Iranian General: World Should Support Americans Marching Against Their Gov’t – By Patrick Goodenough (cnsnews.com) / Jan 23 2018
(CNSNews.com) – The regime in Tehran was angered by U.S. expressions of sympathy for recent protests in Iran, and a top Iranian military official on Monday seized on the weekend’s “Women’s March” in U.S. cities to call for international support for Americans demonstrating against their government.
‘[T]he world should fully support the American nation’s anti-government demonstrations and opposition to the evil administrations in the U.S.,” the state-owned Tasnim news agency cited deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, as saying.
“Calling for international efforts to stop the suffering of the American people and other nations under the U.S. hegemony, the general said part of the U.S. society is a supporter of Iran and demands an end to Washington’s aggressive policies,” Tasnim reported.
Jazayeri said that an intensification of the protests in the U.S. would make it clear to American politicians that they should stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.
President Trump voiced his support early on for Iranian demonstrators after protests erupted in the city of Mashhad on December 28 and then spread to more than 100 towns and cities.
Initially sparked by high food prices, the rallies later took on a more political tone, with demonstrators at times chanting slogans targeting President Hasan Rouhani and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“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,” Trump tweeted on December 30.
“Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!”
Two days later, Trump tweeted again, “Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”
As the protests continued into January – with thousands detained and almost two dozen fatalities – the U.S. Treasury Department on Jan. 12 announced new sanctions on 14 officials and entities, including the regime’s powerful judiciary chief, Sadeq Amoli Larijani.
“The United States will not stand by while the Iranian regime continues to engage in human rights abuses and injustice,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“We are targeting the Iranian regime, including the head of Iran’s judiciary, for its appalling mistreatment of its citizens, including those imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and for censoring its own people as they stand up in protest against their government.”
On Monday the sanctioned judiciary chief, Larijani, accused the U.S. government of spending millions of dollars to incite rioting in Iran.
Addressing high-level judiciary officials, he said by allocating funds to create “chaos and insecurity,” the U.S. was clearly demonstrating its enmity towards Iran.
Larijani also ordered the officials to ensure that the culprits behind the protests, “especially those linked to foreigners,” were severely punished, the Mehr news agency reported.
Earlier this month, Khamenei used his Twitter feed to accuse the U.S. and Israel of fomenting the unrest, using money coming from “a wealthy govt near Persian Gulf” – likely a reference to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s chief regional foes.
The ayatollah’s tweets subsequently took on a more menacing tone.
“U.S. officials should know that, firstly, they have missed their target: and if they target Iran again, they will fail,” he tweeted on Jan. 10. “Secondly, they have inflicted damage upon Iran in recent days, and they should know this won’t be left without a response.”
