of aggression against Iran, which is obviously very important to Israel. Namely, Iran should officially join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in April, which will bring it great international support. Israel is therefore in a hurry to start aggression before this happens because it mistakenly believes that in that case, it could avoid the wrath of Moscow and Beijing. Another reason for Israel’s haste is that in a little more than a month, Iran should receive at least 24 Su-35 multi-role fighters from Russia, for which it already has well-trained Iranian pilots. Finally, the US and Israel know that time will work against them if they allow the intensive military cooperation between Iran and Russia to continue and deepen, and the big question is how much concrete intelligence they have about its details. Therefore, the aggression against Iran could begin immediately before or exactly on the Iranian New Year in Farsi known as Nowruz, which this year is celebrated on March 20. This is also the date that was mentioned in connection with the delivery of Russian jet fighters.
Israel has been talking for a long time about the necessity for the US to provide it with full support because of the alleged threat that Iran represents to the region, but it will rather be that the US stands behind this entire project, because none of America’s vassals has the ability to conduct foreign policy independently. Admittedly, Israel is probably the most independent of all American allies, but it is still obliged to coordinate all its major decisions with Washington. As for threats to the region, Israel is a state that was created and is maintained on the basis of a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide and is the only regional power from the Middle East region that has undisguised imperialist ambitions and territorial claims towards its neighbors. The UN Human Rights Commission condemned Israel for violating almost all 149 articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and this is the best illustration of Israel’s aggressive policy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as an exponent of such a policy, rushed to visit Paris recently, where he asked France for support for the planned aggression against Iran. After Netanyahu’s visit, Radio France reported that Israel really wants to attack Iran as soon as possible and has already identified around 3,000 possible targets. Nevertheless, Israel is afraid of an independent showdown with Iran and is trying to provide itself with as much concrete military support as possible. As for the American Arab satellites, in the planned attack on Iran, Israel will probably be able to count on the support of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Yemen, Sudan and Morocco. Azerbaijan is certainly being pressured to join the coalition, but the leadership in Baku probably sees how dangerous it could be if Russia were to get directly involved in the conflict on Iran’s side, which is more than possible.
Prior to Netanyahu’s visit to the Champs Elysées, the UK Government at the beginning of this year аlready called for the immediate creation of a Grand Military Coalition against Iran. The official pretext under which this shameless campaign against Iran is conducted is, first of all, its nuclear program. However, in these accusations against Iran, it is deliberately forgotten that two Iranian Ayatollahs, Khomeini and Khamenei, have publicly spoken out against the development of a nuclear arsenal in Iran. In September 2014, Mohsen Rafighdoost, minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the eight-year defensive war against Iraq, in an interview he gave to Gareth Porter, a journalist specializing in US national security policy, testified that he personally asked Khomeini to start developing nuclear and chemical weapons on two occasions, but was refused both times. The reason for Khomeini’s refusal was his claim that Islam forbids weapons of mass destruction. Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa in the mid-1990s against the acquisition and development of nuclear weapons, which was officially disclosed only in August 2005 in Vienna, at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Israel, on the other hand, possesses nuclear and certainly, chemical and biological weapons and unlike Iran, represents a real threat. As for nuclear weapons, Israel has Jericho II (YA-3) missiles with a range of 1,7700 km and Jericho III (YA-4) with a range of up to 11,500 km. Israel can also use its F-15 and F-16 fighters for tactical and strategic nuclear strikes. Even the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment estimated that Israel possessed undeclared offensive chemical and biological weapons. With such an arsenal, Israel could be considered a global threat, and Russia and China are certainly very aware of that.
Unlike Netanyahu and Israel’s political elite, Israeli military intelligence experts publicly state that they do not consider Iran a real threat to Israel. These weeks, mass protests against Netanyahu’s regime have been taking place across Israel, and the Israeli opposition has openly called his ultra-right government a far greater threat to Israel than Iran. Finally, we must also mention the assessment of Israel’s prestigious Institute for National Security Studies, according to which the greatest security threat to Israel is the deterioration of relations with the USA. Are internal political pressures, the struggle for power, and Netanyahu’s desire to please his American allies, in that case, the main reasons why the prime minister of Israel recklessly rushes into a very risky military conflict with Iran? Namely, the aggression against Iran could easily merge with the conflict in Ukraine and turn into a total world war. As the Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Volodin, recently reminded, the entire foreign policy of the USA and its vassals is based solely on lies. Just as the pretext for the US-British invasion of Iraq was false accusations, the planned aggression against Iran has nothing to do with Iran’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction.
There are other accusations against Iran, but they are equally meaningless and just an excuse for planned aggression. Iran does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries in the region and is not a breeding ground and financier of terrorism. Admittedly, Iran as a country very often and with full rights condemns the persecution of Shias in the region, but no more than it condemns the persecution of Palestinians, for example, who are overwhelmingly Sunnis. Similarly, Iran condemned Azerbaijan’s aggressive policy towards Armenia, despite the fact that both Iran and Azerbaijan are predominantly Shia states while Armenia is an Oriental Orthodox Christian country. Iran simply leads a responsible and principled foreign policy. The frequent accusations of Iran’s alleged “sectarian” fanaticism are equally meaningless to genuine connoisseurs of the situation in the region. The USA, Israel, the UK, and other European former colonial powers, are the ones who are trying to spread hatred and fratricide among Muslims by financing and arming extremists in the region. Another strategy is to buy favors from existing regimes or, if that fails, to bring puppet regimes to power. It is a skill that Americans have brought to the level of art and perfection, and no other world power is more experienced and successful in this business than them. One of the strategies of the US and the collective West is to divide as much as possible the different schools and branches of Islam that they maliciously call “sects”, in order to then easily rule all the Muslim nations and their natural resources. Contrary to the attempts of the Western conglomerate to spread discord and hatred among Muslims, Ayatollah Khamenei in his speech on October 24, 2021 was very clear about Iran’s views on the necessity of unity, stating that “Islamic Unity is definitely a Koranic obligation”. Iran more than sincerely wants harmony among Muslims, which is not surprising at all, because it is one of its most vital security interests, as it is also the vital interest of all other Muslim nations in the region.
Iran has the second-largest natural gas reserves and the fourth-largest oil reserves in the world. Of course, as we all know very well, it is precisely in this fact that the real causes of the aggressive intentions of the USA, Israel, the UK, the EU and their Arab vassals, in relation to Iran, are hidden. However, on the other hand, for Iran, its natural wealth facilitates inclusion in the Eurasian economic space and leads to the intensification of all other Eurasian integrations. On the one hand, the export of Iranian energy products to Eurasian space really benefits China and not Russia, but on the other hand, Moscow and Tehran are rapidly developing an ever closer military and security cooperation. The frequent visits of Russian officials to Tehran, for example, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, are a good indicator of that process. There are many geopolitical moments that have brought Iran and Russia closer together. First of all, these are the two nations on which the West has imposed the most sanctions in the history of mankind. Second, and more importantly, both countries are in a deep and long-term political conflict with the US and its vassals. Finally, the Western conglomerate has been waging an intense hybrid and proxy war against both nations for a long time. The Russian-Iranian strategic alliance exists and has been developing for a long time, but it was only Russia’s military conflict with the de facto Nazi regime from Kiev that forced Moscow to recognize its reliable strategic ally in Iran. Admittedly, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi once said that the trade and economic relations between the two countries are not satisfactory, but obviously, there is a desire of both countries to improve them and that is starting to happen. As for China, Iran signed a somewhat secretive 25-year deal with its powerful Eurasian partner on March 27, 2021, but its concrete results are still not visible. It is true that China has a strong economic interest in cooperating with the Arab states of the Middle East region, some of which have very bad relations with Iran. However, Western analysts make a big mistake by focusing on the economic aspect of the cooperation of Eurasian nations. It is American hegemony and imperialism that forces Iran, Russia, China and other Eurasian powers to put economic interests on the back burner and give priority to issues related to the development of strategic security alliances.
Iran has formidable military potential that should not be underestimated. No matter how zealous the US and Israeli intelligence services are, Iran is a regional power that could give Israel and its allies extremely unexpected and very unpleasant and painful blows in places where they are least expected. Iran would not passively suffer the blows but would seek the opportunity to immediately transfer the conflict to the aggressor’s territory and this is something Iranian generals can surely achieve. Another very important moment is that Russia and China simply must not allow an Israeli-American coalition attack on Iran to happen in the first place because the risks are too great to ignore, and it is likely that after certain intelligence, the two superpowers will strongly, timely and jointly react to protect their vital interests in the region. Iran’s downfall is simply out of the question for Russia and China because it would imply a deep penetration of the US into the belly of Eurasia, which would result in a dramatic weakening and possible disintegration of the two superpowers. The question remains: what specific steps will the two Eurasian giants take to protect their common ally from aggression? The freedom-loving Iran, a multiple world champion in the fight against American hegemony, simply must not fall!
Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech in the event that was held to announce the winners of the Martyr Soleimani Literary Award on Tuesday evening.
His Eminence noted that peoples and nations usually honor and appreciate their martyrs, praising that this manner exists in Islam with distinction.
“All the martyrs in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere are the ones who make the achievements; yet the leaders among them have something that makes them special,” Sayyed Nasrallah underlined, highlighting the importance of Hajj Qassem Soleimani whom he referred to as a martyr who surpassed both time and place; he is the martyr of the nation and even the world.
Recalling Hajj Qassem Soleimani as the prominent, sublime, and key leader in the battle that banned the Americans from occupying our region, the Hezbollah leader referred to the martyred Islamic Revolution Guard Quds Force commander as the liaison of communication within the Axis of Resistance and a major leader in defeating the ‘Greater ‘Israel’’ scheme.
“Hajj Qassem Soleimani spread the morale spirit among all those who worked with him, and it is our duty to remember and present the personalities of martyrs such as him,” Sayyed Nasrallah urged, going further to explain that martyr Soleimani had a great potential to impress the future generations.
As he pointed to the importance of having models such as those martyrs in every generation, the ones who are present in every battlefield, and whose names must be revived as they represent a massive intellectual and spiritual wealth that we must not underestimate, the resistance leader made clear that “we must do this for ourselves and not for their sake alone.”
“We need today to highlight the importance of the role model given our Ummah needs to confront challenges as confronting every challenge requires a leader the like of martyr Qassem Soleimani,” Sayyed Nasrallah added.
Moving to local affairs, the Hezbollah leader urged each Lebanese component to avoid every language that might lead to sectarian incitation regarding the election of a president of the republic.
Assuring that there is no power or parliamentary bloc in Lebanon that wants to absent the top Christian and Maronite post from the political arena, Sayyed Nasrallah explained that there is no side in the Lebanese Parliament that has the two-thirds majority to secure the quorum necessary for electing a president, and emphasized that nobody plans to continue the current presidential void.
As for the electricity crisis, Sayyed Nasrallah lamented that it is making the Lebanese people suffer heavily, leaving its impact on the economy and the people’s normal living.
“We asked the Islamic Republic to provide Lebanon with fuel for six months; our request has been handed to His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi, and it was approved,” the Hezbollah chief detailed, also noting that “the Iranian fuel offer to Lebanon is still in place for six months but the American side is the one blocking it.”
Reiterating his famous saying that refutes claims of Hezbollah being an Iranian tool in Lebanon, Sayyed Nasrallah underlined that “We are masters to the Wali al-Faqih, and this saying is proven a day after another.” His Eminence went on to ask the anti-Hezbollah political components: What do you mean to the US, Saudi Arabia and other states? Are you masters, slaves, tools, or what else?
Sayyed Nasrallah further addressed the allies of the US in Lebanon by telling them that Hezbollah has the opportunity to solve the fuel crisis in Lebanon, and challenging them to take advantage of their ties with the US to obtain an exception for bringing the Iranian fuel to Lebanon.
“You obtain the exception and I guarantee that the Iranian fuel ships will sail to Lebanon,” His Eminence underlined.
As for now, the fuel tankers docking in the sea are accumulating fines that are to be paid from the Lebanese people’s pockets, Sayyed Nasrallah raised the alarm.
On the level of the dispute caused by Hezbollah’s participation in the previous cabinet session, Sayyed Nasrallah made clear that the resistance group is convinced that the caretaker government has the right to convene for tackling the time-limited and urgent issues.
“Hezbollah exerted efforts to form the government ahead of the presidential void but the formation was not accomplished,” His Eminence went on to say.
Assuring that Hezbollah tries to be partner in solving the problems people are suffering from, Sayyed Nasrallah concluded his speech by underlining that “When we attend the cabinet session, we wouldn’t be challenging anybody but rather working on what we are convinced with to solve the people’s crises.”
Tehran – The courtyard in front of the main entrance to the Imam Khomeini Husseiniya was crowded. Mothers sat in rows and served breakfast to their children. The host offered cookies and milk, and the children and their mothers experienced a taste sweeter than honey.
The children ate the cookies quietly. While they ran in the yard, they accidentally dropped crumbs on the floor. None of them felt estranged. They felt as if they were guests at their grandfather’s house and had been comfortable for a long time.
Some mothers tried to gather the cookie crumbs by sweeping the rugs on the floor. The warm atmosphere filling the air turned the day into one of the most unique in the lives of many attendees who grew up under the fatherly umbrella of the Leader.
This place is engraved in the hearts of the Iranian people. Anyone who came before me and those who come after me will regard it as their father’s house. The children’s sense of comfort and the mothers’ sense of duty towards keeping the house clean also stem from this belief.
It seemed that a mother was spreading a small, seemingly empty blanket on the floor to tidy it up. But she was actually trying to wrap her sleeping baby in the blanket. The baby was still very small and made the blanket appear empty.
One lady asked the mother: “How old is he?”
The mother replied, “five days.”
Another woman said: “Mashallah, five days! He doesn’t look it.”
The mother finished what she was doing and answered her: “I cannot leave a five-day-old baby. In addition, I would like him to breathe the air of this Husseiniya. He will be a soldier for the leader of this Husseiniya, God willing.”
Another woman joined the conversation and said, “You did well bringing him with you. This is how we raised our children. [We took them with us] to marches in the snow and under the rain, bombs, and missiles [the Sacred Defense stage] for them to get acquainted with the Islamic Revolution, the leader, and his approach.”
Then, she pointed with her hand to the inside of the Imam Khomeini Hussainiya and continued: “Children are made in and from this Hussainiya.”
I passed by the mothers who were still feeding their children, then entered the Husseiniya. An inscription on the wall immediately caught my eye: “Most of the good is in women.”
As always, the writing on this mural highlights the focus of the gathering. A hadeeth by Imam al-Sadiq [PBUH] was specially placed on the wall to decorate and convey the message of this meeting.
I sat on one of the chairs and looked at the rest of the attendees. Some came to the Husseiniya earlier. Others woke up before their usual routine and queued in line to enter. All of them were awaiting the arrival of their dear host with longing and enthusiasm.
The wait did not last long.
The rows of chairs were quickly filled, and the remaining attendees leaned on the wall of the Husseiniya. They were not discouraged by the lack of chairs and were determined to sit on the floor or stand by the wall until the end of the meeting.
This generation of women looks up to the host as a dear father.
His Eminence entered through the door, with the attendees raising their clenched fists and repeating the slogan loudly: “We are your soldiers, O Khamenei. We obey your command, O Khamenei”.
A group of women collapsed with tears streaming down their faces. This was not the first time that this Husseiniya has witnessed a special meeting where women talk to the Leader about their thoughts without any hindrance, get to express their pain, feelings, and demands, and ask him questions.
Nevertheless, such meetings leave a special sweetness in the hearts of those attending since some of them wrote letters last year asking that the celebration of Lady Zahraa’s birthday be marked with the presence of maddahis.
They also asked the Leader of the Revolution to hold a special meeting for women, and here he was. His Eminence at their service.
The speakers included a diverse spectrum of individuals, in terms of knowledge, activities, and interests, and in terms of clothing and appearance.
One lady, wearing an abaya, eloquently complained that fewer women were employed in making major decisions in the country. Another, wearing a pink scarf, raised the demands of housewives.
The presence of people like Maryam Nakhashan was especially important. She is a first-class lawyer with a law degree from Germany. There was also Mahdia Sadat Mehwar, a producer, director, and cultural activist.
She said that she entered the field of cultural activities because she was influenced by one of the speeches of the Leader of the Revolution in the early nineties.
She considered herself the fruit of this movement and the fruit of this country. Then, she compared the role of women and their rights in the Islamic and Western civilizations and how it affected the absence of women in various cultural fields that cause problems more than anything else. What she said received the praise and support of His Eminence, the Leader of the Revolution.
Under the encouragement of the revolution and the self-confidence it gave them and the right path that guided them, the speakers freely shared their opinions and ideas with their Leader, whose attention and respect encouraged each one of them.
Important points were raised that were worth thinking about. Yet, the meeting was nothing like traditional formal meetings. It was more like the daughters of a family sat around their father to talk to him and tease him. So much so that one of the Arabic-speaking attendees, who was not on the list of speakers, also seized the opportunity and recited verses of poetry in Arabic praising Haj Qassem. She sent greetings to the people of Khuzestan in the language that the Leader of the Revolution considers the most beautiful.
One of the beneficial aspects of the meeting was the presence of different Iranian ethnic groups – Persians, Turks, Kurds, Lurs, Arabs, Baluchis, Bakhtiaris, Turkmens, Luks, Gilaks, Maznises, and Sistanis. Some of them wore traditional outfits reminiscent of their culture. Others wrote phrases expressing the greetings of their ethnic groups and provinces in the palm of their hands, as they gathered under one roof and were overwhelmed with longing for the Leader’s words.
The comfort of those present, the level of knowledge of the speakers, and the humility of the Leader of the Revolution drew a beautiful picture. Imam Khamenei, at the beginning of his speech, expressed several times his comfort in holding such a meeting. His Eminence also expressed his satisfaction, which indicated his humility and how he benefitted from the words of the representatives of the women.
After that, the Leader began his speech by explaining and summarizing the current situation of women in the world and the Islamic principles related to them. He made several points and cited previous speakers. This underscored the accuracy of his follow-up to the topics and his exemplary sophistication.
Despite the fact that the Leader’s speech was deep and accurate, it was full of softness and expressions of kindness and tenderness that he used when addressing his daughters. His words were remarkably warm and those listening never got tired.
His Eminence spoke for an hour that benefited the attendees for a lifetime. The Leader of the Revolution spoke about family and its importance. He stood as a father to all his daughters, whether those present at the meeting or those who will read the speech or listen to it later.
They listened to these important words, in which he highlighted the unique characteristics of a woman as a wife and a mother within the family unit. Therefore, she is the air the family breathes and cannot live without.
At the same time, His Eminence mentioned that managing a home does not mean being confined to it and dealing with emotions. Instead, it must be understood in its correct form: not neglecting the home, the family, and the basic needs of children in terms of education, faith, and morals.
In conjunction with activism in society, efforts must be made to raise public and even global awareness to explain the reality for women and for attention to be placed on whatever duties or desires they feel.
Time flew by, and it was time to say goodbye and end the speech. At the end of the meeting, Imam Khamenei mentioned a nice anecdote about a few women who might violate the rights of their husbands, which made those present laugh.
This anecdote came after his careful observation about the oppression of some women by the hoarse voices of men, their vast stature, and physical strength. He also highlighted the need to firmly apply Islamic rules and legislation to protect women.
The Leader then got up, and the ladies stood up to pay their respects. However, no one wanted to leave. Out of respect for his daughters, His Eminence stood longer than usual as his meetings ended.
Some of the women chanted slogans, others waved their hands, some carried their children in their arms so that they could enjoy looking at the face of their Leader in the last moments of the meeting. Others stood on their chairs for a final glimpse of their Leader.
Some had tears flowing down their faces just like when His Eminence first appeared. The only difference now was that these tears were filled with joy as well as a deep longing that afflicted their hearts from that moment on.
Hezbollah firmly condemned on Tuesday as a “hideous offense” Charlie Hebdo’s defamatory cartoons of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, calling on France not to be part of the aggression.
“Once again, the Charlie Hebdo ominous magazine attacks our sanctities and honored figures,” Hezbollah’s Media Relations Office said in a statement, pointing to previous offences by the French magazine against Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), Prophet Issa (Jesus) and other religious figures.
“The magazine targets today the supreme Islamic figure in the world, Imam Khamenei, who is not only a leader of a great country, but also an Imam and religious reference for tens of millions of Muslims and an icon of humanity, freedom, dignity, resistance and pride.”
“We, in Hezbollah, firmly denounce the hideous act committed by this magazine, as we call on free people around the globe to do so.”
The Lebanese resistance party, meanwhile, urged French authorities to take “decisive measures in a bid to hold the offenders accountable.”
“Justifying the offense by attributing it to the so-called ‘freedom of expression’ is now exposed and futile,” Hezbollah’s statement read.
It lashed out at the West for adopting double standards, saying: “We have all witnessed the West’s double standards when the cause opposes with its major political interests.”
“The French government has to avoid being part of this offense and to dissociate its political disagreement with Iran from allowing impudent magazines like Charlie Hebdo to attack sanctities and dignified figures of Muslims.”
Lebanon – Three years ago, on January 2020, the world has observed a very important event, the first Iranian military response to the assassination of Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani. The Iranian reprisal was directed against the American base Ain al-Asad in Iraq. This military response came directly after an order by Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei to the leadership of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard [IRG] to carry out a decisive and clear military strike against the Americans.
Regardless of the number of American casualties and the destruction that devastated the notorious American stronghold, the strike by itself is a remarkable event by the full sense of the political and military word.
Never before, has any power, regional or international, dared to challenge the American empire, let alone announce threats and carry them out clearly.
The US doctrine shock and awe that has been carried out by the American troops in many countries and against many governments did not materialize in the Iranian case. In Afghanistan, the Americans occupied the country, and this later on took place in Iraq as well, not to mention many other Latin American governments.
Tehran has never bowed down to the American pressures nor did it surrender to its blackmail.
In every problem Iran suffered or suffers since the advent of the Islamic Republic, Washington has a full hand of aggression and conspiracy.
Nonetheless, Tehran not only confronted the US conspiracy with full determination and resolve but also stood up to the US challenges and retaliated wherever it deemed necessary and has drawn the redlines to the Americans.
The Iranian account record with Washington has not settled down, it is still open as Iran has reserved its right for the just punishment against the American administration under former US President Donald Trump that took the decision to assassinate General Soleimani.
Washington should expect the punishment anytime in the future, as the horrible crime should not go without a very heavy price that the American perpetrators should pay for.
The Axis of Resistance too has its own declared goal to evict the Americans from all over the region. All the efforts should be organized and coordinated to this end. This aim should be pursued relentlessly, the US occupation and military presence should not feel safe at any time anywhere in the region. A time will come when all the region will be free from the American malignant and sinister presence. People’s awareness about the hostility and animosity of the Americans is growing by the day, and their understanding for America’s conspiracies and hegemonic imperialist nature is deepening.
Washington had been sowing the wind decades and it’s time to yield the hurricanes. Hopefully this will be soon!
On 9 January, the US-based Meta company overturned its decision to remove posts calling for the demise of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, specifically posts containing the phrase “death to Khamenei.”
The Metaverse company explained that the phrase is not a literal threat to the Iranian supreme leader. Anti-government social media posts commonly use the term ‘marg bar Khamenei’ which translates to “down with” the supreme leader in Farsi to English, with decision-makers in Meta saying it is “It is a rhetorical, political slogan, not a credible threat.”
These captions are in reference to the alleged murder of Kurdish-Iranian national Mahsa Amini by Iran’s morality police, which resulted in nationwide protests against the Iranian government and brought instability to the nation.
Allowing such chants to be posted directly violates Meta’s policy of preventing users from inciting violence. However, political experts suggest that this double standard proves Meta’s ambiguous and inconsistent post-regulations.
Meta’s board said: “in the Iranian context … Meta must do more to respect freedom of expression and permit the use of rhetorical threats. The Iranian government systematically represses freedom of expression, and digital spaces have become a key forum for dissent. In such situations, it is vital that Meta supports users’ voices.”
US-based social media platforms are known for censoring posts that spread misinformation or incite violence, yet commonly allow posts that dehumanize nations that fall within West Asia’s resistance axis, including countries such as Palestine, Yemen, Russia, and Iran.
Last week, ‘Zahak,’ an updated game available on Google Play for free, allows users to play as Iranian protesters whose main mission is to fight high-ranking officials in the Islamic Republic, with the final goal being the assassination of Khamenei and to overthrow the government in Tehran.
This is a step up from the latest Call of Duty (CoD) game, which included a stage in which the player must carry out the assassination of an Iranian general bearing a striking resemblance to Soleimani, the fallen Quds Force commander. Despite the provocative nature of that particular CoD level, the name of the Iranian general depicted was – at the very least – rebranded from Soleimani to ‘Ghorbrani.’
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi commemorates IRGC Quds Force commander martyred leader Qassem Soleimani on the third anniversary of his martyrdom.
A child carrying a poster commemorating martyred leaders Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis
Martyr Major General Qassem Soleimani was a prominent and influential figure on the battlefields of resistance, and he took incredibly unique steps in his line, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Tuesday on the third anniversary of the martyrdom of Maj Gen Soleimani and Popular Mobilization Forces Vice President Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis.
“Martyr Soleimani worked on and developed the structure of resistance in the region without religious or sectarian discrimination, and it wanted to defend the region from evil,” Raisi underlined.
Furthermore, the Iranian President highlighted that Soleimani was a prime model in combatting arrogance and terrorism, noting that he defeated ISIS and undermined the US all over the world.
“The Americans wanted to rob the peoples of their identity, but martyr Soleimani was working on building and underscoring peoples’ identities,” Raisi said.
“Just as commander Soleimani fended off your expansionist plans, today, martyr Soleimani will quell you once again,” Raisi said. “The Iranian people thwarted your plans of war that you waged in all areas,” Raisi told the enemies of the Islamic Republic.
“We will never forget the blood of martyr Soleimani and know that he will be avenged eventually,” the Iranian President added. “This large crowd and those similar to it all over the world are telling you that you have lost all of these wars, and you will meet a similar fate in all of your upcoming wars.”
Meanwhile, martyr Soleimani’s daughter, Zeinab, called on all of the leaders of the axis of resistance to adhere to the path and line of the martyr and to safeguard his views while fulfilling the rights of the Iranian people.
“The Iranian people have made strides this year, and I thank you dearly for all you have offered so far,” Soleimani added.
During a meeting with the family of martyr Soleimani and the officials of the General Soleimani Commemoration Ceremonies, Iranian leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei considered that breathing a new spirit into the Resistance front was an outstanding and essential part of Soleimani’s endeavors.
The Iranian leader explained that “by strengthening the physical, spiritual and mental aspects of the Resistance, the General preserved, equipped and revived this everlasting and growing phenomenon against the Zionist regime and the influence of the US and other arrogant countries.”
Khamenei pointed out that the testimony of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about General Soleimani’s struggles is a great means for understanding the importance of the martyr’s work in reviving the Resistance.
“General Soleimani used the experience that he had attained during the period of the Holy Defense as well as the advice of his comrades to strengthen the Resistance by relying on the internal capacities of these same countries,” he highlighted.
The Iranian leader praised Soleimani’s accomplishments and referred to the manner in which the martyr uprooted the terrorist acts of ISIS, pointing out that General Soleimani had done very well in that test.
On January 3, 2020, the US carried out a drone strike authorized by former US president Donald Trump targeting a car carrying the commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC General Qassem Soleimani, and his Iraqi trench-mate and the second-in-command of Iraqi PMU (Popular Mobilization Units), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Martyr Soleimani was on an official visit to Iraq and was transported in a car with Martyr al-Muhandis from Baghdad’s International Airport upon his arrival before being assassinated by the US.
Days after his martyrdom, the anti-terror icon’s body was transferred to Iran and was laid to rest in his hometown of Kerman. On Saturday, the head of the special committee in charge of the case, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, confirmed Iran is in the final stages of releasing an official indictment on the murder of IRGC’s Quds Force Commander.
The US, as it does business, as usual, has attempted to block the legal case prosecution. Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, noted that “unfortunately, both the Americans and some other western countries are creating obstacles in the way of judiciary procedure, but the Islamic Republic of Iran, too, is not hand-tied.”
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Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei holds a meeting with General Soleimani’s family and members of his commemoration committee. (Photo by Leader.ir)
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has lauded sacrifices made by late commander General Qassem Soleimani, saying the anti-terror icon’s great work was to protect, empower, equip and revive the resistance front against Israel and the US.
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Iran’s top anti-terror commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani
An academic has described Iran’s top anti-terror commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, as the “architect of resistance” and a “unifying figure” in life and death.
Pro-Palestine professor, David Miller, sacked by Bristol University over his criticism of Israel and Zionism, made the comments about General Soleimani in Press TV’s Palestine Declassified aired on Saturday.
Soleimani, the chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, was assassinated on January 3, 2020, in a US air raid outside Baghdad International Airport under the direct order of then-US president Donald Trump.
Miller mentioned the “practical effect” of Soleimani’s legacy on enabling the Axis of Resistance as well as Palestinian factions to collaborate with each other.
“All the Palestinian factions got together and still remain unified, even though the Israelis tried to split them apart; I think that the resistance is unified much stronger than it has been for many years and that is directly because of Soleimani’s activity,” he said, adding that, “he was a unifying figure in life and death.”
Miller also said that Soleimani was the “architect of resistance” and brought together the forces in the Axis of Resistance, a transnational organization, willing to fight US imperialism and target and fight Zionism.
He also lauded the anti-terror commander for his endeavors in bringing the resistance together despite the Shia-Sunni divide.
“He worked seamlessly across the sectarian divide, and the support from [the Palestinian resistance movement] Hamas, predominantly a Sunni organization, is unparalleled for any other particular leader in the Iranian government,” he said.
“Soleimani is somebody who, during his life, accomplished military feats, for which the whole world should be grateful,” Miller added.
‘Gen. Soleimani steadfast ally of Palestinian resistance’
Aamar Kazmi, an anti-imperialist political activist, also told Press TV that General Soleimani was certainly seen as a “steadfast ally of the Palestinian resistance.”
“Many Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, admire Soleimani, display portraits of him and even in the West Bank, and there are murals of him on the apartheid wall, so he is very well respected in Palestine and lots of tributes were paid to him upon his martyrdom,” he said.
‘Soleimani, architect of defeat of ISIS’
Elsewhere in his remarks, Kazmi said Soleimani was the architect of the defeat of Daesh (ISIS) terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
“Qassem Soleimani’s role was quite unique; over the years, he was on the ground, literally all over the place in Iraq and Syria, building connections, planning and strategizing, providing inspiration and morale. Sometimes it is possible to attribute too much to a single individual but I do not think this is one of those cases,” he concluded.
During his lifetime, General Soleimani played a significant and direct role all across the region.
In 2006, Soleimani sent military support to Hezbollah to help eject the Zionist invasion of southern Lebanon.
In Syria, Soleimani assumed personal control of the Iranian intervention. He reportedly coordinated the war from a base in Damascus with Syrian officers, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shia militia forces.
In 2015, he was the main architect of the joint intervention involving Russia as a new partner with Assad and Hezbollah. Soleimani personally briefed President Putin on the strategy.
In 2017, he dealt a decisive blow against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq.
General Soleimani was targeted in a US drone strike directly ordered by Trump, which also killed the deputy chief of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis among others.
Five days later, Iran, which had vowed to avenge Soleimani’s assassination, launched a barrage of missiles at the US-run Ain al-Assad airbase in Iraq’s western province of Anbar, as well as another airbase in Erbil.
The Islamic Republic also said the attack, dubbed Operation Martyr Soleimani, was a “first slap” and that its retaliation was not over.
Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami
The Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) stressed on Thursday that Iran’s enemies’ dream of dominating Iran will never come true.
“There is no place for weak nations in the political arena of the world, nations that are weak inevitably surrender,” said Major General Hossein Salami, as quoted by Mehr news agency
“Being strong means that society should regulate its actions and international relations based on its own will, and make its own patterns of friendship and enmity and act on its own rules,” he added.
Iran’s enemy is angry and did not want Iran to be influential in the region, Salami said, adding that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution has turned Iran into a powerful force in the region.
“Today, Iran is continuously strengthening its drone and missile and military power, which is not acceptable to the enemy,” he noted. “The enemy has tried all ways including economic sanctions to imposing war, psychological operations, trying to isolate Iran in the international arena and stopping Iran from playing role in regional crises, but it has not been successful.”
The enemy’s dream of dominating Islamic Iran will never come true, but it exists in the enemy’s mind and uses all its power to achieve it, the IRGC chief added.
The explosion of protests in Iran that began in September were not about the Islamic Republic’s “hijab law” specifically, but about the abuses and excesses of the so-called morality police – the Gasht-e-Ershad (also known simply as Ershad, or in English, the ‘guidance patrol’) – against regular Iranian women who were considered to be immodestly garbed.
Public disgruntlement was triggered by the widely-publicized death of Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended by the Ershad and died while in their custody.
Although subsequent video footage released by Iranian police authorities showed that Amini had collapsed herself – likely due to her personal health history, as her official autopsy indicates, and not from alleged “beatings” – Iranians argued that the stress of it all may have triggered that collapse.
In the weeks ahead, protests morphed into riots, and people were killed, both civilians and security forces. Whether the two sides shot at each other, or other, external provocateurs were at play, is not the subject of this commentary.
The question is more where these recent events will take Iran, and whether public sentiment on the hijab will be addressed by the country’s governing bodies – and how.
Iran’s very diffused decision-making centers
Iran is by no means the ‘caricature dictatorship’ often portrayed in western mainstream media. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remains the final authority on strategic matters, it is a privilege he rarely exercises to counter domestic critics.
As opposed as he was to Iranian nuclear talks with western powers, Khamenei fully permitted the government of former President Hassan Rouhani to proceed with its negotiation agenda, in its desire to normalize economic relations and end Iran’s then-isolation.
There is probably no figure in Iran who has gone on the record as vehemently as Khamenei, warning that the west is never, ever to be trusted, and that Iran’s greatest power lies in its economic self-sufficiency and complete independence from western-dominated global networks.
And yet Khamenei sat back and allowed the Rouhani administration to pursue a policy that completely contradicted his deepest national convictions.
The Supreme Leader’s actions, however, speak to the very real diffusion inherent in Iranian decision-making processes today. There is no single authority in the state. Decisions are either made collaboratively or in heated and often very public disputes that play out in the Iranian media, in parliamentary debates, or behind closed doors.
In essence, Iran has three main power centers today: First, the Supreme Leader and his various state revolutionary organs that include the army, the police force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the millions-strong volunteer Basij forces.
Second, Iran’s government and its state institutions that include the elected president, his cabinet, the country’s ministries, and parliament.
And third, the hawza (seminary) of Qom, Iran’s religious center, which consists of thousands of Shia scholars, authorities, and influencers who impact the interpretation of religion, actions, and behaviors for the Islamic Republic.
All three power centers impact state policy in varying ways, and their fortunes have all ebbed and flowed at different times. Within each of these centers exists a vast network of supporters, institutions, media, economic interests, and influential personalities. They, as in other democratic societies, vie for their perspectives to be taken into account and put into action.
To imagine for a second that a single person or decision-making body can issue a directive on an issue as complex and symbolic as the hijab, is to be absolutely clueless about the intricacy, contradictions, and diversity within the Islamic Republic’s body politic.
A view from the ground
During a two-week visit to Tehran in late November, I noticed significant differences on the ground than in my many previous visits, which stopped in January 2020 due to Covid travel restrictions.
During my last visit to the Iranian capital in 2020, one would occasionally see Iranian women sitting without their hijabs in restaurants. Today, however, the ladies were walking on streets, in malls, at the airport, in traditional bazaars, universities and parks, both uptown and downtown, without the customary head-covering.
What is of utmost importance in the current heated discourse on the Iranian hijab is that this ‘uncovering’ trend did not start in September with the protests. This critical detail goes entirely unmentioned in the western media narrative.
Many Iranian women – in the intervening three years since my last visit – had dropped the headscarf, and the scenes in my photos above have been the norm for years. Did the pandemic help relax the social norms during these years? Nobody I asked had a clear answer. “It just became normal,” was a common refrain.
Today, you can see Iranian ladies – young and old – without a hijab, with a headscarf, and with the more traditional floor-length chador walking together on the same streets; everybody doing their own thing and minding their own business.
It is a fascinating development, because by law in Iran, hijab is mandatory. And yet nobody forcibly implements this law until the Ershad pops back onto the scene.
This is important, because the Ershad is not always there, at all times. While they have been a functioning body since 2006, Iranian authorities appear to only mobilize them at specific intervals: perhaps Qom is getting restless over morality issues, or conservatives are vying for influence over reformists, or there are geopolitical tensions on the country’s borders.
The point is that the Ershad has never been a constant on the streets of Iran, but usually a result of something happening politically somewhere in the country.
Authorities gather to discuss the hijab
Nonetheless, three months of protests and riots later, the issue of the hijab appears to be coming to a head among the Islamic Republic’s competing power centers.
In my personal experience, Iran’s security branches like the IRGC – which operate under Khamenei’s authority – are the least belligerent on the hijab issue. They are focused on foreign infiltration, sabotage, anti-terror operations, and warfare, not on the nitty-gritty of daily life and behaviors.
The hijab is a ‘symbol’ of the Islamic Republic, and symbols – as we have seen in countless hybrid wars conducted in West Asia and beyond – are the first and easiest targets for external provocateurs.
Whether it is changing the colors of the national flag to symbolize opposition, or crafting ditties to replace the national anthem, or encouraging women to whip off their headscarves and videotape it – these are the low-hanging fruit of hybrid warfare.
In a January 2018 interview by a private Iranian publication that has a closed distribution and whose readers are specifically security officials and ‘principalists,’ I was asked about the use of these tools in Syria and Iran. My response, with some length-related edits, is below:
“Symbolic slogans, banners and props are a staple of western-styled ‘color revolutions.’ Iran saw the full impact of these tools in the ‘Green’ movement during the 2009 elections. The use of visual tools (a picture is worth a thousand words) to sum up a theme or aspiration that is instantly understandable to a wide audience – this is basic marketing. People do this in elections all the time, but now these concepts are being effectively utilized in information warfare at a geopolitical level.
The use of the green colonial-era flag in Syria was an easy way to quickly draw a larger number of the Syrian population into the ‘opposition’ tent. Basically anyone who had a grievance with the government – whether political, economic, social, religious – was urged to identify with the protest movement under the banner of this new flag. Syrian activists began to mobilize masses by ‘naming’ Friday protests, using language that sought to craft the opposition’s direction and to slowly Islamize it.
Slogans and props are easy propaganda tricks to employ to draw ‘uncommitted’ members of the population into embracing an anti-government position. Identity tools are an essential component of regime-change operations. You have to delegitimize the existing national symbols in order to craft new ones.
In Iran, the image of the young woman without her hijab swiftly became one of the symbols of the protests on social media. Ironically, the hijab could potentially be viewed as an ‘identity prop’ for the 1979 Islamic Revolution – an easily identifiable symbol which immediately identified a distinct political or religious outlook. As a result, in foreign-backed propaganda assaults on Iran, the hijab will almost always be a target to delegitimize or mock.” (Emphasis mine)
The interview was published alongside a photo of me without a hijab. A few weeks later, I received a message from a top Iranian analyst who is reportedly closely affiliated with the IRGC’s Quds Force. He sent a screenshot of my comments on the hijab, and asked if I had written this. To my surprise, he told me that he fully agreed with my assessment.
On another occasion, Iranian IRGC-backed publication Javan requested an interview along with a translation of one of my Syria articles for a special-issue magazine on the regional Axis of Resistance. Again, they published a photo of myself without the hijab.
Hijab and the state
Simply put, the hijab isn’t a priority issue for Iran’s security sector. They have more important fish to fry. But it is a vital subject for the theologians inside and outside Qom.
And perhaps also for the millions of Iranian women who choose to don it, and don’t want to be bullied out of it, as were their grandmothers in 1936 when then-monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi outlawed the traditional Islamic head covering.
“With the ban on hijab, many women stayed inside their homes for years or left home only in the dark or hidden inside carriages to avoid confrontation with the police who would if necessary use force to unveil them. Even older Christian and Jewish women found the ban on headscarves hard to comply with,” writes Maryam Sinaee – ironically, for Saudi-backed publication Iran International, which runs 24/7 propaganda for Iranian oppositionists nowadays.
These matters aside, Iran’s security leaders have an unusually strong case to put to the clergy today: ‘The hijab, which we respect, has entered the national security realm. Foreign-backed agendas have weaponized the hijab to promote regime-change operations.’ This is not a position the clergy can argue given recent events.
It is probably why Iranian authorities are reportedly considering a host of options to take the threat off the table, including, potentially, the suspension or dissolution of the Ershad, to be replaced by a general program to teach and advise about Islamic modesty across the country, for both men and women.
The Ershad – established under the administration of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – are off the streets now, and have been for many weeks. And the three main Iranian centers of authority are deep in conversation about how to calm residual tensions and address this social grievance among segments of the population.
Interestingly, this development somewhat mirrors that of arch-rival Saudi Arabia across the Persian Gulf, where the “mutawa,” or Saudi religious police, were stripped of their once-unchecked powers and privileges in 2016 by royal decree. Since then, it has become more common to see women publically unveiled and not wearing the traditional black abaya over their regular clothes, despite there never having been a Saudi written law mandating it.
Qom – and many others – will never agree to retract the hijab law. After all, its over-zealous enforcement by the few was what the argument was originally about. Like many laws without teeth that remain on the books of countries everywhere, Iran’s hijab law may experience a similar fate.
But while we can expect a gentler Iranian hand in regard to the hijab, it will be also be accompanied by a merciless de-fanging of those who sought to use this symbol of piety to undermine the state.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly led by late Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, and now under the leadership of His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, has unfairly been subjected to a western-led propagandist scheme to portray it as a grave for women and their rights.
Little do know, however, that the Iranian women indeed have plentiful rights, that on many levels, beat those men enjoy all over the Iranian soil.
As per the many teachings of the Holy Quran, the Muslims’ guide and their sacred book for instructions in every aspect of living and transactions, Iran as an Islamic Republic is the leading example of interpreting those guidelines accurately, and applying them in the manner that honors women and preserves all their rights.
One of the many verses in the holy book that support both genders’ equality is the 195th in the surah of Al Imran, which reads: {So, their Lord responded to them: “I will never deny any of you—male or female—the reward of your deeds. Both are equal in reward…}. Another verse, although highlighting the equal rights of both genders, lays an added responsibility for men to shoulder. The verse says: {…Women have rights similar to those of men equitably, although men have a degree [of responsibility] above them…} Al-Baqarah 228.
Likewise, Imam Khamenei, ever since assuming office as Leader of the Islamic Revolution more than three decades ago, has not been only laying emphasis on the importance of educating the women of Iran, but also exposing the western scheme targeting them.
In a speech addressing a group of women from the 3000-years-old city of Orumiyeh on September 18, 1996, Imam Khamenei advised the families to allow their daughters to pursue their educations.
“The families should not think, over religious fanaticism, that they should prevent their daughters from pursuing their higher education. No! Islam does not prescribe such a thing. Islam does not discriminate between girls and boys in acquiring knowledge. Just as your sons pursue their educations at higher levels, you should allow your daughters to pursue their education at higher levels too. Let our young girls study and acquire knowledge and awareness. Let them recognize their status and appreciate their self-esteem, so that they will realize how baseless and empty are the imperialists’ propaganda about women. Under the aegis of education, these facts can be realized. Girls should be educated even in the villages. I advise parents to allow their daughters to go to school to receive education. If they are talented and interested in pursuing their education after primary schools, and if they wish to go to universities, do not prevent them. Allow them to be among the well-educated members of our Islamic society.”
Back since those old days and up until now, the rhetoric didn’t change. Focusing on the empowerment of women as an integral part of the Islamic community has been conveyed in every aspect of the Iranian society. Iranian women have proudly reached posts that women in other spots in the world still dream of. There are female scientists, diplomats, politicians, spokespeople, sportspeople, police, army, and volunteer forces members.
Talking numbers:
Only within the Basij [mobilization force], there are some 10 million female members out of Iran’s 85.03 million population. 75% of university students are females. Additionally, women in Iran hold 25.2 % of all government positions at all levels, including the highest, middle, and basic executive positions. There are more than 1000 women working as judges in the country as well.
Besides their high-ranking positions in the decision-making domain, women in Iran have been leading in the fields of health, education, environment, entrepreneurship, media, and sports.
Iranian women are in charge of 40% of top executive positions in the Environment Organization. Over 2390 women serve on the boards of directors of knowledge-based companies. They have won 3302 medals at recent international sporting events, and female athletes possess Olympic and Paralympic quota places. Female directors and actresses are jury presidents at 45 international film festivals. Moreover, women’s participation in information technology has increased by 31.5% over the past year.
All attempts to distort the image of the Islamic Republic, either by campaigning against the Hijab, which is the normal aspect that preserves the womanly identity under the law of Islam, or by faking accusations that only serve this western propaganda, represent a small fraction of the entire Iranian society, which the leadership also respects. However, facts on ground remain clear. The biggest share of Iranians respects its country’s rules, which has been Islamic for several decades, it is nothing new. The leadership, in turn, is wiser and more pious than some are trying to portray.
{…All honors and power belong to Allah, His Messenger, and the believers, yet the hypocrites do not know.} – Holy Quran | Al-Munafiqun ~ 8
Have the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran begun to regain the initiative in the “combined war” that was imposed on them? What is the horizon for the next stage in dealing with the emerging internal-external challenge?
When Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei indicated in a speech to a gathering of school students earlier this month that the enemy had a “plan” behind igniting the “combined war” currently targeting Iran, His Eminence was recalling the information contained in a joint statement of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards on October 28. The statement included data, most notably:
The involvement of the CIA and the British, “Israeli” and Saudi intelligence in the disturbances within the “plan to destroy Iran”. The planning and practical implementation of the bulk of the riots was carried out by the Mossad.
Smuggling military and espionage equipment for subversive networks into Iran.
The CIA organized training courses for some of its Iranian agents, including “N.H.” who took the first photo of the late Mahsa Amini while she was in the hospital.
Setting American institutes for riots several months before they occurred, as they ordered their agents to abuse sanctities, burn the Holy Quran and mosques, and target security forces and clerics.
The decline of “protests” and the progress of assassinations
About two months after the outbreak of the protests, it can be said that their course is taking a downward turn based on several indicators. The first chapter of it, which is to stir people up and push them to the street, has exhausted its energy, even if it has not completely ended yet. Now it is mainly dependent on armed groups carrying out assassination attacks against security personnel. Over the past few days, these groups carried out attacks that led to the killing of security officers who were working to control the situation and interview some people on the street [in Mashhad, Isfahan, Kurdistan, Khuzestan, and Baluchistan]. It seems that the aim of these attacks is to escalate the situation again in the street by provoking the security forces to draw them into a reaction that sheds more blood.
The shootings took place in provinces where the activities of separatist armed groups are concentrated, such as Khuzestan, Baluchistan, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan, and incidents took place in other regions [Isfahan, Tehran, Mashhad] to give the impression that all of Iran is a hotspot. However, the movements remain limited in comparison to the vastness of Iran, and the number of participants in each movement in the street is in the hundreds at best.
In a preliminary reading, it appears that the security services are acting according to a plan that takes into account the following objectives:
Luring: Detecting riot groups and their organizers by giving them an opportunity to go out in public, as what happened in the past weeks, when a large number of people were arrested based on what was captured from cameras, drones and information of informants on the ground.
Gaining public opinion: To allow people who were affected by the demands raised by the rioters to see the truth about these people through their practices and to reveal the fall of a large number of security personnel during the protests at the hands of armed and rioting groups. It is worth noting here that the climate in which these disturbances were born affected some of the political elites in the country who did not take a position on what was happening, which the Iranian president referred to as “a clouding of the minds of the elite”. This reveals a loophole similar to what happened in Lebanon after October 17, 2019, where some figured had been affected by the propaganda atmosphere on social media and foreign media. This imposes a tax on solution that has a greater political and security cost.
Reducing casualties among people during security measures on the ground to prevent the enemy from benefiting from any mistakes that might contribute to the siding of bewildered Iranians to the rioters against public order. This may lead to losses and sacrifices among the officers of the security forces, but this price remains small given the goal of not harming the largest number of people.
The Iranian security services were able to defuse the tension in some areas after opening dialogues with many social elites, as many people who were concerned about the safety of their regions and countries confirmed that the issue was not related to specific demands, but rather to dragging the country into an open confrontation with dangerous consequences.
In parallel, the security services are carrying out local operations to dismantle many cells responsible for killing people and security personnel and arresting their members, which is expected to lead to the dispersion of these groups and the scattering of their efforts and ability to communicate. And the security services show that they have accurate information about the people involved, based on technical tracking and relying on surveillance cameras and drones that play a role in monitoring movements on the ground.
In his speech to a delegation from the people of Isfahan a couple of days ago, Imam Khamenei drew attention to two points: the first is reassuring, in which he said that the current events will be accommodated and that “rioters and those behind them are too despicable to be able to harm the regime”. The second is that the people respond to these practices with greater awareness through massive participation in the funeral ceremonies of security personnel who are killed by the enemy. This last observation was tested and seen clearly in the funerals of martyrs who died in different provinces, and this would “turn the threat into an opportunity” to mobilize the people in the face of the enemy’s plans.
Direct US Intervention
Also, within the combined war, there are direct interventions led by the United States to add fuel to the fire and encourage the continuation of the unrest through:
Statements by American and European political leaders criticizing what they call “violations against protesters in Iran”, in an unbalanced view that reflects a strategy pursued to undermine the Islamic Republic’s government.
The mobilization of the media and the use of the capabilities of social media platforms in order to undermine Islamic values and transform the current problem into a position on the Islamic identity of Iranian society [the hijab, turban, flag of the Islamic Republic, pictures of martyrs, various religious symbols]. This malicious endeavor is being carried out by some idiots who see the West as their reference, and not the broad masses of the Iranian people who are proud of their religious values.
Imposing commercial sanctions on Iranian companies and others on Iranian media personalities, particularly on state television, which broadcasts video clips of confessions of those arrested in the assassination crimes.
Pressure through the United Nations General Assembly, where Western countries pushed for a session that voted to condemn Iran regarding alleged “violations” of human rights, noting that the number of countries that supported the resolution [78 votes] represents less than half of the number of countries that participated in the session [178 countries], where the rest preferred to abstain [69 countries], and a smaller number dared to refuse to condemn [31 countries]. This comes at a time when the US State Department exempted the Saudi Crown Prince from prosecution in a case brought before US courts in the case of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in exchange for US commercial interests.
Pressure through the United Nations Human Rights Council as well, as it will meet within days to vote on a project directed against Iran, after it was prepared in a text proposed by Western countries.
Pressure in the United Nations Women’s Committee “to get Iran out of the committee,” as US Vice President Kamala Harris pledged.
Pressure through the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] by holding a meeting condemning Iran for “not cooperating with the agency in the investigation of uranium enrichment activities”, without regard to the steps presented by Tehran in this context, including the signing of the Additional Cooperation Protocol. Washington hopes, in coordination with its partners, to bring Iran’s file to the Security Council, claiming that it poses a threat to international peace and security. This claim is not approved by several countries, including Russia and China, which indicates that the ultimate US goal is to defame Iran and harm its reputation and credibility in international forums, in preparation for its isolation, to prevent it from achieving great gains in the event that an agreement regarding the nuclear file was reached later.
Thus, the US administration proves that it uses the United Nations with all its bodies to implement its own agenda aimed at subjugating Iran and achieving what it failed to achieve in the Vienna meetings. It is concretely confirmed that the Biden and Trump administrations are two sides of the same coin, as the current administration completes the investment in what its predecessor began in terms of the strict blockade against the Islamic Republic.
There remains a final sign: Iranian media reported that Iran had informed Qatar that it would not respond during the period of the World Cup hosted by Doha to external parties that planned and organized interference in its internal affairs, in response to Qatar’s positive position of not cooperating with the efforts aimed at preventing the participation of Iran’s national team in the event. And if this is true – and it appears that it is according to some evidence – then this means that the authorities of the Islamic Republic will take advantage of the period of the Qatar World Cup in order to rearrange the internal security situation, after which it will devote itself to dealing with the sources of the external threat.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei underlined that in every era, the presence of the Basij [mobilization] forces emphasized that the Islamic Revolution is still reviving, pointing to that in Iran there are millions of officially-registered Basji members, in addition to the other unregistered millions, who are all active in the Iranian society.
Imam Khamenei made the remarks on Saturday morning as he received massive numbers of Basij members at the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah in Tehran marking the Basij Week. Additionally, five million Basij members from all over Iran took part in this meeting through videoconference participation.
His Eminence noted that the mobilization is one of the blessed innovations of our prominent Imam Khomeini, explaining that in such days, and nine years after the formation of the mobilization forces, the late Imam gave his sublime speech praising the Basij, in which he said “it is the center of passion and the unknown martyrs, and a fruitful tree.”
“It is my honor and pride that I belong to those Basij members,” Imam Khamenei said.
The Basij is not just a fighting institution, it is more sublime and has to do with the cultural, rhetorical, and ideological mobilization… this culture is the pure service of the nation and its people, Sayyed Ali Khamenei went on to say.
Highlighting the importance of the Basij culture, Imam Khamenei explained that it is to dig in mud to support the flood-hit households, and to be at the forefront in fighting the pandemic and to possibly die to save the lives of the patients; the Basij culture is not to be tired while supporting the believers, and without expecting praise for doing so.
“The Basij forces are daring, don’t fear the enemy, and don’t give it a chance to move on. They also have the potential and capabilities to keep up with every step of the Revolution,” Imam Khamenei also noted.
“In every era, the presence of the Basij forces emphasized that the Revolution is still reviving; the Revolution is alive despite the will of the enemies who can’t withstand this word.”
Imam Khamenei highlighted that during the latest attacks across Iran, the Basij members put themselves in danger to prevent people from facing oppression, adding that those forces have a prominent position within the Muslim world.
With respect to the conspiracy against Iran, Imam Khamenei pointed to the great importance of the Islamic Republic for its huge resources and its geographical position between the East and the West. This is why the colonial front has been working against it, His Eminence explained, adding that the Zionist entity has been implanted as a camp for Europe and the US, and they made it dominant in the Middle East.
“When the Islamic Revolution in Iran emerged victorious, it twisted all of the West’s the balances and calculations… it is a phenomenon that dealt the arrogant powers a major blow and left them shocked and lost. The West worked to overthrow the revolutionary government in Iran and to eliminate it, and this is why they imposed the 8-year war, but Saddam Hussein failed in this war and they understood that they cannot confront Iran,” His Eminence also noted.
Meanwhile, the West tended to target the countries that have ties with Iran, in which it admitted to operating in six countries that are Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Somalia; however, Iran’s role in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon contributed to foiling the US scheme to target the Islamic Republic through those countries.
“Martyr Qassem Soleimani played the most prominent role in Iran’s victory against the US scheme in the region,” Imam Khamenei mentioned, making sure to underscore the Basij forces’ role in confronting the terrorist group Daesh, which was formed by the enemies and attacked the holy shrines.
On the nuclear talks, Imam Khamenei said the enemy wants the nuclear deal to prevent Iran from producing weapons and drones to defend itself. Additionally, a group of the unwary individuals at home repeat the words of the enemies, which aim at weakening Iran.
As His Eminence highlighted the importance of confronting every rioter at home, he warned that the scale of the battle is much wider, advising the Basij members not to forget that our main and true confrontation is against the global arrogance.
Imam Khamenei felt sorry for some of what can be read in newspapers and on social media platforms, which consider that we must solve the problem with the US to stop the riot. When we committed to our obligations according to the nuclear deal, the US didn’t, His Eminence said, adding that our problem with the US could not be solved through negotiations, and Washington doesn’t accept but obtaining one privilege after the other.
Who is the Iranian citizen who is keen on his nation but is ready to compromise to the US on Iran’s power? Imam Khamenei asked. “The enemies’ media outlets publish lies and fake news whose content is misleading.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Imam Khamenei praised the members of Iran’s national team who have pleased the country by clinching their first victory on Friday during a World Cup match.
“The enemies attempt to infiltrate through our forces,” Imam Khamenei told the Basji members, advising them to beware in this regard.
The positions of the Iranian Leader of the Islamic Revolution in front of Basij
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei delivers a speech during a meeting with a group of people from the central Iranian city of Isfahan in the capital Tehran on November 19, 2022. (Photo by Khamenei.ir)
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says arrogant powers are disgruntled by Iran’s scientific advances as tremendous progress being achieved by the Islamic Republic is consigning liberal democracy propagated by the West to history.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a speech he delivered during a Saturday meeting with a group of people from the central Iranian city of Isfahan in the capital Tehran on Saturday.
“Westerners could loot the entire world for more than two centuries through the discourse of liberal democracy. They made interventions, claiming there was no freedom in one place or there did not exit democracy somewhere else. They plundered the national assets and resources of the country as a result,” he said.
“Poor Europe became rich at the expense of many rich countries like India and China. Iran was not directly colonized, but they did everything they could here,” the Leader pointed out.
Ayatollah Khamenei said, “Afghanistan is an example just before your own eyes. Americans came and committed crimes in Afghanistan for 20 years. They perpetrated all forms of criminal acts, brought the same government that had overthrown back to power, and withdrew in a humiliating manner.”
He went on to hail the Islamic Republic of Iran as the establishment which has rejected the idea of liberal democracy, given its nation an identity, awakened and empowered them, and stood up against Western schools of thought.
Ayatollah Khamenei further noted that West’s enmity towards Iran is rooted in the fact that the Islamic Republic continues to make progress, and the whole world acknowledges such advancement – something which the West cannot stand.
“Should we have not made any progress, did not show up a strong presence in the region, our voice had faltered in the face of America and its arrogance and we were ready to accept its bullying, the ongoing pressures would have been much less,” the Leader of the Islamic Revolution added.
Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed out that the bids against Iran have been much greater anytime that the Islamic Republic has vociferously opposed its enemies.
The Leader also stressed that Washington has always been at the forefront of the anti-Iran campaign and its European allies are standing behind it.
Ayatollah Khamenei stated that all US presidents, including Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, have gone up against Iran in the years following the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and have relied on the support of the Israeli regime and certain regimes in the region to accomplish their so-called goals.
“Despite all such attempts, enemies have failed on the whole. Of course they have posed problems, such as sanctions, assassination of nuclear scientists, application of various political and security ploys, and even bribed some people inside the country to speak out against the Islamic establishment. But they could not stop the Iranian nation from progressing ahead,” the Leader stressed.
Pointing to the enemy’s extensive media facilities such as satellite networks, virtual space and mercenary TV channels for shattering people’s hopes, the Leader said, “Despite all these attempts, fortunately, hope and movement towards progress in the country is alive.”
Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that, “The enemy is trying to make not only the people and the youths, but also the officials lose hope, and unfortunately, the enemy has an internal extension that they are also trying to instill hopelessness and despair by using newspapers and cyberspace.”
Touching upon some instances of progress and forward movements in Iran in recent weeks, the Leader recounted Iranian scientists’ new method to treat leukemia, localization of one of the oil and gas extraction equipment, opening of a railway line in a part of Sistan and Baluchistan Province, which is an important part of the North-South railway, opening several factories, setting up the first offshore refinery, operating 6 power plants, unveiling one of the largest telescopes in the world, launching a satellite-carrying rocket and unveiling a new rocket.
Ayatollah Khamenei said such achievements were obtained at a time that the enemy was trying to prevent this forward-heading movement with riots.
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UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 