RNA - This year’s rallies were of higher significance, one of Iran’s biggest as they coincided with a political frenzy in Washington triggered by President Donald Trump, the Senate, and the Congress.
The Trumpsters continue to discard any pretense they might have had of civility, upholding international norms and standards, and even International Law. For them it’s all about gaining raw power, using that power to benefit war-party Washington, and to shut down their “enemies”. These “enemies” include Iran, Russia, Syria, an entire religion, war refugees and immigrants, and anyone who might get in the way of their use and abuse of power and International Law.
With regard to Iran, the Trumpsters have leveled serious threats, including a pledge to “tear up” the nuclear accord between Tehran and P5+1 states, including Washington itself. The sitting president has also branded the country as the “terrorist state number one.”
Trump repeatedly shows contempt for the nuclear deal. Before his election, he tried to discredit the deal and said he would tear it up. After his election, he called the nuclear pact a “disaster” and “the worst deal ever negotiated.” He escalated illegal sanctions to further ratchet up tensions, and then tweeted, “Iran is playing with fire - they don’t appreciate how kind President Obama was to them. Not me!”
Further still, Trump endorsed Muslim-banning immigration restrictions, again showing his total disrespect for International Law and International Humanitarian Law. He issued an executive order blocking Iranians, among nationals from six other Muslim states, from travelling to America. The sitting president is still busy trying to discredit the federal judges who suspended his divisive ban, engaging in ad hominem attacks against them, or otherwise placing political pressure designed to undermine their independence.
In the same way, Trump’s attacks on Iran are on that slippery slope toward confrontation. How do the Iranians fight this? Well, responding to the belligerent rhetoric bravely and at the same time wisely; Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said earlier in the week that the Iranian people would respond to Trump’s threats on the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution. In his words, “Trump says, ‘Fear me!’ No. The Iranian people will respond to these remarks on Bahman 22 and will show what position the Iranian people assume vis-ê-vis threats.”
As is, by taking part in the rallies and in their millions, the Iranians responded to Trump’s threats. The lesson is that they must keep up the resistance. As previously, they must persist because the international civil society are on their side. As the worldwide protests against Trump’s Muslim ban pointed out earlier this week, the international civil society don’t like the current US administration. For Trump and his White Supremacist cabinet, this has got to hurt: Less than two weeks after his inauguration, the people who took to the streets to protest his racist, anti-Muslim policies have outstripped him in popularity.
And, given the massive size of the Friday rallies in Iran, it must be especially humiliating for the warmongers on the Capitol Hill to know that the biggest mobilization of protesters in the world that continue to beat them have been, and still are, led by Iran, always. Nor is that all. The people of Iran are just warming up. They don’t just believe that they are in an existential conflict with war-party Washington. They want to make sure that the warmongers are never in a position to turn Iran into yet another failed state in the Middle East.
Trump fantasizes that he can use the current escalation gambit to forge a completely new order in the Middle East by forcing Iran to say, “OK we’re all together now.” Trump is not in a position to make that a reality. As the people of Iran settle into the next four years of his silly threats and sanctions, it’s hard to embrace any sense of rapprochement and possibility.
The Friday rallies showed the exact opposite. The people of Iran are never afraid to raise their voice for honesty, truth and compassion against injustice, lying, and tyranny. In their battle against international bullies, they are always on the scene.
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