State Officials’ Statements Reveal Their Fear of Iran’s Uprising
Written by
Mohammad Sadat Khansari
Iran’s major uprising has entered its twelfth day, posing an existential threat to the ruling theocracy and demoralizing oppressive forces. As officials see the regime’s downfall on the horizon, their infightings increase.
Demonstrations span across Iran, and videos from hundreds of cities show fearless protesters, mainly women, and youth, standing their ground and clashing with the regime’s oppressive forces. In spite of the regime’s brutal crackdown, which has so far left over 200 deaths, Iranian citizens are determined to unshackle their country from the yoke of the world’s top-sponsor state of terrorism.
This perseverance has demoralized the regime’s forces, in line with the regime’s increasing international isolation. A video from Tehran, where protests happen every night, shows Hossain Ashtari, the commander of the State Security Forces (SSF), giving a pep talk to a group of its subordinates.
“Hold your ground, and do not doubt your path,” he said on September 25, as later reported by the state-run Tasnim news agency. Ashtari’s remarks laid bare the vulnerability and frustration of the regime’s forces.
In another video, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the regime’s Judiciary Chief, who had shown his teeth earlier in a statement threatening protesters, extended his regards to the “exhausted forces,” who haven’t “slept for days on!”
Women are especially responsible for shattering the atmosphere of fear and disbelief. As women, your role is to restore hope and courage among people and reinforce the power in youth to counter the regime’s clampdowns.#IranProtests#Iran pic.twitter.com/qLGKttdIVF
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 3, 2018
In an interview with state TV on September 26, Mohsen Ghadiri Abianeh, a close figure to the regime’s supreme leader, also acknowledged the exacerbating fear in the regime’s ranks.
“Some officials, who were once ministers or members of parliament, have believed the system is about to collapse. They show their true colors now,” he said.
As various factions inside the regime occasionally trash each other due to conflict of interests, some have revealed that most of the state officials have sent their offspring to Western countries. They have attained dual citizenship and are paving the way for their parents to join them in case of the regime’s downfall. In other words, despite years-long preaching and chanting about the destruction of the West, Iranian state officials would run to safety by the “Global Arrogance” when the time comes.
In 2019, the IRGC Brig. Gen. Morteza Mirian acknowledged in a televised interview that “Today, nearly 4,000 children of state officials live in the United States, Europe, and Canada.”
In his remarks in Parliament on September 26, MP Mojtaba Zolnour admitted fear had infiltrated the regime’s seminary, and recent protests have caused much stir among mullahs. He called on the “Special Court for Clergies” to deal with these “traitors” and encouraged the demoralized regime forces to “wear a burial cloth and come to the battlefield.”
A Historical reminder
General Abbas Gharebaghi, the Shah’s last Minister of Interior, acknowledged in his memoir that the regime’s oppressive forces were “melting like snow.” This is indeed the fate of all dictatorial regimes in the face of the bright sun of revolution. Thus, the escalating fear inside the regime, only ten days into the uprising, foretells a bright future for the people of Iran.