On Monday August 13, Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei broke his silence and appeared for the first time following the recent wave of unrests to address regime’s most important crises, including the protests earlier this month, a deadly economic crisis driven by Rial’s free fall, failure of the 2015 nuclear deal and possible negotiations with the United States.
Khamenei rejected at the beginning of his speech the idea that considers the series of crises as regime’s deadlock, saying “the enemy wants to push the idea that the country is faced with a deadlock. They wickedly advertise that Iran has reached a deadlock and has no option left but to resort to the great Satan (the United States). Anyone saying that the country is caught in a deadlock is either ignorant or speaking out of treason.”
Khamenei’s stance on unrests earlier this month
Khamenei explicitly pointed to the most recent wave of protests started from July 31 in different cities across Iran.
Considering the recent unrests as the extension of January uprising, Khamenei once again attributed people’s protests to the United States, Israel and Saudis, saying “they had planned for years to disrupt the country’s security in January this year, but the people came on the scene with admirable awareness, and thwarted the enemies’ years-long plans.”
“The enemies then set their hearts on this (Persian) year, with some US officials saying that there’ll be some news from Iran in the next six months. They were clearly pointing to the events earlier this month which turned out to be so limited despite the enemies’ huge financial and political investments.”
Analyzing Khamenei’s remarks on recent wave of unrests which lasted for one week in Tehran, Karaj, Shiraz, Esfahan, Mashhad, Ghahdarijan, and many other cities with such slogans like ‘Death to Khamenei’ and ‘Death to Dictator’, could reveal the reason why Khamenei finally decided to appear and take an explicit stance on the crises in the face of which he had remained silent for long.
It is the fear of expansion of the uprising and society’s eruptive state that has forced Khamenei to come on the scene and try to pretend that the situation is under control while denying regime’s deadlock, describing the protests as limited and stifled, and bragging about regime’s fight against corruption, thus to curb the disappointment that has occupied regime’s entire body and somehow assure its hirelings that the regime will pass through this stage unharmed. The major part of Khamenei’s speech was dedicated to lifting up the spirit of the demoralized body and leaders of a deadlock-ridden regime.
“The enemy is inducing disappointment. They want to make people perplexed. The enemy wants to promote the idea that the country is faced with a deadlock. What I’m going to say in response is that there’s no deadlock the country is faced with.”
“We should not let the people down. Sometimes there are remarks in newspapers, TV or radio programs suggesting that all doors are closed, while that’s not the case. The establishment has already passed through difficult stages and will pass through this one as well, which is less difficult than the previous ones.”
Khamenei concedes for the first time: the nuclear deal was wrong
While rejecting any future negotiations with the United States, Khamenei explicitly declared for the first time that getting involved in the nuclear deal talks was wrong.
“With regard to the nuclear deal, what I did was wrong, allowing some officials’ insistence to give a shot at nuclear talks, in which our red lines were not respected,” said Khamenei, according to regime’s official news agency.
Khamenei acknowledges regime’s panic: there are a bunch of cowards among us
Pointing to the possibility of a war and negotiations with the United States, Khamenei said “there’ll be no war and we will not negotiate, either.”
“They’re inflating the ghost of war to scare the nation or cowards. After all, there are a bunch of cowards among us. But there’ll definitely be no war. In Short, I have to inform the Iranian people that there’ll be no war and we will not negotiate, either.”
Khamenei’s absolute rejection of a possible war actually invalidates the claims of those who try their best to push the idea that taking a tough stance against the terrorist Iranian regime will lead to a war, thus to save the regime from an imminent collapse.
Acknowledging the country’s deadly economic crisis
While Khamenei-affiliated entities have raised an astronomical wealth through gaining total control of the country’s national resources and are themselves the main cause of corruption and destruction of Iran’s economy, he ridiculously tried to hold regime’s governments and officials responsible for economic problems while claiming that he’s the one who’s fighting corruption. “The main cause of such problems is not sanctions, but domestic policies. This is what many officials and experts alike have confirmed. That however doesn’t mean that the sanctions have nothing to do with this situation. Of course they do, but the main factor is rooted in our performance. Among the measures that must definitely be taken into account is fighting against corruption. This was also reflected in the letter that the reverend head of judiciary wrote to me two days ago, in response to which I underlined that the proposed measures are an important and positive step towards fighting against corruption and punishing those who are involved.”
Regime’s claimed fight against corruption: what’s the purpose?
Khamenei’s comments on fight against corruption are in line with the same show which started with the arrest of some small-time currency dealers in the midst of currency crisis driven by a sharp decline in the value of Rial. It was then followed by sacking regime’s director of the Central Bank and then Khamenei’s correspondence with head of regime’s judiciary ‘Mullah Larijani’.
Such ostentations suggest before anything that Khamenei is extremely alarmed by people’s protests against so much corruption and is trying to somehow pour some oil on troubled waters.
In his speech, Khamenei says on one hand that corruption is like a seven-headed dragon, and on the other hand he speaks in such a way so as to play down the issue of corruption, saying “corruption is not that widespread and deep rooted as some claim to be. There have been some violations which the judiciary is dealing with.”
Khamenei’s contradictory language is not limited to this issue alone, but inconsistency is evident in each and every comment he makes no matter what issue he speaks about, with the reason being an all-embracing deadlock the regime is faced with: from the nuclear deal and negotiations with the United States to regime’s relation with Europe, to FATF, to Rouhani government’s poor performance and the widespread corruption. That’s why Khamenei is forced to put on such a show.
Considering that Khamenei himself and his affiliated entities, regime’s predatory foundations, the IRGC, the judiciary, the government, the parliament and other state organs are on top of the country’s corruption, then how is it imaginable, if ever, that Khamenei or the judiciary act against themselves and cut off their own hands?
Moreover, as regime media and officials have repeatedly acknowledged, there’s an institutionalized corruption within the regime, acting like flow of blood for a living organism. The regime’s functioning is totally dependent on corruption, so much so that the regime will no longer function if the cycle of its institutionalized corruption stops.
Is it because of enemies’ plots or officials’ wrong policies?
The reason why Khamenei does not highlight sanctions and foreign pressures in his recent speech – contrary to his previous ones — is first because Rouhani’s recent performance is so evidently awful that Khamenei would have ridiculed himself if he tried to deny it.
Secondly, if Khamenei had said that the sanctions were the main cause of the current crisis, then Rouhani’s circle would immediately suggest “then let’s go start negotiations with the United States to resolve our differences.”
The third reason, and even more important than the previous two, is that if Khamenei had highlighted the sanctions — which are yet to come and which the regime is incapable of preventing — as the main cause of the economic crisis, then it will totally demoralize regime’s forces, leading them to think to themselves “oh my god! When the announcement of sanctions is shaking the foundations of the regime this much, then what will happen when the sanctions are really in place?”
Meanwhile, Khamenei fears that any change in current situation could accelerate a social explosion, that’s why he somehow backs Rouhani’s government, saying “those who say that the government should be sacked are actually moving in line with enemies’ plots. The government should remain in power and fulfill its responsibilities at full power.”
Khamenei’s comments reveal regime’s deadlock
After a longtime silence, the speech delivered by the leader of the mullahs’ regime on August 13 showed that he’s totally incapable of coming up with a way out of the fatal deadlock that has engulfed his entire regime.
