Recently re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the nuclear deal with Iran is dead because Tehran has shown its real face to the world by its brutal crackdown on protesters.
“That's thanks to the extraordinarily brave Iranian women and men who took to the streets – who take to the streets – against this vicious, murderous, and brutal regime. And I think people ask themselves, ‘Do we want the ayatollahs, who chant death to America, to have the weapons of mass death and the ballistic missiles to deliver them to any part on Earth?’ and the answer is of course not,” explained Likud party chief.
He further added that the protests are exposing the leadership's vulnerability, stressing that “it also highlights the fact that they’re really weak – that they govern only with basically the threat of murder, and the people are showing remarkable resilience.”
Netanyahu went on to say that the political spectrum is more united against Iran now to keep the clerical regime from getting a nuclear weapon.
To do this, he noted, both “crippling sanctions” and a “military threat” are needed, and Israel is ready to act regardless of Washington’s approval, although there is more “forward-leaning American position on this matter.”
Speaking to a large crowd on Thursday, General Hossein Salami also tried to present the IRGC and its paramilitary Basij as “servants of the people,” amid a popular uprising in which security forces have so far killed around 450 civilians since mid-September.
Salami repeated regime slogans about “independence” and “self-sufficiency” and said, Khamenei “has turned a few issues into a matter of pride that America cannot swallow. One of these is his strong stand on the issue of JCPOA, and it has reached a stage when the acceptance or rejection of the JCPOA has no importance for Iran.”
After 18 months of indirect negotiations by the Biden Administration to revive the 2015 nuclear accord known as the JCPOA, talks broke down in early September, when the US rejected excessive demands by Iran.
Salami also praised the 83-year-old authoritarian ruler for spreading the influence of the Islamic Republic to other countries, adding that “enemies” cannot accept “this development.”
The Islamic regime uses the term “enemies” to refer to the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and lately Western Europe, as many countries have criticized its use of deadly violence against protesters.
Many countries raise the issue of Tehran’s “malign activities” in the Middle East, by financially and militarily building a network of militant groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere.
The IRGC commander then went on repeating accusations made by Khamenei and other officials in the past two months against “enemies” for plotting to destroy Iran. At the same time, he claimed that Iran has become a “powerful force” and “the enemy is fleeing from the Islamic world.”
For this reason, he claimed, the United States is fomenting unrest in Iran, but the Iranian people “are standing up to America.”
In fact, thousands of Iranians across the country celebrated the defeat of Iran’s team by the US side in the World Cup on Tuesday, seeing the loss as a defeat for the regime that tries to use sports to strengthen its image.
The United States has repeatedly dismissed accusations that it has anything to do with the anti-regime protests. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that one of the “profound mistakes” that the “regime makes is in accusing the United States or any other country” of somehow being “responsible for, instigating what’s happening. That’s not at all the case. And to misunderstand their own people is at the heart of the problem that they’re facing.”
But the Biden Administration has also voiced support for Iranians to have the right to peacefully protest and officials have met with Iranian activists to underline that policy.
Blinken in a separate interview with NBC also reiterated the administration’s policy, saying “the most important thing that we can do is first to speak out very clearly ourselves in support of the people’s right to protest peacefully, to make their views known, and as I said, to take what steps we can take to go after those who are actually oppressing those rights, including through sanctions.”
Iranians mainly blame Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guard and its Basij paramilitaries for deadly use of violence against protesters. Many have reached the point that they will accept nothing short of a complete regime change and the establishment of a secular, democratic political system.
These statements appear to be attempts to reassure the restless public that sees the freeze in nuclear talks as yet another ominous sign for the country’s future.
Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Hassan Asafari, a former – and possibly current – Iranian intelligence officer, told Nameh News that the talks over Iran's controversial nuclear program will be resumed in January.
Referring to Foreign Minister Hosein Amir-Abdollahian's uncorroborated comments about messages being exchanged between Tehran and Washington, Nameh News website wrote that there are signs indicating the Americans are after finding the right go-between to resume the talks after a three-month freeze.
The United States has denied the claims that it is messaging Iran to resume the talks.
Meanwhile, he told Nameh News that “it is also in the United States' interest to try to solve its problems with Iran through negotiations." He added that less than two years before the next presidential elections in the United States, Democrats need to show some achievements to voters to help them keep the White House.
The lawmaker warned that if the Americans show no interest in resuming the talks, and decide to continue their pressures on Iran, Tehran has also options on the table that might not be in Washington's interest.
Asafari said: "The Americans have realized that there is no way other than negotiations to settle their difference with the Islamic Republic. They have also realized that threats, sanctions, pressures and an endless series of resolutions against Iran cannot force Tehran to retreat."
This comes while economic analyst Hadi Haghshenas says that the UN Human Rights Commission's recent resolution has left a negative impact on Iran's economy and coupled with the country's chronic economic crisis, it has made solving Iran's problems even more complicated than ever before.
Haghshenas told Nameh News: "Economic variables such as inflation, unemployment and even economic growth will be affected by both economic and non-economic factors including floods, earthquakes, sanctions and protests." He reminded that Iran’s currency rose every time there was a positive development about the negotiations with the West, and declined every time there seemed to be no prospect for success.
He reiterated that establishing an investigation committee under the supervision of the UN to probe into the use of force and violence by the government during the protests has adversely affected the status of the country's economy.
Nonetheless, like Asafari, political activist and commentator Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani is also adamant that diplomacy will resume once we see a decline in the protests.
Boastfully reiterating that Iran is the only country in the world that can say "No" to the United States, Ardestani said that naturally, the US will do anything to bring Iran under pressure. However, he argued, the West's policy toward Iran “depends on our domestic politics.” Currently, with unrest in Iran, “Westerners try to support the protests.” They work based on their interests.
"That is why they issued resolutions against Tehran at international forums to exert further pressures on Iran. But if Iran manages to come to terms with the protesters and leave the crisis behind, then the Americans would want to resume diplomacy," Ardestani said.
If Iran manages to calm down the protesters, Iran's nuclear case will not be sent to the Un Security Council, there will be no snap-back and no military action against Iran, he maintained.
As it was expected by many Iranians before Team Melli’s match against the US in Qatar, regime agents were prepared for two scenarios. They would be out on streets in large numbers to celebrate if the team had managed to qualify for the knockout stage, and they were ordered to crack down on people who were cheering for the loss of the team, which they regard as the representatives of the theocratic regime and not the nation.
People in many cities poured into streets dancing, honking and chanting antigovernment slogans when security agents attacked them with batons and in some cases opened fire at them. In the northern city of Bandaranzali, the agents opened fire at the cars that were honking, injuring several people. A 27-year-old man, identified as Mehran Samak, was hit in the head with a bullet and died at the hospital.
According to videos on social media, security forces also opened fire at people in the cities of Zahedan and Iranshahr in Sistan-Baluchestan province, Izeh, Behbahan and Dezful in Khuzestan, and Kashan.
In neighborhoods around the capital Tehran and several other cities such as Qazvin and karaj, security forces attacked people with batons and beat them violently before making arrests. There are also photos of car windows broken by bullets.
There were other locations, especially in Kurdish-majority cities, where crowds celebrating the loss of the team were so large that security forces did not dare interfere. People in Kurdish cities of Sanandaj, Marivan, Mahabad, Bukan, Paveh, Ravansar and Kermanshah held large gatherings and in some cases clashed with security forces. In Kamyaran, people are seen setting fire to a government building.
The religious cities of Mashhad and Qom were also scenes of people hugging and congratulating each other for the perceived humiliation of the Islamic Republic, which had heavily invested in the World Cup in Qatar to use it as a public victory.
The regime had given thousands of tickets to its supporters to populate the stadiums with symbols and flags of the clerical regime. Qatar was even cooperating so much that its police stopped anyone who wanted to enter the stadiums with flags and signs opposing the Iranian government.
The Qatari police also prevented any symbol in support of the protests from entering the venues of the tourney. They would not let Iranian fans carry placards with the name or photos of dead protesters. Police prevented people bringing signs supporting women or mentioning Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody marked the beginning of the current wave of antigovernment rallies. However, they had no problem with the Islamic Republic’s supporters carrying photos of slain IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, someone designated as a terrorist before his targeted killing by the United States in 2020.
Emboldened by their presence in large numbers at stadiums, regime supporters even attacked Iranians who were chanting antigovernment slogans or carrying placards with the motto of the protests – woman, life, freedom -- outside the stadiums. The Qatari police just stood by without interfering as the regime supporters attacked and beat other Iranians. The only thing they did was confiscate the camera of a foreign journalist who was recording the fight.
In another video, a couple, wearing t-shirts with the motto, is seen after being injured by the pro-regime Iranians as they are upset that security forces did not stop their fight with the regime supporters.