Iranian officials and their proxies leading the terrorist organization Hezbollah have launched a coordinated effort to blame the United States for mounting unrest against the Islamic dictatorship, releasing increasingly bellicose statements against President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanese Hezbollah, said in an interview Wednesday that ongoing protests beginning last week in most of Iran’s major cities were coordinated efforts led by the United States. “America, Israel and Saudi Arabia have entered the crisis in Iran,” Nasrallah said, providing no evidence to support the claim.
Nasrallah added that he believed “there is nothing to worry about” for the regime in Iran and that “Trump’s hopes” of an insurrection “have been disappointed.”
In what represents only a slightly more official government line, Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Ali Khoshroo sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres protesting America’s alleged “grotesque” intervention in Iran.
“In the past several days, the U.S. administration, led by the U.S. president, has stepped up its acts of intervention in a grotesque way in Iran’s internal affairs under the pretext of providing support for sporadic protests,” Khoshroo wrote, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency. “The current U.S. administration has crossed every limit in flouting rules and principles of international law governing the civilized conduct of international relations.”
Khoshroo went on to complain that President Trump’s “numerous absurd tweets” were an incitement to violence in Iran.
Trump used the online platform to support the right to free expression in Iran. He has continuously urged the Iranian regime not to follow its policy of beating and jailing political dissidents.
Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtests
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017
Trump went on to criticize both the Iranian regime—the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism—and the Obama administration for enriching Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s military.
Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government. You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 3, 2018
Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif attacked Trump on Thursday through Twitter, equating Trump’s criticism of the oppressive regime Zarif serves with criticism of the oppressed Iranian people.
Trump has an odd way of showing “such respect” for Iranians: from labeling them a "terrorist nation" & banning them from visiting the US, to petty insults on the name of the Persian Gulf. But best of all, "helping them" by depriving them of the economic dividends from the #JCPOA.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 4, 2018
Iranian legislator and head of the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi also followed the official state line, telling Iranian government media that the United States and Israel were behind the protests.
“The U.S. and the Zionist regime are trying to drag the current insecurity in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan into Iran,” he said, admitting that some protesters were “rightful” but “the enemies of the Islamic Revolution” had “deviated” them.
This remark echoes the only official commentary Khamenei has made on the protests, which he blamed on unspecified “enemies.”
“In recent events, the enemies of Iran united by using different tools in their disposition, including money, weapons, politics and intelligence, in order to create problems for the Islamic system,” Khamenei said on Tuesday, promising he would elaborate at an unspecified later date.
The Iranian regime has not provided any evidence that outside influence triggered the protests beginning last week, nor has any evidence of such intervention surfaced independently. This week, an Arab intelligence official told Breitbart News that regional intelligence is not aware of any foreign involvement in the events.
A week ago, Iranians took to the streets of several major cities to protest skyrocketing food prices. The protests rapidly turned from economic to political, however, and protesters began to chant “death to Khamenei” and “death to Hezbollah,” demanding an end to Iran’s growing foreign intervention. Iranian soldiers or their terror proxies are involved in ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria; have a strong presence in Iran; and have established themselves in the Latin America drug trade.
As of Thursday, Iranian officials claimed that 42,000 people had participated in protests, significantly higher than the original 15,000 estimate Tehran released, but lower than what activists have claimed.
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