Hackers Publish Embarrassing Video Allegedly From Iranian News Agency

Khamenei praised the Basij for their role in suppressing the protests, that he called “riots”, as a paramilitary force under the command of the Revolutionary Guard.

The Basij have been at the forefront of confronting protesters in the streets and using violence against unarmed civilians, including children and women. They have also used various types of guns that have killed and maimed hundreds of people.

"They have sacrificed their lives to protect people from rioters," Khamenei said in his televised speech, while an Iranian human rights monitor, HRANA said Saturday that so far 448 protesters have been killed, including 63 children and an estimated 18, 170 people arrested.

But an interesting part of Khamenei’s speech was his reference to the role the Islamic Republic plays in the region. He openly admitted that Tehran was successful in building a strong presence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, but he claimed, “we absolutely did not enter North Africa.”

The 83-year-old clerical ruler repeated a favorite propaganda line, proclaiming that the Islamic Revolution “transformed the hearts of neighboring nations.”

The Shiite regime in Iran loves to be seen as leading Muslims everywhere, but in fact most Sunnis, who are the majority in the Muslim world, see Shiites at best as a particular Muslim sect, while some even regard them as heretics. Except Shiites in the region, few Sunnis follow the Islamic Republic’s lead, and even most Shiites who assist Tehran’s policies receive large amounts of monetary support for their loyalty.

Khamenei also claimed that the United States decided in 2006 “to paralyze six countries that constitute the strategic depth” of the Islamic Republic in order to contain its power. He named Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Somalia, although Libya is in North Africa, contradicting his earlier remark of never having entered the region.

Iran’s ruler also criticized those who say that the government must reach an agreement with the United States to be able to solve its problems. He maintained that “Negotiations will not help our problem with America. Only one thing will solve our problem with America: Paying ransom on permanent basis.”

Khamenei regularly espouses an anti-US and anti-West ideology and regards a normal foreign policy and cordial relations with the West as capitulation. In fact, in his speech he called flexibility in dealing with the United States his “red line”.

“America wants the Iranian nation to cross all red lines,” he said.

Khamenei also indirectly alluded to the defiance of the new generation that has been the force behind current protests and told the Basij that there is no such thing as a generational gap and their religious philosophy remains vibrant as generations change.

In an obvious move to give confidence to his loyal forces he told them “Recognize your power, get to know your enemies and discover the weak points of the enemy, who is trying to show he is strong.”

The Basij forces are faced with thousands of Generation Z young people who want social and political freedoms and do not believe in the religious and clerical order. These forces have to face protesters almost on daily basis and several have been killed or humiliated in the streets.

Citing Interfax Friday, Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA reported that Azerbaijan’s President Iham Aliyev cancelled a December 7 meeting in Brussels with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan aimed at easing tensions after September-October clashes killed around 200 Armenian and 80 Azerbaijani soldiers.

Earlier Friday, at a Baku conference ‘Along the Middle Corridor,’ Aliyev launched a broadside against Iran, his toughest so far since relations soured over Iran’s role in the 2020 Azerbaijan-Armenia war, when adjacent Iranian military exercises followed the Azerbaijanis capturing areas around the disputed Nagorno-Karabagh enclave and along the Iran border.

Stepping Friday on ground he previously avoided, Aliyev said his government would do “our best to preserve our secular lifestyle…as well as Azerbaijanis living in Iran,” whom he called “part of our people.” The president said that in Azerbaijan 340 schools taught in Russian and ten in Georgian, while none in Iran taught in Azeri. Around a quarter of Iran’s population is Azari, with analysts and activists disagreeing over the closeness of their cultural-linguistic links to their neighbors to the north.

“We worked with three presidents of Iran, [Mohammad] Khatami, [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, and [Hassan] Rouhani,” Aliyev said. “For all these years there was no situation similar to the current one. Never has Iran had two military exercises near our borders within a few months. There have never been such hateful and threatening statements against Azerbaijan.”

‘Hateful statements’ referred to warnings from President Ebrahim Raisi and other leaders against any border changes or threats to Iran’s transit route to Armenia, which is vulnerable since 2020 changes. Iran carried out more military drills along the border October, when Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also visited Yerevan.

But Tehran-Baku tensions have simmered since the 2020 war, when Iran moderated its past support for mainly Christian Armenia due partly to domestic pressures from both ethnic Azeri and Shia clerics supporting fellow Muslims.

Brussels mediation meeting cancelled?

Armenia’s frustration at what they feel is a lack of support from Russia – which has been engrossed in the Ukraine war – lay behind the news early Friday that Pashinyan had involved French President Emmanuel Macron as a possible mediator to build on the current ceasefire.

This prompted Aliyev’s announcement refusing a French role – and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov to immediately offer Moscow’s support as a broker.

Analysts generally see the Azerbaijan-Armenia balance tilting in Baku’s favor since 2020. This has come with Aliyev making statements seen as provocative in Tehran. On November 11, at a summit of Turkic states of central Asia, the president said the “geographical borders of the Turkic world are wider than the Turkic states.” In Baku, state media has recently referred to north-western Iran, where most Iranian Azari live, as ‘south Azerbaijan.’

‘Persian fascist mullah regime’

Mahmudali Chehregani, Washington-based leader of the South Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement, appeared on Azerbaijani state television November 4 to promise the end of the “Persian fascist mullah regime.” Once considered persona not grata in Baku, Chehregani has lately criticized relations between Tehran and Yerevan, the “enemy of Azerbaijanis,” and said that an Armenian consulate due in Tabriz would be “razed to the ground.”

Iran’s options are limited. In mid-November, it summoned ambassador Ali Alizadeh over “unfriendly statements” by leading Baku officials, referring for example to Aliyev November 8 warning Iran, indirectly, against further military exercises.

While Iran’s main concern is fragile land corridor to Armenia – and fears a move to connect Turkey with mainland Azerbaijan and on to central Asia – it may also see Aliyev as exploiting protests in Iran. Such edginess might explain an Iranian suggestion of Azerbaijani involvement in the October 26 attack in Shiraz claimed by the Islamic State group (Isis-Daesh).

Raisi is unlikely, as yet, to take the advice from some commentators, including Shargh newspaper November 12, to downgrade relations with Baku or introduce trade sanctions. But Iran’s recent targeting of Iranian Kurdish groups in northern Iraq may be in part a message to Baku.

Ceyhun Sadlinski at a conference organized by Azerbaijan’s Security Council, where he is first deputy chairman, said Thursday Iran’s “special services are actively carrying out intelligence and subversive activities” against Baku, the official Azerbaijani Press Agency reported. “Drastic measures” were being taken in response, Sadlinski said.

In his Friday prayers sermons, Mowlavi Abdolhamid, officially known as Mowlavi Shaikh Abdolhamdid Esmailzehi, said whenever people were willing to go to the polls and vote for the reformist camp, they disappointed them with their inaction. 

“The time was wasted, and we have lost the opportunity for reforms," said the religious leader of Iran's largely Sunni Baluch population living in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

"The reformists did not manage to do anything, and the biggest complaint directed at them is why they did not enact any reforms,” he said. Indirectly referring to the Supreme Leader and possibly the Revolutionary Guards and hardliners, Abdolhamid said that if reformists were stopped from pursuing reforms, “why didn't they say who stopped them? Why did they remain silent? Those who came in the name of reformism and did not do anything should have had the courage to say who didn't allow them," he said.

Emphasizing that reformists have lost their chance, he said that “If reforms had been carried out in the Islamic Republic, today the people would not be suffering from miseries, and they would not be shouting for freedom and justice during their protests.”

Mowlavi Abdolhamid, who had previously supported Reformist President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and moderate conservative Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021), encouraged Iran's Sunni population to support ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi in the 2021 presidential election. Later he complained that Raisi failed to fulfil his promises to the Sunni community while millions had voted for him. Following the killing of more than 100 Sunnis in Zahedan during recent protests by security forces, some criticized Abdolhamid for having supported Raisi.

At the start of the reform movement in 1997, Abdolhamid played a key part as a charismatic leader who rallied the Sunnis behind Khatami. The history of the Islamic Republic reveals that any candidate who had Abdolhamid's support won the election in Sistan and Baluchistan and Kordestan provinces.

Abdolhamid's popularity is largely because of his willingness to challenge the absolute authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Earlier in November, the outspoken Sunni Imam said women, ethnic and religious groups, and minorities have faced discrimination after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. He was also brave enough to blame Khamenei for the attack on protesters in his hometown, Zahedan. 

He made the remarks on the backdrop of reports from recent meetings between senior officials and a number of reformist figures. Sources in Tehran say Iran's ruling hardliners are beseeching once popular reformists they purged from power to help save the regime and end the uprising. However, the reformists have been side-lined during the current wave of the protests – ignited by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, as neither the government nor the protesters consider them a serious political alternative.

During his Friday prayers sermons, Mowlavi Abdolhamid also criticized the crackdown on the Kurdish majority cities in western Iran, praising them as one of the best ethnic groups who protected the borders like the people of Sistan and Baluchestan.

Since last week, the Islamic Republic has intensified its repression of Kurdish-majority cities and towns following reports that parts of some small towns have fallen into the people’s hands. The majority of Iran's 10 million Kurds live in the western parts of the country. 

"Now that the people of Kordestan are complaining about their problems and protesting, they should not be shot at, and they should not be treated with violence," he said. 

He added that if he were an official, he would listen to the peoples’ demands, noting, "It is a matter of concern that many of our officials were not ready to listen to the critics. These problems were created by those who did not allow criticism."

Taking issue with spending Iran’s money in other regional countries, the cleric said, "This country does not belong to officials and rulers. It belongs to all of us and we all want this country to be prosperous. Its wealth should be spent here instead of somewhere else."

He also called on the authorities not to give "severe sentences" to protesters and urged the release of the political prisoners, referring to death sentences issued for at least 10 people.

Expressing concern about reports of torture and sexual harassment of prisoners, Abdolhamid cautioned, "There are some reports of mistreatment of prisoners, especially female prisoners, that are difficult for me to say... Torture is against the constitution and is not allowed in any religion."

“Do pro-government media aim to reassure the public with such coordinated news dissemination?” a commentary in Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic) daily asked Thursday.

“If so, they are badly mistaken,” the commentary said arguing that the current minimum living conditions fails to meet the standards of living before the current administration took power.

Amid protests that have engulfed the country in the past two months, the state and pro-Raisi media including the state broadcaster (IRIB) are constantly claiming that the government has succeeded in bypassing US sanctions, is selling more oil, has improved the economy, has better relations with neighboring countries, and is making greater scientific and military strides.

“The discrepancy between the real situation with what government officials say is totally tangible … Quasi-state media’s disregard of this fact can cause social breakdown,” the commentary said.

The paper went on to demand answers for a host of questions pertaining to such achievements including claims about a drop in the inflation rate and success in thwarting the effects of US sanctions through membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which Raisi has repeatedly called one of his government’s achievements.

“What’s the reason for the hike in the price of staples and other essential commodities given that pro-government newspapers constantly run headlines about inflation dropping?” the article asked.

Jomhouri Eslami is one of the oldest newspapers in the Islamic Republic and like the ultra-hardliner Kayhan daily receives funding from the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office.

However, unlike the firebrand editor of Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of Jomhouri Eslami, Masih Mohajeri, has maintained a degree of political independence over the years and often criticizes hardliners. In May, he called on Raisi to resign for failing to deliver on promises of improving the lives of Iranians.

The list of Raisi’s unfulfilled campaign promises seems quite long. He pledged to build one million affordable housing units for sale during each year of his term in office, bring down inflation, provide fast internet and unrestricted social media, and mend relations with neighboring countries including old-time rival Saudi Arabia.

Raisi blames foreign powers and “enemies” for thwarting his plans, but this does not seem to convince anyone apart from his allies.

“Thank you for delivering on your promises of bridling the inflation and strengthening the national currency! Never mind the promises of [affordable] housing …,” the former governor of the Central Bank of Iran and election rival Abdolnaser Hemmati told Raisi in a tweet Tuesday.

As evidence of Raisi’s failure, Hemmati said point-to-point inflation has risen from 34.7 percent in the beginning of the Iranian calendar year [March 21] to 48.1 percent, the rial has dropped in value against the dollar from 262,000 rials to the dollar to 354,000 and printing money has increased by 3.2 percent only from September 23 to October 22.

Even many conservatives admit that the Raisi government is just inept and cannot organize any project, but few can say that continuing US sanctions on Iran is the main reason for so much economic failures. That would mean criticizing the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is responsible for all major foreign policy decisions.

They had refused to sing the anthem in their opening game earlier this week in apparent support of protesters back home.

Loud jeers were heard from Iranian supporters as the anthem played, with the team singing quietly as it played. Iranian authorities have responded with deadly force to suppress protests that have marked one of the boldest challenges to its clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Authorities in Tehran arrested a popular footballer Vorya Ghafouri on Thursday for his outspoken support for protesters.

The national team, called Team Melli has become controversial amid popular anti-regime protests, not siding with protesters who have defied the clerical rulers since September.

Iranians love soccer but not their team anymore as it keeps distancing itself from solidarity with the current wave of protests across the country.

The unsympathetic postureby Team Melli comes on the backdrop of several Iranian sportsmen and women using international competitions to show their support for the protests.

Numerous Iranian athletes have shown support for the protests. The Iranian football, beach football, water polo, basketball, and sitting volleyball teams refused to sing along with the anthem, which is customary in almost all international competitions. Authorities have made serious threats against athletes and other celebrities to stop them from public displays of solidarity with protesters but to no avail.