In a more defiant, radical, and daring fashion, Iran’s nationwide uprising continues despite the regime’s heavy crackdown. Religious congregations and burial ceremonies turn into anti-regime protests, and state security becomes helpless to spot, let alone apprehend, the brave youth tarnishing the images, symbols, and statues of the regime’s icon throughout the country. Fear continues to fade, and hope keeps increasing.
The clerical regime’s infightings continue to exacerbate following its failure to contain the situation. It was indeed an absolute failure for the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who thought he could consolidate power in his regime by installing his men in the Majlis (Parliament) and selecting Ebrahim Raisi as president.
Last week, when Raisi presented his budget bill to the parliament, he boasted about his government’s achievements. A few days later, on January 31, Khamenei discredited his president’s claims, acknowledging “contradictory decisions” made in Raisi’s administration.
“Now we are dealing with some contradictory decisions by the executive branch. One organization decides to act, and the other rejects it and does the opposite. Yet, both sit behind the same desk in the government’s sessions. It shouldn’t happen,” Khamenei said.
On February 2, Raisi rejected his mentor’s speech and again lied about his government’s achievements, such as increasing employment and decreasing inflation. In contrast to Raisi’s fabricated statistics, the Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, uses every opportunity to speak about the regime’s absolute bankruptcy and economic crises.
Watch our latest short #video and judge how #MahsaAmini's murder and the following #IranProtests have increased infighting among the regime’s ranks pic.twitter.com/DYTiRhflKY
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 28, 2022
“We should pay attention to the economy. We shouldn’t ridicule the [state]. We should implement its objectives,” he said on February 1.
Gholam Hossein Mohseni Eje’i, the regime’s Judiciary Chief, also joined Ghalibaf on February 1 to speak against Raisi and his government’s “insufficiency.”
“If we fail to address economic problems and people’s livelihood today, the enemy pours salt on people’s financial wounds,” he warned.
The list of officials blaming Raisi’s government for the current situation is never-ending. On January 30, Sadeq Larijani, head of the Expediency Council, tried to save Khamenei’s face as the regime’s highest authority and said, “Sometimes a powerful system could be mismanaged by a weak executive branch.”
Khamenei described Raisi’s presidency as the “sweetest event” in 2021, as this was the dictator’s last-ditch effort to consolidate power in his regime to encounter eventual uprisings. The revolution in the making in Iran, which has lasted for five consecutive months and is highly organized, has caused much stir in the regime, displaying cracks in the clerical system.
Regime officials acknowledge Raisi’s failure to address the country’s economic crunch. But all of them, and above all, Khamenei himself, know that Raisi’s main task has been suppressing society. Otherwise, why would Khamenei accept numerous accounts of international condemnation and an unprecedented boycott of his regime’s sham elections by pulling an evil mass murderer out of the ballot box?
If authorities speak of the country’s financial calamity and accuse one another, they also unanimously warn about the “enemy” and the “riot.” As recorded affirmations of state officials are a guide, the regime’s foe is the Iranian people and their organized opposition, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), with the latter acting as the uprising’s trailblazer.
“The enemy is lurking and tries to use our weaknesses to damage this system, as we saw in the recent seditions,” Ghalibaf said in his remarks on February 1.
“Once the enemy realizes we are working for our benefit and not for the people, it takes advantage of this momentum,” Eje’i joined Ghalibaf.
“The enemy has tried to prevent our goals from happening. They tried during the [Iran-Iraq] war and the MEK’s other activities and plots. The [MEK’s] plots and seditions [uprisings] continue,” Raisi said on January 31.
“The enemy is waiting to use our least inabilities to attack and undermine the system. They use social media and their news outlets to blare propaganda about the system’s insufficiencies,” Larijani said.
“Who is behind these criminal activities and slogans against the Islamic republic? The MEK. They want to topple the holy state and take control,” Mohammad Reza Shahrokhi, Khamenei’s representative in Lorestan province, said on February 1.
The Iranian people and their organized Resistance movement have demonstrated their willingness to establish a democratic system. The world should embrace this demand. Western countries should cut ties with Tehran and support people’s right to self-determination and self-defense in the face of the regime’s mounting violence. Considering the clerical regime as a robust system is a false notion. The increasing infightings of the ruling theocracy and its failure to contain a restive society show how fragile this regime is. So, western governments should adopt a firm policy toward this terrorist regime, which threatens global peace and security.
