Arab World Pundits Express Strong Support for Iran Protests

In this photo of Iranian protests taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Pr
AP Photo
Ali Waked

TEL AVIV — The riots in the streets of Iran have excited social media networks in the Sunni Arab world ever since they first broke out, with many expressing their hope that the confrontations would harm the extremist Iranian regime, which is trying to exert its influence over Arab states.

“The streets of Iran are divided between some who are very ethnic and some who are nationalist racists,” Iraqi journalist Othman Muhtar posted on Twitter. “Neither of them like the Arabs and treat them as inferior. The attempt to claim the support of Arab regimes for the protests is absolutely false. This claim serves the regime of the Ayatollahs and strengthens the conspiratorial mindset the regime has started to spread.”

“It’s a huge lie that the colluders in Iran are trying to spread, that the protest was created by the difficult financial situation,” tweeted Zrira Meryame, a Qatari journalist. “This isn’t true. The truth is that the protest broke out in the context of the financial situation, which is the result of the funding of regional militias in order to sabotage stability in neighboring countries and the corruption of the Ayatollahs and the Revolutionary Guard, which has taken control of the Iranian economy.”

“The protest of the Iranian people demanding an improvement in living conditions and demanding an increase in personal freedom for Iranian citizens is a protest that brings back hope that with the New Year, hope in a better future for the people of the region,” wrote Syrian political author Abdel Baset Sida.

“Plots, terrorists, people who’ve been deceived – these are the same terms used by the Assad regime and are now being used by the regime of Ayatollahs in dealing with the protests against corruption and against the tyranny of the regime,” he added in a separate Tweet. “In the case of Syria, the Iranian regime used its Iraqi and Lebanese militias to save the (Assad) regime, but who, in Iran’s case, will save the Iranian regime?”

“Bless the heroic civilians in Isfahan,” tweeted Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, “especially the heroic women who’ve been an exciting example of taking a stand and of the Iranian people’s wish to overthrow the regime of the Ayatollahs in their protest against the regime with the rallying cry ‘death to Khamenei.'”

“Please ask the Arab regimes not to intervene in the Iranian revolution so that God will bless her and God will bring her success,” tweeted Syrian journalist and opposition supporter Moussa al-Omar.

In another tweet, he wrote to the U.S. president, “Please ask [Donald] Trump not to say that Khamenei’s days are numbered. Because if he says it, all is lost, thanks.”

“An Iranian official has confirmed that protesters have been killed during the march and he accused foreign intelligence services of supporting the dissent,” wrote Jordanian-Palestinian analyst and journalist Yasser Zaatreh. “The official Iranian narrative is enough to laugh at. The official narrative doesn’t recognize anything by the language of conspiracy. This is failed logic that we already heard in Syria, to insult an entire people in order to polish a tyrant.”

He followed up with another tweet, “The ridicule got to them so much they talk about the role played by Saudi Arabia in the protest in Iran, and about the American role. And Iranian politicians are talking about the role played by the global Zionism. Sometimes the brain disappears, but when your conscience becomes rusty, it’s already a disaster.”

Zaatreh was seemingly implying an anti-Semitic “global Zionist” conspiracy.

“The regime of the Ayatollahs sent opposition protests out to the streets against the popular protests. It’s a tool that’s already been used in Arab countries,” tweeted Iraqi journalist Majed al-Jumaily. “In the end we’ll see them bombing the people.”

“In the first 24 hours, the protests in Iran damaged Iran’s current image, the image of a military and nuclear state built by Iran through financial and human losses over many years,” wrote Iraqi politician Basheer al-Duleimi.

“A real popular intifada in Iran, from Mashhad to Karmansha and from Hamdan to Arak – the legitimacy of the regime has diminished since 2009,” tweeted Egyptian political science lecturer Dr. Basheer Nafi, “The continued existence of the regime depends on its unprecedented means of repression, which weren’t even around under the Shah’s regime.”

https://twitter.com/BasheerNafi/status/947196221776637952

Among the few who didn’t want to condemn the protests but did criticize their supporters from the Arab regimes was Egyptian journalist Asaad Taha, who wrote, “We applaud the Iranian Spring, but condemn and curse the Arab spring.”

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