In the past week, the debate has raged about the July 17 Friday prayers sermon addressed by former mullahs’ president Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani leads the regime’s defeated faction and is considered to be Ali Khamenei's (regime’s Supreme Leader) main rival. The increasing bickering about the Friday prayers clearly demonstrated the deepening crisis within the regime which in itself is the result of the continuation of the people's uprising, especially on July 9. It also shows that the faction led by the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and mullahs’ president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has failed to control or diminish the crisis and that the clerical regime has no way to escape its inevitable overthrow.
During the July 17 Friday prayers sermon, although Rafsanjani attempted to minimize the scope of the internal crisis, he was forced to acknowledge that the regime is faced with "crisis" and "danger", and that the clergy and religious leaders are opposing it. He stressed that, "These are bitter circumstances and times. No one from any faction (within the regime) wanted it to turn out like this. We all suffered losses."
While criticizing the election process and the Guardian Council, Rafsanjani did not challenge the results of the sham elections and accepted it as a done deal. He said, "At any rate, it is done and we have passed that stage and entered another stage.” He merely asked for the release of detainees and sympathized with families of victims.
But what shocked the world once again on July 17, and what led everyone to the definitive conclusion that Iran will never revert back to the past was the presence of millions of people on the streets with new initiatives and slogans, which left no doubt about their demands.
The people’s slogans yesterday were clearly focused on Khamenei. They chanted, "The blood in our veins is a gift to our people." This was a clear sneer at the regime’s three-decade-old slogan praising Khamenei, "The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader.” They also called for the dismissal of Khamenei by chanting with one voice, "Khamenei is a murderer, his rule is illegitimate.”
This highlights the increasing momentum of the Iranian people’s uprising which transformed the slogan “Death to dictator” in less than five weeks to slogans clearly calling for the dismissal of Khamenei. During the past month each time the people took to the streets for whatever excuse to call for freedom in Iran, it has been proven more than before that they despise the regime and demand its overthrow. During the Friday protests, all media outlets that broadcast scenes of the protests from inside Iran acknowledged that what is happening in that country will lead to a fundamental change of the ruling regime.
Of course, the regime brought to the scene all of its suppressive forces to confront any potential protests. It also tried its utmost to suppress the protests once they begun using tear gas, beatings, batons, clubs and widespread arrests. But, it clearly failed to quell protests by millions of people across Tehran and other cities. Today, everyone sees and accepts that Iranians no longer fear beatings, arrests, torture, and executions. Therefore, in circumstances where the rulers cannot rule due to incurable internal crises and the subjects do not recognize their rule, one can claim with complete certainty that the process of the regime's overthrow has begun.
There was also another significant incident in this week's Friday prayer sermon which pointed to the Iranian people’s deep understanding of foreign policy and their clear demands from the international community. At the end of the sermon, regime officials traditionally chant slogans over the microphone and call on participants to repeat them. The regime uses this method to control the political mood of society and propagate its policies in order to divert public opinion from the main struggle inside Iran which is between the people and the clerical regime.
However, this time around when the usual slogans of “Death to America,” “Death to Israel,” “Death to Monafeq” (a derogatory term used by the regime to refer to the main opposition People's Mojahedin organization of Iran), and “death to Britain” were chanted over the microphones, the crowd refused to repeat them. Rather, in a praiseworthy and dazzling act of ingenuity, they chanted “Death to Russia.”
By doing this, the people used the regime’s propaganda methods against itself in front of its own officials. As such, they sent a message to the regime that even at the international level the most important criterion for distinguishing friends from non-friends is the extent to which every government keeps distance from the clerical regime. This will be a lesson for those who believe that the Iranian people will loose in sanctions on the mullahs regime and therefore oppose it.
Now Western countries, including the US and Europe, must also take note of the clear message that the Iranian people cannot feel a sense of friendship towards countries that do not support the people’s rejection of the regime. They do not feel amicable relations with those who hesitate to adopt a firm policy towards a dictatorial and rogue regime that suppresses Iranians and continues with its nuclear programs. This serves to delegitimize remarks made by some Western leaders to the effect that “we do not interfere in Iran's internal affairs” in order to justify their inaction and still remain optimistic about talking with a regime despised by the Iranian people.
