World View: Iran's Ayatollah Khamanei Rants, Accuses U.S. of Lying

World View: Iran's Ayatollah Khamanei Rants, Accuses U.S. of Lying

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Iran’s Ayatollah Khamanei rants and accuses the U.S. of lying
  • Peaceful protests in Bosnia turn into widespread violence

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamanei rants and accuses the U.S. of lying

Ayatollah Khamenei, sitting underneath a picture of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini (Fars)
Ayatollah Khamenei, sitting underneath a picture of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini (Fars)

Now that the first of the sanctions have been lifted, andinternational investors are beginning to flock to Iran, Iran’s supremeleader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei delivered an anti-American rant onSaturday to the Iranian Air Force commanders, accusing the Obamaadministration of lying:

“American officials, in negotiations with thecountry’s (Iran) officials, say we are not after regime change inIran but they are lying because if they had the ability to do thisthey would not hesitate one second.

The other reason behind US inability to change the Islamicestablishment [of Iran] is that the establishment relies on thenation’s faith, kindness and resolve. One can change the tactics,but principles must remain rock solid.”

The speech commemorated the 35th anniversary of the 1979 Great IslamicRevolution that brought Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah RouhollahKhomeini, to power.

Khamenei’s speech followed in incident on Friday, when the Americandelegation walked out of a speech in Tunisia at a ceremony honoringTunisia’s newly adopted constitution following the “Arab Spring.” Atthe ceremony, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani referred toIsrael as a “cancer” in the region on Friday:

“Even after the revolutions that happened in theregion, the US and Israel tried to divert and devastate some ofthe revolutions so that Israel can benefit.”

Khamenei and Larijani are both survivors of Iran’s 1979 Great IslamicRevolution which is being commemorated, and the great unifying themeof that revolution was that America was the Great Satan whose puppet,the Shah of Iran, had oppressed Iran’s people for years. These agingleaders keep trying to revive the unity of the 1979 Revolution byclaiming that America and Israel still want to defeat the revolutionand oppress the Iranian people again.

Iran’s younger generations don’t share these views. Most of them likeAmerica and the West, and they don’t particularly want to see Israelpushed into the sea. So 75-year-old Khamenei’s fears about a regimechange are well founded. His passing will trigger a generationalAwakening era crisis that will cause big changes, including some kindof regime change. And as I’ve written many times, my expectation isthat in the coming Clash of Civilizations world war, Iran will be theally of America, Israel, Russia, India and others versus China,Pakistan, the Sunni Muslim countries, and others. Jerusalem Post and Ahlul Bayt News Agency (Iran)

Peaceful protests in Bosnia turn into widespread violence

Three days of anti-government protests in Bosnia led to violenceacross the country on Friday, when protesters set fire to governmentbuildings and fought with riot police in Sarajevo and other cities.This was the worst civil unrest since the genocidal war inBosnia-Herzegovina that followed the dissolution of the formerYugoslavia in 1992, killing 100,000 people and leading to a crisis warclimax in 1995 with the Srebrenica massacre. (See “12-Jul-13 World View — Bosnia commemorates the 1995 Srebrenica massacre”.) Srebrenica isconsidered the worst genocide in post-war Europe. At least 8,300Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys who had sought safe haven at theU.N.-protected enclave at Srebrenica were killed by Orthodox ChristianSerbs under the leadership of General Ratko Mladic, who coined thephrase “ethnic cleansing.” Mladic is still considered a hero by manySerbs, who say that no crime was committed, as he was just defendingSerbs. Ratko Mladic stands accused of committing war crimes, crimesagainst humanity and genocide.

Bosnia-Herzegovina is made up of two separate entities: aBosniak-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the BosnianSerb Republic, or Republika Srpska, each with its own president,government, parliament, police and other bodies. With 40%unemployment, there are around 550,000 unemployed people in Bosnia.There are widespread charges of corruption stemming from the deepdivisions within the dual government framework.

People are expressing fears of a new civil war, like the one in1992-95. However, from the point of view of Generational Dynamics,that’s literally impossible. It’s been 19 years since the climax ofthe Bosnian war, and so Bosnia is just entering a new Awakening era,as the young generation born after the war start protesting and makingtheir views heard. However, their parents still remember thatabsolute horrors of the Bosnian war, and will do everything in theirpower to keep it from happening. It’s worth noting that Friday’sviolence disappeared on Saturday, and the protests were almost allpeaceful. BBC and AP and Reuters

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