Iran's Sunni Leader Says Khamenei Responsible For Killings In Zahedan
The influential leader of Iranian Sunnis among the Baluch has held Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for the September 30 massacre of Sunnis in Zahedan.
The influential leader of Iranian Sunnis among the Baluch has held Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for the September 30 massacre of Sunnis in Zahedan.
The attack by the IRGC left more than 90 unarmed Baluch citizens dead as reported by human rights watchdogs in Iran and abroad. The comments by the Sunni leader came as EU and US officials are reportedly considering sanctions against Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi for violations of human rights.
Sunnis in Iran comprising at least 10 percent of the population have had a rocky relationship with the Shiite clerical regime for four decades. Abdolhamid has often complained of systemic discrimination by the government, to the extent that Sunnis are not permitted to have a proper mosque in the capital Tehran.
In his sermons on Friday, October 21, Mawlana Abdolhamid said: "Beating and killing the people is not the solution to the provinces problems." He further reminded that "No one can evade their responsibility for the massacre of the people of Zahedan," and reiterated that all top Iranian officials, particularly Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is the commander of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) are also directly responsible for the massacre.
Responding to the allegations that those who were killed were armed, Mawlana Abdolhamid asked: "If the people in the mosque were armed, how many of you [the security forces] have been killed?" The Sunni leader then reiterated that "The people of Baluchistan have been the victims of discrimination for 43 years," that is since the 1979 Islamic revolution that brought Shiite clerics to power in Iran.
Meanwhile, reminding President Ebrahim Raisi that he and millions of his followers supported him in the 2021 presidential election and helped him rise to power, Abdolhamid told Raisi: "You got the people's vote and even did not try to condole them" after the massacre. Mawlana's remarks were summarized in an October 21 tweet in his Twitter account.
Saying that "plainclothes officers shot unarmed people in the head or heart," Mawlana Abdolhamid characterized the massacre of Sunnis in Zahedan as "a catastrophe and an unprecedent major act of oppression" in his remarks on October 2, a few days after the attack. He also stated that IRGC special force units were placed at the local police station before the attack.
The religious leader said that a group of youngsters threw stones at the police station before the deadly attack started. "In return, the special units shot those youngsters as well as others."
The Belgium-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHR NGO) condemned the massacre in a strongly worded statement calling the attack a "crime against humanity." At the same time, IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency claimed that five IRGC members were also killed during the attack.
Responding to Mawlana Abdolhamid's sermons on Friday, Majid Mirahmadi, the Deputy Interior Minister for Security Affairs said on Saturday that "Mawlana Abdolhamid's remarks were provocative."
He added that "after the sermons, some 150 local thugs attacked Sunni people's cars and shops, but the situation was quickly controlled." He said “Mawlana's statements were regrettable because counter-revolutionaries and the enemies of the country's security took advantage of them."
Rioters take part in the protests because they are well-fed," added Assembly of Experts member Mohsen Haydari, another Iranian cleric who enjoys a luxurious life without having worked for even one day in his lifetime, while the middle class has been wiped out due to 40-percent inflation in the past three years.
These are just two examples of what Iranian pro-government clerics who are paid by the Islamic Republic regime to echo Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's arrogant rhetoric against his own people, many of whom no longer want to submit to his dictatorship
But they are not alone in bragging against the protests. Some military figures also spoke about the uprising on Friday. Brigadier General Hamid Abazari, an adviser to the commander of the IRGC opined that young women and men taking part in the protests have been deceived by "the enemy," which means the United States in the Islamic Republic's political jargon.
All this, and more, have been said while, an Iranian sociologist, Mohammad Reza Javadi Yeganeh, has warned that the window of opportunity for the regime to open a dialogue with the country's angry youths is not going to remain open for long as the regime increasingly isolates itself within its hard core.
In the meantime, others such as the Tehran Province Governor Mohsen Mansouri have tried to help the regime out of its biggest crisis in 43 years by offering to allocate certain places in big cities where people can protest. Mansouri has made the remark in the disguise of a lawful and democratic proposal. However, Iranian protesters believe this is a trick to make sure that the security forces are aware of all the demonstrations beforehand and can practice various ways to crackdown based on the specifications of every location.
The current protests take place at different locations during daytime and night and gatherings are fairly mobile in a bid to evade dangerous confrontation with security forces who are willing with no reservation to shoot to kill.
In his interview with ISNA, Mansouri said that his office has considered the requests for holding protest gatherings and has responded to those requests. However, it is clear that no such permit has been issued so far even for pro-government "reformist" parties that have recently complained that the Governor's Office and the Interior Ministry have ignored all of their requests.
At the same time, some political figures appear to be fishing in troubled waters by trying to garner support for the next parliamentary election. Mohammad Hassan Asafari, a lawmaker from Arak in the Central Province, told the press that taking part in the protests is a lawful activity, adding that protesters come to his office and talk with him about the situation. He is probably referring to another country as most lawmakers, including Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are known for their opposition to the protests and their comments about cracking down on dissent.
Asafari, however, has acknowledged that people have grievances about the government's economic and foreign policies. This comes while Sociologist Yeganeh, who agrees with the lawmaker on the causes of the protests, wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday that the regime should "recognize the protests and stop behavior that irritates the people," or a gloomy future is s possibility.
Syunik includes Armenia’s narrow southern strip called Zangezur where it has a land border with Iran and it launched a free trade zone there in 2017 to attract more investments to boost its exports to Iran.
Azerbaijan backed by Turkey demands a transit corridor through Syunik province to have access to its Nakhichevan Autonomous region without Armenian checkpoints.
However, Yerevan objects to the concept saying that it is a breach of the ceasefire signed after 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, that Azerbaijan won, taking back vast territories that Armenia had conquered in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict in the early 1990s.
Iran supports Yerevan in this dispute as it might lose its only joint border with its de facto ally Armenia and Caucasus.
During the opening of its consulate on Friday in Syunik’s capital city of Kapan, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran will not accept any changes to historical borders in the region.
“That is our redline and we will take all steps to resist every such intention,” noted Amir-Abdollahian.
Meanwhile a deputy commander of Revolutionary Guard said on Friday that Iran would respond to any move threatening its land corridor to Europe.
“Azerbaijan achieved what it was looking for, and Karabakh was liberated, and we also congratulated it, but today, if there is any aggression we will deal with it,” threatened Ali Akbar Jamshidian.
On the other hand, Azerbaijan and Turkey also inaugurated an international airport here Thursday in Zangilan near Iran-Armenia border.
This is the second airport run in the territories Azerbaijan retook after the 2020 war with Armenia. Last year, another airport was inaugurated in Fizuli in the same region.
At this event, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said concerns by some circles are not accepted over the land corridor Ankara and Baku seek.
Apparently referring to Iran, Erdogan said “In my opinion, fears and worries among some circles about the Zangezur Corridor, which will connect Nakhchivan to Azerbaijan, are unfounded. There is no place for such fears after the steps taken in all Karabakh.”
Earlier this week Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) launched a large-scale military drill in the northwestern region of Aras along the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
In September 2021 tensions flared up between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan after Baku arrested two Iranian truck drivers, accusing them of going to Nagorno Karabakh that lies within its international borders.
The tensions led to military drills by each side and political mudslinging, including Iranian accusations that Azerbaijan allows an Israeli military and intelligence presence on its territory.
The October 20-21 meeting of the European Council, the EU policy-making body made up of its 27 heads of state, will review Iran’s involvement in the Ukraine war after disagreements yesterday over proposals to price-cap Russian energy exports in the face of spiraling prices.
Among ideas circulating is a proposal made Friday by Estonian Prime Kaja Kallas to establish as special tribunal to consider Russian “aggression.” But it is unclear if the EU will take further action against Iran or Russia over the alleged supply of Iranian drones (UAVs, unmanned aerial vehicles).
After Josep Borrell Monday said the EU needed evidence before acting, a closed-door United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting Wednesday reviewed available information.
The EU and the United Kingdom Thursday sanctioned three Iranian military commanders and a defense company over allegedly supplying drones to Russia. This followed the US imposition of sanctions in September on four companies it said were either involved in supplying Russia or in copying US and Israeli drones.
US, French and British officials have argued that any supply of Iranian drones to Russia violates UNSC Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). While the US left the JCPOA in 2018 and while State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday the agreement’s revival was “largely academic at the moment,” the US argues that Resolution 2231 precludes Iran from exporting drones until October 2023. Price said Thursday that Washington considered it “important that the UN and every responsible UN member state stand by the various Security Council resolutions.”
‘All means…to confront’
US officials argued Thursday not just that Iran had sent military personnel to train Russia in using Iranian-made drones. In a separate media briefing, John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, said Russian military personnel remotely piloting drones used in Ukraine were based in Crimea. Kirby said the US would use “all means” to “confront Iran’s provision of these munitions against the Ukrainian people.”
“We assess that Iranian personnel, Iranian military personnel, were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations,” Price said at a separate media briefing. “Russia has received dozens of these UAVs…. some of ..[the] proof was put on display before the UN Security Council yesterday.”
Price claimed that Moscow “may also seek to acquire advanced conventional weapons from Iran that includes potentially surface-to-air missiles.” He also warned China it would incur “costs” if it chose to provide security assistance, military assistance, or otherwise to systematically help Russia evade sanctions.”
Ukraine can use the issue of Iranian drones to ask for more Western military assistance, so far totaling around $17 billion from the US, including 1,400 Stinger missiles, and $3.1 billion from the EU, including howitzers. Washington has refused to supply more advanced weapons so as not to escalate the conflict, believing its current approach can drain Russia’s ability to conduct the war. Drones, while of limited military value, are far cheaper than missiles.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Thursday he had discussed with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid a request for missile defense assistance. Israel has so far refused to aid Ukraine militarily so as not to upset its relations with Russia.