After several weeks of silence, Khamenei ‘s remarks showed that he has no way out of his current deadly deadlock
After several weeks of silence in the face of growing popular uprising and the sharp fall of Iranian currency (Rial), Khamenei’s speech on Monday, August 13th showed that he has no solution to and way out of the deadly deadlock that has fully engulfed his regime. Trying to avoid expansion of frustration throughout his regime, Khamenei said, “They are propagating viciously that the country has reached a deadlock and it has no way out other than to seek refuge from this Satan or Great Satan. Whoever states that we have reached a deadlock, he is either ignorant or his words are treacherous.”
“Some people talk about corruption in a way as if the whole system is corrupt and they claim it is a systematic and comprehensive corruption … some others are careless in their talks and writings. Corruption in some agencies or among some individuals should not be generalized to the whole country,” said Khamenei while desperately tried to cover the pervasive dimensions of corruption in the regime.
Pretending to be unaware that Iran’s wealth is plundered by the regime’s officials and has been wasted in anti-national nuclear and missile projects and in war outside borders, Khamenei put the blame of the catastrophic economic situation on Rouhani, and by criticizing him for not having prepared his government against the sanctions, and said, “Most of the recent economic problems are related to the actions, and if the actions are better and more timely and better administered, the sanctions will not have much effect.” He implicitly held the government responsible for peculation of “18 billion dollars of the country’s current currency,” and threatened that the judiciary would treat “with those who caused the devaluation of the national currency”.
Khamenei, who himself guided the nuclear talks in details, said: “I made a mistake in the subject of negotiations and upon the insistence of the gentlemen (Rouhani and Zarif) I allowed them to experience, who, of course, passed our defined red lines.”
Being afraid of any changes in the current situating which might accelerate the social explosion, Khamenei said, “Those who say that the government should be dismissed are playing a role in the enemy’s plot. The government must be in power and should accomplish its duties with full force to resolve the problems.”
Khamenei, inevitably, broke his silence in the face of the new wave of uprisings and described them as “the events of August, which despite the many financial and political expenditures by enemies, were so limited.” The anti-government protests that lasted about a week in many of Iran’s cities, including Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Mashhad, with the slogan “Death to Khamenei”, “Death to the Dictator”, once again demonstrated the will of the Iranian people to overthrow this regime.
Admitting that his regime is in a very weak and fragile state, Khamenei said, “we shall not negotiate” with the United States, adding that “we can enter a dangerous game of negotiating with the United States only when we have reached our favorite economic and political and cultural strength … but the negotiations are definitely to our detriment at this juncture and it is forbidden … Even if we were, under an impossible assumption, to negotiate with Americans, we would certainly not negotiate with the current (US) administration.” This way, Khamenei showed again that changing behavior for his regime would lead to a regime change.
Emphasizing that there is no possibility of war whatsoever, Khamenei undermined the false illusion of those who try to portray a decisive policy against this terrorist regime as war. He said: “They create a big ghost of war, but there will be no war, no war, for sure.” The attempt to frighten people of the prospect of a looming war is nothing but a desperate tool to save this regime from being overthrown by the people who demand democracy and the rule of the people instead of religious dictatorship.
While slogans such as “let go of Syria, think about us” are chanted by the people at the rallies, Khamenei said, “We have helped two friend countries, Syria and Iraq, against the threats of the United States and the Saudis,” and emphasized on continuation of criminal interventions in the region.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
August 13, 2018
