by Ramin Mazaheri
So ISIL claims to have made their first attack in Iran. The response in Iran appears to be: So what?
Despite an attack occurring near Tehran’s international airport there was no disruption in air travel. Citizens were asked to stay off the metro, but nothing went on lockdown. There was no martial law. Not even a state of emergency has been declared. No civil liberties have been restricted. No Patriot Act being prepared. There has been no executive branch power grab.
Despite an attack occurring near Parliament, lawmakers continued to go about their business, even as gun battles took place in surrounding office buildings. The live radio broadcast of the Parliamentary session did not even stop.
Pretty brave politicians, eh? I assume that their voters are thinking they made a good choice.
(People think it’s so brave to go to war armed with a gun: it’s much harder to be that guy who carried just a banner – all they have is belief and self-sacrifice.)
Foreign commentators are talking about how Iran has finally been successfully targeted by ISIL, as if we are supposed to be scared now.
Not likely.
The reason is simple: Most Iranians today either fought, survived or grew up during the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries – the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988.
Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, as I’m writing this just a couple hours after the attack was neutralized, but I doubt it. I know Iran and have faith that the terrorists won’t win by scaring us into submissive lives.
Give them time and I predict that Western commentators will eventually admit their befuddlement that the Iranian government isn’t using this terrorist act as a way to increase their own power and control the populace – after all, they’ve been so amazingly effective!
This attack helps the West: to show how disproportionate their responses are
But such a response of “business as usual” is unthinkable in the West. Sure, the UK talks about “Keep calm and carry on,” but we all know that’s just an empty slogan aimed at consumers.
Heck, the BBC even falsely reported: “However, officials announced a nationwide state of emergency in response to the attacks.” I guess they just arrogantly assume we still follow their lead? Not that this bad journalism could ever tarnish their reputation of course….
What happens in the United States? Well, let’s remember the Boston Marathon bombing: They went into to total lockdown. The entire city transportation system was shut down. 19,000 National Guard troops occupied the city.
“Armored vehicles motored up and down neighborhoods. Innocent people were confronted in their homes at gunpoint or had guns pointed at them for merely peering through the curtains of their own windows,” remembered the Atlantic. (Of course, they totally exonerated the authorities, writing: “May no one condemn them.”)
And yet this incident inspired the phrase “Boston strong”.
LOL, I guess it means being strong from behind your locked doors? Strong like “internet tough guys”, who spout self-aggrandizing, bullying nonsense?
Hey, I’m not definitely not insulting Bostonians as cowards. I know exactly why they stayed inside – they feared arrest. They know that if they didn’t comply they would get thrown in jail and have the key tossed away because: that’s America.
Bostonians didn’t fear the terrorists – they feared the police. They feared the justice system. The feared a domestic army ready to attack without notice and the legal system ready to exonerate them.
Of course, the mainstream media never say this. The average American doesn’t even want to accept it, as it would cause great shame. It’s still totally true.
The Bostonians would probably have all courageously rallied in Harvard Square against terrorism…if there was genuine leadership. But there isn’t. The leaders go underground at such moments: “I’m too important” – the essence of Western individualism.
What about France? LOL, a six-month state of emergency was declared at 4 am after the Nice truck attack, and that wasn’t even terrorism, but a lone nutjob with no connections to terror organizations.
You wake up and: “Ah, bon? More police state dictatorship just one step below martial law? Oh well, we have croissants for breakfast…”
And is anyone going to say that this was a “false flag” operation, as is usually bandied about in the West? You won’t hear anyone but bitter Iranian exiles possibly making those claims. Can you imagine a Cuban saying a similar thing about their righteous, peoples’ government? Hardly.
As I have proven, Iran is effectively a Socialist nation, so maybe it’s the idea of “permanent social war” that stiffens Iran backbone against giving up our democratic liberties? We certainly need those against the capitalists and imperialists who occupy nearly all our neighbors, as well as many other countries.
Iran doesn’t need to use such tragedies to terrorize its own population because it isn’t trying to terrorize anyone anywhere. It truly fights against terrorism – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
There is no doubt that manipulating terror attacks to quell democracy is what happens in Western countries, and the question is why? I would say it’s that the West is truly scared of having its social model called into question due to the repeatedly illegitimate actions of its leadership.
And why not, in this endless age of austerity, yawning inequality, rampant xenophobia and blocked futures?
But the Iranian government has no such fears – the people view them as legitimate.
But the West doesn’t understand Iran at all
The New York Times’ main man in Iran is Thomas Erdbrink – don’t look to him for an understanding of Iran, even though he has been based there since 2002.
He won’t realize that this terror attack is nothing to those of us from the “Burned Generation”.
What is that? Well, as he wrote in 2012, my generation, “…calls itself the ‘burned generation,’ because they feel they lost out on the natural evolution of life. While their parents managed to find jobs, marry and buy houses, this generation’s ambitions have been boxed in by the political decisions of Iran’s leaders and the foreign pressures that followed.”
No: We call ourselves that because we were burnt by chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War. This generation grew up during wartime and saw atrocities.
Sad: How wrong people can be.
Nearly criminally negligent: To be considered a “top” journalist and to get something so very important so very wrong. You can see why I haven’t forgotten, after five years, his disgusting spin.
Because I think that, after 15 years and marrying an Iranian woman, he knows the real definition – I think he spun it that way to push his capitalist and imperialist agenda, and to please his pro-Zionist bosses.
I’m surprised he’s still tolerated inside Iran. It’s one thing to do critical journalism, but to get your facts wrong means you are no longer a journalist but a propagandist.
It’s not as if Erdbrink is alone, and certainly not as alone as when Iran was fighting Iraq. Back then even the USSR was arming Iraq, too.
Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, told CNN that, “The message is loud and clear: These people are attacking the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic,” Gerges said.
How does a Salafist terror attack even bring up the idea of the legitimacy of the Iranian government? Just like in Syria, the Western media sees ISIL as being freedom fighters…when they oppose a modern government in a Muslim country.
But absolutely nobody believes you inside Iran, Gerges. Outside of Iran, your ideas were retweeted by places like France 24 (run by the French state), because all Western mainstream media hate the democratic choice of the Iranian people and will use any pretext to attack its legitimacy.
Frankly, the smart money is that this wasn’t even ISIL.
Does it matter if it was ISIL? Who is behind ISIL is all that matters, right?
Was it really ISIL? I doubt it – I bet it was the MKO, the Mujaheedin Khalq Organization (here’s a story I wrote on them years ago which has been effectively wiped from Google), because that’s who it usually has been, like with the high-profile assassinations of nuclear scientists, after getting training from Mossad.
This insane cult has zero credibility in Iran because they fought WITH Saddam Hussein and against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war…let that sink in and their lack of domestic credibility is pretty easy to understand, eh?
But they do have Iranian passports, speak the language, know their way around, can fit in, etc. One of the terrorists may have even taken cyanide to commit suicide, as is common with the MKO, when they aren’t setting themselves on fire in capitals across Europe.
Khomeini’s shrine was attacked previously – a suicide bomber in 2009. That was likely MKO, too. It was too bad because I had just been there – it was in the middle of a major expansion and beautification.
The bomber did not stop that – just slowed it down. It will be the same thing in 2017.
Anyway, let’s say ISIL did finally get in to Iran. Who is supporting them to get threre?
According to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: “ISIS ideologically, financially and logistically is fully supported and sponsored by Saudi Arabia — they are one and the same.”
We all know this. Outside of the West, at least.
Iran gets what fascism is, the West does not
The day before the Iran attacks there was a cop attacked with a hammer at Notre Dame Cathedral. 900 people were kettled inside Notre Dame and forced to keep their hands in the air. Now that’s a tourist story outside the norm….
I was urged by French journalists to drop what I was doing – covering Emmanuel Macron’s new right-wing rollback to the labor code – to cover that story. Fat chance….
Of course, to attack an armed cop with a hammer and two kitchen knives is the definition of insanity, but the man cried, “This is for Syria”.
And yet, a local English-language journalist wrote: “The motive of the man armed with the hammer is unknown….”
Well, if journalists didn’t get that it’s not Islam but France’s foreign policy after the same thing was cited by the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly and nearly all the other home-grown French terrorist since 2012…why should I expect they would they get it now?
And it’s the same as the link between Saudi Arabia, the West and ISIL –willful blindness. But also apathy: people prefer low gas prices to forcing their politicians to stop supporting fascist ISIL.
Iran’s Burned Generation and the elder generation know what war and fascism is. People wonder why we have pictures of dead soldiers up everywhere – it’s not to glorify our martyrs, it’s to show the young people that war is real. Once they forget or misunderstand….
The West does not understand fascism – they are even coming close to democratically voting them into office across Europe. In the US a fascist already won.
They don’t understand war: France has had dozens of wars since World War II – all started by France and held on foreign soil. The US hasn’t had a war at home since 1865, and thus their idea of war is distorted by blissful ignorance.
Iran gets war, and they are not about to put themselves on a pathetic faux-war footing like those two nations have done over relatively trivial terror attacks.
The correct response: This attack was ‘trivial’
The West widely quoted Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani for dismissing the attacks as a “trivial matter” being handled by security forces.
I guess this is to portray him as cruel or ruthless or, the worst thing in the West today, insensitive to the feelings of others.
But Iranians know exactly what he means – an isolated terror attack is not the same as war. Sorry to burst the bubbles of the armchair media hawks and the foaming Western generals dying to play with their fancy new toys, but it’s actually just a pale, fleeting facsimile.
And, despite what the West wants this attack to lead Iranians to believe: We will not be fooled into thinking that our entire social model can be called into question by Salafist terrorists. Who are they to question our society, LOL? Anyway, there are definitely far more pressing issues: education, health care, worker compensation, worker protection, etc., which touch every single person for their entire lives. All my condolences to the victims and their loved ones, of course.
If France wants to throw their legal rights out the window over what equals a bad day in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria – that’s their choice. But please don’t expect Iran to do the same.
It’s a terrible thing, 12 people dying and dozens of casualties (so far). But I think many in Iran are looking at Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Palestine, Mali, the C.A.R….and the US, France and the UK… and thinking: it could be a lot, lot worse.
I’d make this column longer, but I want to make sure to get a good seat tonight at the Champs de Mars for when the Eiffel Tower changes colors. It won’t resemble the Iranian flag, of course. I just figure that since the Eiffel Tower famously went dark when Al-Qaeda was finally kicked out of Aleppo, Paris will want to mourn Iran’s failure to be defeated by terrorism by radiating ISIL’s color – black.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television.
Here’s my take on everything:
“The Western Establishment would have the rest of the world believe that Iran is the “largest state sponsor of terrorism”, though in reality it’s been a major victim of terrorism for decades.”
https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201706071054402900-iran-major-victim-of-terror/
What an honor to see you here in the comment section, Andrew!
You are one of the best. Your well-informed, dense – and sometimes arcane :-) – analysis of ongoing Geo-strategic, tectonic shifts are without equal. Thanks for your great work and, keep going, friend!
Andrew you’re just stating the obvious and providing absolute no new insight. Pretty much everyone on this site and his grandmother knows that Iran has supported very little overseas civilian targeting armed groups since the death of Khomeini. There is no substance or analysis in that statement.
Iran is no fool, they’re shrewd, measured, calculating and ruthless. I have no doubts that Iran is going to extract a blood price from the puppet masters of this attack. I also have no doubts that Iran is not going to get provoked into a war by this incident.
There are three countries where Western sponsored terrorism is wasted and ineffective strategy: Iran, India and China. Why? Because the people that live in these countries are tough as nails (look at the conditions they live under), stubbornly willing to take loses without becoming hysterical like the ignorant masses of London. Also, terrorism is like a flea bite on the back of an elephant when it comes to the above 3 third world populations.
Why didn’t I include Russia? Because despite the fact that the Russian people are extremely tough and cut from the same Asian cloth as the above three nations, Russia is existentially threatened terrorism because of it geographic spread, the concentration of Muslim ethnic groups in it southern flank and border: terrorism in Russia has the potential to morph into sponsored insurgencies and the full fledged western sponsored successionist movements.
Keep em’ coming Ramin, I like to hear the iranian point of view.
America declaring no-fly/no-drive zones all across Syria, and destroying forces of the Syrian/Russia alliance if they dare enter- while Putin does ***nothing*** (except cry at the UNSC).
Please provide link … my search of news sites is negative on ‘US declared no fly zone’ mod-hs
Britain and the USA beginning their ‘anti-Qatar’ play (despite Qatar being a synthetic entity holding significant US/UK military forces, the British regional military intelligence HQ from which aljazeera- created by the BBC arabic desk of the infamous ‘world service’- operates, etc)
the MI6/ISIS attack in Iran.
all the above despite the fact that the UK election isn’t over- in other words unlike the US election that ‘accidently’ had Trump as a most unwanted candidate/victor- the UK two party system offers two candidates, May and Corbyn, who are both, like Clinton, 100% deep state warmongering operatives.
Iran can try to act ‘brave’ but with Russia betraying yet another ally, the deep state project to bring the biggest regional war yet to Iran and utterly level that nation is unstoppable. Iran will undoubtedly try to hit Saudi forces in Yemen- but these are almost 100% mercenaries and anyway Trump is on the verge of declaring war against shia ‘rebels’ there.
The recent history of Iran is to partner with France and the UK (behind the scenes) because these two psuedo-allies are actually prepared to keep their word (in the short term). OTOH, Russia as an ally is a nightmare for Iran. The Russian alliance draws Iran into desperate regional action in an attempt to hold back the wahhabi tsumami- but as we know Putin is a 100% rock solid ally/protector of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Russia’s relationship with Iran is just for passing convenience, and whenever it matters, Russia happily lets Iran down.
Putin believes that Russian meddling and ‘sanity’ in the West will prevent the US/Iran war from happening. In this he is naive to the point of permitting the annihilation of all Human life on our planet. Only a very bloody nose for the USA would allow the American people to demand their leaders back away from anything that might lead to the ‘final conflict’.
But the Qatar thing and the Iran thing and the USA blatantly butchering government alliance forces in Syria show how much better the demonic masters of the deep state play the game. Qatar is 100% their chess piece, yet the demons know this allows them to perfectly sacrifice it for the greater goal. But what does our ‘muscular vicar’ do in response? Once again go the the UNSC and spout the old saw “can’t we all just get along” for the umpteenth time.
i bet twilight wears a big red clown nose while he wrote this :D
Which part of his comment do you see as wrong. If you are going to complain about what he said.Then you need to explain his errors,and “why” they are errors. Just attacking someone for their opinion is not an argument. Its only a sign of having “no” counter-argument.
(The below isn’t about something you wrote)
As for the request for a link to his claim of the US unilaterally declaring their own “deconfliction zones”. RT is running a story in which Lavrov accuses them on doing just that.
https://www.rt.com/news/391216-lavrov-syria-us-strike/
there several factual assertions in twilights screed.
corbyn is anything but a war monger…a long time member
of the anti war movement in the UK
in a recent bbc show where audience asked him
questions, the ‘planted’ questioners asked him if
he would ‘press the button’ for nuclear war and four
of them kept on about it as he would not give them
their preferred answer of ”yes”.
the next questioner selected, before asking her question
remarked that … ”i don’t understand why some people here
want to kill millions of people”. the response was cheering
and deafening applause from the rest of them.
i’ve also noticed twilight before denigrating putin as weak
and calling the west pardners in that denigrating tone of his/hers.
my guess would be that it is a not very subtle tel aviv hasbara troll.
paid or otherwise.
1) US declaring no-fly zones
2) Corbyn is a 100% deep state warmonger
3) Russia betraying its allies
4) Iran is partnering with UK and France
5) Putin is naive
That’s factual mistatements I can spot in one quick reading with no reseach. In other words, writing about the quality of what one expects from CNN.
Sorry,no cigar here.
1. I posted a link showing Russia’s Lavrov saying the US is doing just that. So his comment was not in error on that point.
2.Here you may have a point. I think he was in error there.
3. That is a debatable question. Many people see it both ways. Unless you show evidence to confirm your thinking. Then your opinion is no more valid than his. And can’t be considered as a “fact”.
4. I think you are right here. Iran would like to have good relations with those states. But that isn’t the same as “partnering “with them.Its those two states more than Iran that prevents friendship.
5. That is also a debatable question. With a lot of people on both sides of that thinking. So just as with some of your other points,without presenting opposing evidence.Your thinking is no more valid than his on the subject. And is not a “fact”.
To give a link about the proclaimed ‘exclusion zones’ around bases of uninvited and illegal US forces: http://russia-insider.com/en/military/us-bombs-syrian-army-syria-again/ri20047
It is unclear whether this includesa no fly zone, but my guess is that it would be quite daring to find that out.
I mean illegal by international law and even their own constitution, of which we know by now that they just don’t care about that. Only when it comes out conveniently to blame others, of course.
Try to imagine that the Syrian forces settled like that in Arizona, USA.
Anybody can declare a no-fly zone. By neighbor did so just yesterday.
Problem being, neither he nor I have air jets or even a lousy drone. In other words the question is: can Zion enforce its no-fly zone in the Syrian-Jordanian border region?
The answer is: no, not really, unless thy scale up their military engagement by several orders of magnitude. But can they and will they? Time will tell.
*/…/ but as we know Putin is a 100% rock solid ally/protector of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Russia’s relationship with Iran is just for passing convenience, and whenever it matters, Russia happily lets Iran down.”
What clearly amounts to ‘passing convenience’ in the above diatribe is the cowardly choice of the pronoun ‘we’ in order to ‘prove’ a mere assertion. As usual, we have the situation in which Western imperialism gets its Western subjects neatly in line as to who the enemy is. The Zionazis say: “Let it be known that each and everyone of you are expected to hate Vladimir Putin until we say otherwise or lose interest in the matter. We don’t care the slightest what reasons you base your hatred upon as long as you hate per our instruction”. Putin and Russia stir up more trouble to Zionism and Wahhabism in half an hour’s time than what the West’s political misfits would have accomplished throughout their entire pathetic history.
It is an inarticulate message to Iran to stay away from getting involved in Qatar crises, especially if they try to break the current siege by sending food and medical supplies.
Regards, Spiral
I’m glad to hear that the Iranians are taking a reasonable, level-headed approach to such atrocity. Too bad the oligarchic lackeys pilfering Western Civilization for every last vestige of dignity are too narcissistic to reflect on the lesson.
This could be a side effect of the epic shake up that is taking place in the ME, launched by D Trump. There are rumours that Iran is shifting side in the global war on terror, willing to ally with Qatar, muslim brotherhood, Turkey and UK against the US, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. I don’t know if it will happen, but it could explain why the Iranians forbid the use of their airbases to the Russians. Time will tell.
I say, “chill” … small time event with some powerful symbolism in the Western mind.
However, as for much of the Ukraine-Russian baiting saga most of the Western/European narrative is about how they see the situation reflecting their own inner conditions and frustrations.
The system is failing, the pressure points are popping and the politicians and their 1% masters are working overtime to deflect and obscure etc.
UK’s Corbyn may just get in — that would be good early sign of an inflection point towards better times — we’ll know better after this weekend. Otherwise it’s wall-to-wall criminal weasels looking to save their necks.
As for KSA, it is brittle and flaying about under the cover of symbolic ‘war dances’ with swords. The crust@the-top has milked the place dry and trying to sell off the state oil corp for the last drop of value to export before the domestic eruption. There is even talk of shifting the Prophet’s grave to help trigger off something from the less Wahhabi minded.
The KSA stomped into Bahrain some years back to stop an outbreak of democracy, they are now destroying Yemen and have Qatar in their sights. The demented ‘king’ has recently been nominated as the ‘poobah’ of the century in Arab affairs (yawn) and beheadings continue. Women can’t drive even though they own approx. 50% of the wealth due to Islamic inheritance rules (stipulated in the Quan).
The Turks have consolidated their domestic arrangements and the head-turk has given the German’s their departure schedule. The new Ottoman ’empire’ is now moving the knights to Qatar with the pointed blade at their old stomping ground before the British moved in (a la Lawrence of Arabia). The bank stressed KSA will want their USA base back (and the rents) in due course — how better to get the Americans to pay for some of the surplus inventory that they (the Americans) are making the KSA purchase to keep the US economy on life support. How better to destroy the junk that a little hot war with Qatar and if possible Iran (although I doubt they really want to go there, although the Trumpeting US may wish it)?
Tel Aviv — just full on party time celebrations as the Arabs fight among themselves and leave the Palestinians in the lurch. Qatar supports Hamas and remember Trump abused Abas for ‘lying’ as soon as he (Trump) returned DC.
The whole thing is sloshing around in the bucket. It is more than likely that behind all the smoke and curtains there is a longer term plan for Turkey to become a major gas distribution nexus for Russian and Qatari-Iran gas via Russian operated pipelines through a rebuilt Syria. This puts the KSA on a defensive footing and attack is probably one logical scenario.
Time for the re-run of the 1973 Arab Oil embargo — aka ‘crisis’? There does eem to be some rhyme in the historical winds at present. The means may be different but the energy shock will be the same and the USA is pitched to benefit and run down a bit of the fiat debt at $150/barrel (the ME shipping routes being blocked in effect if only by Lloyd’s of London and shipping insurance) .
Xi’s China may have one-belt in mind, but the buckle is still in the ME for the foreseeable future.
Finally I understand how Israel was able to kill Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran, it was incredulous how Mossad agents could even get into Iran, let alone kill prominent Iranians in Iran. Now I know about the MKO.
From a historical perspective, though most of you probably know about this already, the origin of the English word assassin comes from Iran, and it took a concerted effort of Genghis Khan’s boys, the Mongols, who conquered both Russia and China mind you, to finally eliminate that grouping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins
So yes, most Iranians probably find ISIS very boring, utterly unintimidating, chopping off heads, so mundane, yawn.
In the 1960s-1980s there were numerous terrorist attacks that claimed many lives. Especially in Europe (Italy, France etc) and it was blamed on “leftists” and “red” extremists ( USSR was considered the evil then) . In reality, most of these attacks were false flag attacks that were staged by secret services and NATO operatives, known as the GLADIO. With the fall of ussr, the phenomenon of ” leftist ” terrorism subsided or disappeared completely….
Nowadays we have numerous attacks all blamed on “radical islamists”. All these attacks are very suspicious and there are many loopholes in each case.
Many of the individuals that are blamed as the perpetrators are usually non-ideological, ex criminals, mentally unstable, drug addicts and crooks etc, known in the authorities. Many also had a lifestyle of alcohol and drug use , known to frequent strip clubs and had sex with prostitutes etc. Hardly the life of a pious Muslim or a religious conservative.
In most cases, all alleged perpetrators are shot by authorities and no witness survives.
Based on the many loopholes of the recent terrorist attacks and the known history of gladio, I would not be surprised that these attacks are staged by secret services.
The elites have their strategies to dominate Middle East but also to create police state mechanisms in Western countries. They have motives to create chaos.
After the recent attack, the British PM blamed the internet and asked for restriction of free expression and more surveillance. Go figure. ..
NATO operation Gladio B indeed. Here an interesting video with Olle Dammegaard about these false flag fake attacks and the specialist business organizing and running these events:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNntN-RbAfw
Enjoy!
As tragic as this is, it will bring good results in Syria. Both Iranians and Russians will conclude that if these terrorists are not defeated in Syria, they will find their way to Russia and Iran. What other options do they have other than to crush these misfits to the last one.
ISIS isn’t nearly the major problem in Syria. Certainly they are a horrible problem,and savage terrorists. But the major problem is the dozen or more terrorist gangs the West supports all over the country. And the West’s using ISIS as an excuse to move ever further into Syria.Those are the “real” major problems Syria faces.
This is a beautiful essay, filled with many truths. Thank you, Ramin Mazaheri.
And yes, as another commenter says, please keep them coming.
Uh, yeah, it’s Iran, they don’t have any civil liberties to begin with.
I am curious to read the rest of the analysis but let’s keep in mind this is happening against a backdrop of an authoritarian theocracy.
“Uh, yeah, it’s Iran, they don’t have any civil liberties to begin with.”
Unfortunately for Soros and the West’s fabulous ‘anti-authoritarians’ (whose very infallible authority he is), Iran does have civil liberties — among them free and fair elections. Case in point: The Iranian presidential election back in 2009 was chosen by the West as a suitable moment to have the anti-imperialist sitting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ousted by a colour revolution courtesy of “The Gucci crowd” = the ‘anti-authoritarian’ Westernized gilded youth, predominantly from Teheran’s wealthier neighbourhoods.
To “boost morale” worldwide, the Western MSM let it be known that ‘Ahmadinejad’s days were numbered’ and that his ‘misrule’ was a sure guarantor of ‘a crushing defeat’, and so on and so forth. Well, reality turned out to be totally different as Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. It’s easy to understand the gross miscalculations of the MSM and the anti-authoritarian pro-imperialist swamp forever believing the garbage promoted: Since the Western MSM haughtily dismiss people who don’t speak English, the coverage became laughably one-sided and then degenerated into the most deluded wishful thinking.
Bottom line: Iran has all the civil liberties needed to keep the anti-authoritarian parasites in check. No go for Soros.
When the ‘protesters’ hold up placards with catchy slogans in English, you know enough….
Precisely. And it’s equally telling when the God-forsaken MSM promote this utter garbage as “genuine, popular protest”, LOL.
This attack was a message to Iran. Symbolic in nature. That CIA/ISIS/SA have assets that can target you in the heart of your cities. It’s a message aimed at telling Tehran to not aid Qatar and a warning that they could well be targeted in future on a much bigger scale. I can assure you heads are rolling in the security services in Tehran, this is a big event that the author is masking behind bravado. The truth is Russia, Iran and Syria can only maintain a defensive position against the Anglo-zionists so far.
I actually think the opposite. They are trying to provoke Iran.
Well i realy don’t like the MKO (enough to see McCain “doing the job” during their big party in Tirana) to feel the smell of death and chaos…
But i don’t buy the MKO source right here, i am pretty sure it comes actually from ISIS.
On the video made avaiable by terrorists inside the parlement, two of them are speaking, i have been told that one of them speaks arabe with a Lybian accent, and the other one with an a Tunisian accent.
Maybe we will soon know more about the “pedigree” of that team…
Furthermore i have been told that in the evening the police as arrested another guy who wan’t to enter the metro of Teheran with an explosive belt (it seems that the medias are not talking about this).
Well, and i also think of the “accident” in the metro yesterday, was it really an accident ?
And the explosion in Shiraz fews days ago ? Don’t know why but when i have heard about it, i immediately thought it could be the first shot on Iran by ISIS (as they “promised” it in a propaganda video not so long ago).
MKO, ISIS, Saudi agents or whoever – all are assets of Zion anyway.
I agree, as the Saker has said they are all Daesh. However we must reflect on the events of the past decade as we see the rise of the multi polar world and the decay of the Imperialist unilateral power. Although he has been ignored, Putin has been holding up his part and speaking truth to power while Russia has made tremendous progress in so many areas not only in Russia but world wide. Many partners are coming into the fold of reality.
Russia will stand with those partners and defend against those outside the gates as well as deal with those inside as well. Qatar can join if it undergoes a real change of heart that is required for survival or go the way of those before it Trumpled (sic) headless and prostate before what can bear no name other than evil.
You can be scared into obeying but you can also be scared into revolting when the truth is known.
Again an interesting article, Ramin Mazaheri.
I like it when you sometimes share your thoughts about how Iran and it’s people look at what’s happening around them. I have lost all confidence in the standard ‘press’, so please feel free to give us some insights.
I remember when the Iraq-Iran war was raging, I was young and thought something like ‘it’s far away, I don’t even know what’s it about’. Years later, I read long texts about it in in the epic work ‘The great war on civilizations’ by Robert Fisk, and then I started to realize that it was something like WW 1. Front lines going back and forth, and an insane number of casualties (something like a million).
I know that you work and live in France, therefore I like to emphasize that the remembrance of the slaughters of WW 1 are still very vivid in France. Maybe the large differences between the countryside (‘la campagne’) and the cities in France play a role at it too (I’m more familiar with ‘la campagne’, where they tend to say ‘Paris, c’est loin’ (Paris is far away)).
For instance, still in buses in France the seat directly behind the driver is reserved for a war wounded (‘mutile de guerre’). I once was in the North West part and I was astonished about the immense grave fields alongside just tiny villages. The French in those areas are remembered about it daily. Only the battle in Verdun (ok, that is not exactly in the North West) wasted over 700000 lives in months.
It’s good and wise that the people of Iran keep the memories of the Iraq-Iran war alive. And are not intimidated when some -probably Mossad-trained- jihadi’s start shooting around.
Did you know that a lot of training camps of jihadi’s against Iran, Turkey and whatever is suitable for the moment, are actually located in Europe, even training camps of ISIS? Albania and Kosovo are full of them, under the eyes of a large US military base. I smell a fuse smoldering.
Please keep us informed about the people of Iran. It’s very interesting indeed.
Thank you for you article and greetings, Rob
“Please keep us informed about the people of Iran”
One of they reasons why Libya was lost is because it had no voice in the west.
There are numerous other examples like Libya.
Their most terrible weapon is the press. The international “opinion”. They do not just print opinions, but they make public opinions worldwide. To eliminate this weapon means to take away their power. Without the press they stand naked.
To bring the world an accurate and trustworthy picture about Iran is a noble task and might help Iran more than a standing army.
WMD, Weapon of Mass Disinformation.
I think the world is waking up to Team USA’s agenda and what you say about Libya is very true, they had no voice and the West’s plan for wholesale ME slaughter was not yet visible. Remember when the US went to the UN for a Lybian no fly zone, got it and promptly attacked? I remember Putin’s face at the time of the attack, it was as if he had met the Devil.
The awakening is taking place in Europe, for example look at the British press demonetization of Jeremy Corbyn especially in the days before the election, it was unbelievable (For examples see on twitter: #lastminutecorbynsmears). The UK press to their surprise and horror were drowned in an online torrent of attacks, all ridiculing them and then worse still, their Tories lost their majority. The UK is awake.
What happened in the US election was interesting, Sanders built a huge following who IMO he then betrayed by declaring allegiance to Clinton. Something like 11 million backed him and donated a half a billion US to his campaign. They know they were robbed and now they too are very much awake.
I believe the world is changing and for the better as people see their respective MSM and leaders for what they are. And France, well LePen wasn’t the ideal alternative and their current govt has a very strong hold on the press but I suspect the banker’s boy’s plans for French labor and pensions will be more than sufficient to get a Left govt in place in due order. Fingers crossed for all of us, peace may break out yet!
“deadliest conventional war ever fought … Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988”
Do you know the German journalist Udo Ulfkotte?
In this Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8ClZZON904
he says literally (in the 1st minute): … Juli 1988 … ich war einer von ganz wenigen Augenzeugen … wie die Iraker Iraner vergasst haben.
In short: He says he was eye-witness when Iranians were gassed with mustard gas. In my humble opinion there lies some scandalous news buried. Or perhaps this is already know?
There are photos he shot himself of this on the net.
Did you know this?
Udo died in January this year.
“Most Iranians today either fought, survived or grew up during the deadliest conventional war ever fought between regular armies of developing countries – the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988.”
I would mention that well over 40% of the Iranian population were NOT EVEN BORN at the END of the Iran-Iraq War. If we backdate to the beginning of the war, 1980, that number will expand to well over 50%. Iran has an enviable demographic recipe for success in the future: fully 40% of its population are under the age of 25. Imagine what a bright future this country will have with a steadily improving education system for BOTH boys and girls and no shortage of youth to take advantage of the system and go on to develop and grow their country. No wonder the Zionist landgrabbers are sweating and pushing the US to start a war! In Iran, the term “baby boomer” would have to connote a different meaning than it does in west: only 12% of the population is over the age of 55! The baby boom in Iran occured after the Iran-Iraq War, and although it seems to be slowing now, the birth rate is still healthy.
Keep up the good articles, Ramin. Saker, please try to find more English-subtitled videos of speeches from Iranian political and military figures. I enjoy keeping up with the Putin speeches (always impressive and level-headed), the Hassan Nasrallah speeches (a laser-like analysis of current ME issues), and I would like to see more speeches from Iranian figures.
Frankie P
I suppose it helps that it didn’t happen before an election with the party in power hoping to use the massive police presence and constant statements about the threat as a part of their election campaign.
Thank you Ramin Mazaheri for this article – quite an interesting point of view. No wonder Russia and Iran get along so well! Russians and Iranians have very close understandings of war and its effects, know what is important, what is not, neither fears what is in front of them.
The article is mostly correct, but not entirely. The ” burned generation” means that the young people did not get to enjoy and experience life as they should have. He is incorrect on that. Next, Iran is not exactly a democracy, even though it is a hell lot more democratic than the likes of its neighbors. Another thing, social and political liberties are more constrained in Iran than the western countries, so people very well know if needed, most of their “liberties” can be eliminated in a matter of few hours, no prolonged congressional debates needed.
He has it right as he describes how west uses and reacts to a terrorist attack. He is spot on.
He works for Press TV, which is owned by the the Iranian government. You can’t expect him to not tout the official line.
My take: The Saudi prince, Salman, said the war between Iran and Saudi Arabia has to be fought in Iran last month. Seems like he was in the know about these attacks. It wasn’t the pathetic MKO band doing this, since the video footage taken by the terrorists shows they were speaking Arabic. MKO is not Sunni and does not speak Arabic.
Finally, you should expect more and more attacks like this due to Iran being so close to ISIS geographically, but nothing major will happen. Yes, people will die but Iran won’t be Syria or Iraq, no matter how much neocon dogs and Iran’s southern sorry neighbors dream!
I found Twilight’s characterizing Putin as cowardly and ineffective to be appalling. The neocon deep state still runs the USA and western Europe. They have set the western financial system on a path to go over a cliff, probably within 12 months and certainly within 36. Their so-called elites are desperately trying to start a war with Russia for several reasons, not the least of which is to distract the American Sheeple. They are both paranoid and psychopathic and terrified of losing power, not only because they are used to being in command and control, but even more so, that their most horrible crimes will be revealed. And I am not referring to crimes such as destroying the nation of Libya. I am referring to the massive, Luciferian crimes against the children of America and western Europe. So Putin is in a position of trying to prevent these insane psychopaths from starting a nuclear war with Russia while protecting the sovereignty of his own country. This requires strategic and tactical genius, and it appears that Putin is up to the task. The Zionist Anglo-Atlantic cabal is rapidly destroying itself from within from its intrinsic corruption. The nations of the world are tired of sending the products of their labor and natural resources in return for worthless electrons painted with the stars and stripes. The USA is running an annual trade deficit of over a half TRILLION dollars per year. Putin, in alliance with the dominant manufacturing power on this planet, is slowly making the ZAA cabal irrelevant. He wished to prevent the destruction of the planet until the cabal self- immolates, and that time can be measured in months. What Twilight regards as cowardice and ineffectiveness is an iron willed patience. Twilight, in a peek of bullheaded armchair bravado would have Putin follow in the footsteps of one of our (USA) most illustrious (one star) generals, George Armstrong Custer.
Maybe Iran should stop dealing with terrorists like Jamie Gorelick https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/schlumberger-oilfield-holdings-ltd-agrees-plead-guilty-and-pay-over-2327-million-violating-us
“I know exactly why they stayed inside – they feared arrest”
More likely they new they were at greater risk of being shot and killed by the police than they were with the alleged terrorists !!
“let’s remember the Boston Marathon bombing: They went into to total lockdown. The entire city transportation system was shut down. 19,000 National Guard troops occupied the city.
“Armored vehicles motored up and down neighborhoods. Innocent people were confronted in their homes at gunpoint or had guns pointed at them for merely peering through the curtains of their own windows,” remembered the Atlantic. (Of course, they totally exonerated the authorities, writing: “May no one condemn them.”)
And yet this incident inspired the phrase “Boston strong”.
Completely wrong reading, Ramin.
1)
The Boston Marathon bombing was a hoax by the usual suspects. Nobody died.
2)
The lock-down of half the city was a fascist police-military exercise by the usual suspects.
3)
The ‘Boston strong’ slogan was an MKUltra mass-mind-control exercise by the usual suspects’ media arm.
Reminds me of my friend Kipperman who owned a pawnshop in Texas. In a ‘ghetto’ of course. Each time I’d visit I’d get another tour of the shop, with K showing me all the bullet holes in the walls from various attacks.. Didn’t faze him.
It’s almost like he collected bullet holes.
I remember also his shop policy – they never loaned on items carried in bagged in pillow cases.
God bless the Iranians I say. And I’m a Christian. To say as Trump does that they are ‘terrorists’ is absolutely absurd.
IMO:
The Deep State had Qatar planned as the new operating base for the Saudi-“NATO” operatives?
So, like reptile Merkel is doing right now with the US-colony Germany, she has chosen to exchange people who will get everything they want and throw out the indegenous german folks and the new subjects will ALL vote for her so she can build her “beloved” political European Union Kingdom together with her new subjects who are all speaking Arabic and no German.
A planned “dump” of the Qataris into the Persian Gulf to swim direction Iran, by Mossad to be carried out thru the “brave” Wahhabis, would be a possibility? After all, to get at Russia they missed Crimea, they missed Syria and so they took a step back and came to Qatar (US/UK/NATO are already there), which is right across Iran. The comination is that Ukraine has been brought under steam by now, ready for sail direction Luhansk and Donbass.
Well, ahead with the Zionists’ Plans, up to iran and then Russian Federation, of which these two countries share a border.
And IMF can’t hardly wait to finally install a Central Bank system in Teheran for Iran needs urgently to become a member of NATO and IMF will then take care of the “needed” updates = Debts.
Good grieve, Iran will never bend.
Macron is Not a fascist??? -Is that what I should take away from this article?
XXX number of dead means nothing. How many died for our freedoms in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen… France have XX number of dead and impose a police state.. (let’s have a look at how many are killed by Cancer per year.. Yet there was no police state..). Hollande was the devil incarnate in France. I hope Macron will see that France have people too.. He’s not very French, so I understand if he cannot see.
Ramin, you are fearless! Thank you!
Thank you Ramin,
I was worried when the attacks happened because I didn’t want these attackers to reach inside and harm the law makers. Till that point, I was scared, but when they didn’t, I felt it’s good that the Saudis the Americans and the Israelis played their hand, and it was such a weak hand. And this move and the loss of 17 (valuable and innocent) people will help Iran be prepared. The Isis scum would have killed as many lawmakers as they could if they got in. I was relieved that they attacked the Ayatollahs shrine (where crowds are relatively thin) rather than say that of imam Reza (as), the crowd at the latter would have been great, but security greater too. So the Khomeini shrine was a soft target and symbolic. This symbolism points to MEK being facilitators and the Saudis being behind it.
Though you do mention Iran as being socialist and Iran being part of the resistance, you very rarely mention it being Islamic. A lot of Iran’s resolve to fight and resist comes from it’s shia roots and beliefs. I don’t believe a secular or for that matter socialist Iran or Sunni Iran could have faced off the West in such a steadfast manner. The others could have resisted, but in the end would have cracked. This will take away from this topic, so please ignore this paragraph.
What I did love reading, more than anything I have read so far, was this, I wish the Saker could publish this with permission:
http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2017/06/08/trump-should-learn-from-reagans-folly-in-lebanon/
“The US-Saudi-Israeli calculation will be that at some point, Tehran may begin retaliating. But it is highly unlikely that Iran will retaliate in the same coin as its adversaries – with terrorism as a key instrument of state policy. It will plan its moves carefully, methodically. An extensive proxy war is far more likely. Its impact will be felt in Yemen, Syria and Iraq – even Afghanistan.
From this point, the American forces deployed in these countries may begin to feel that life is getting to be a lot more dangerous than they ever knew. Do not rule out at some point in a conceivable future a repetition of the Beirut experience of October 23, 1983 when a single Lebanese militant killed 241 American marine, navy, and army personnel. It was the single deadliest attack on American Marines since the Battle of Iwo Jima. By February 1984 Ronald Reagan had ensured that the US marines were completely withdrawn from Lebanon. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Trump is pushing the envelope recklessly.”
In other words, it’s game on. And all American targets are now legitimate. They’ve opened the box (Pandora’s) but have no idea yet where it will lead. The Saudis better hold on to their throne as tight as they can, cause does not look like they will last long. They just invited the Iranians to take the fight into the kingdom.
Thank you
What a beautiful article. Thanks Ramin. Loved it.