During recent months in Iran, the mullahs have faced various crises, both domestically and abroad. Since September 16, the nationwide protests following the tragic murder of Mahsa Amini, 22, by the “morality police” have shaken the entire theocracy.
Anti-government demonstrations have shown the mullahs’ vulnerability to a firm response. Time and again, barehanded citizens have pushed fully armed security forces to flee, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ atrocities remain futile.
U.S. President Joe Biden said, “It’s stunned me what it awakened in Iran. I didn’t expect the turn of events in Iran following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini.”
When he took the presidential office, Biden built his foreign policy on an immediate return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which ensured authoritarians in Iran that the U.S. government would do nothing against them aside from financial concessions.
Iranian Authorities’ Baseless Claims Over a Nuclear Deal
Recently, authorities in Iran have made differing statements about a near nuclear deal. As a part of their systematic suppression, officials have deceitfully claimed that the country’s economic situation will improve as soon as possible.
Speaking from the Armenian capital of Yerevan on October 23, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “Three days ago, we received a message from the United States, and told them that the (International Atomic Energy) Agency (IAEA)’s accusations against Iran’s nuclear program should be resolved before any agreement.”
He stressed, “We do not give any concessions to the American side, and we move within the framework of logic and the framework of an agreement that respects the red lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but at the same time, we never leave the negotiating table.”
Iranian citizens have experienced such claims before, believing that another nuclear deal only benefits authorities and their relatives. The people have grasped that they will never fulfill a decent life in Iran under this ruling system.
“For a normal life… for [removing] poverty… for future,” citizens from different walks of life recite as a protesting piece against the 43 years of ruthless crime, systematic corruption, and horrendous misery under the rule of the mullahs.
Citizens have been targeting the entire ruling system and its high-ranking officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in their slogans. Among the chants heard at demonstrations are: “Death to Khamenei”; “This is the year Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] is overthrown!”; “Four decades of crime; down with this regime”; and “Khamenei is a murderer; his rule is illegitimate.”
Outraged citizens also chant against the IRGC and its paramilitary Basij agents, who are responsible for the oppressive and plundering policies. Remarkably, in an effort to ensure his rule, Khamenei has filled all government positions, including MPs, ministers, and governors, with former IRGC commanders.
Amir-Abdollahian is notorious for his close ties with the slain IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for many crimes inside Iran and across the Middle East. Footage of the foreign minister kissing Soleimani’s forehead has been circulating on social media.
Foreign Correspondents Discover Tehran’s Vulnerability
For more than two decades, Western observers have wrongfully considered the mullahs’ attempts to acquire nuclear weapons as a means of power. They have also attributed bloody crackdowns on defenseless citizens, and Tehran’s malign behavior and terrorism, to this illusionary force.
Recent demonstrations and strikes in around 200 cities across Iran have plainly shown that these aggressive and oppressive measures are signals that the Iranian regime’s reign is profoundly shaky.
In such circumstances, even JCPOA architects and advocates have withdrawn from negotiations, saying, “We prioritize the Iranian people’s protests and their human rights.”
On October 13, the AFP quoted U.S. White House National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby, citing that a return to Iran deals is unlikely in the near future.
He said, “It’s not that we don’t want to see the JCPOA reimplemented; we, of course, do. We’re just not in a position where… that’s a likely outcome anytime in the near future. What we’re focused on is holding the (Iran) regime accountable for what they are doing to these innocent political protesters.”
A day earlier, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the Iran nuclear deal is “not our focus right now.” He added that the administration’s current focus “is on the remarkable bravery and courage that the Iranian people are exhibiting through their peaceful demonstrations, through the exercise of their universal right to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.”
In a nutshell, the people of Iran have forced the international community to recognize their quest for freedom, justice, equality, and human rights. Contrary to Tehran’s lobby groups and apologists, Iranians are calling on world powers to stop their appeasement policies and to no longer fuel the Iranian government’s oppressive apparatuses.
In their rallies across the globe, Iranians have demanded that world leaders:
- Recognize the Iranian people’s right to self-defense; recognize their right to struggle to overthrow religious fascism and establish freedom, democracy, and human rights;
- Designate the entire IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence as terrorist entities, expel their agents and operatives, and revoke their passports;
- Target the economic lifeline of Khamenei and the IRGC;
- Refer to the dictatorship’s dossier of the crackdown on protests and the massacres in 1988 and 2019 to the UN Security Council. Those directly involved in these crimes, especially Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi, must face justice.
