On Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei addressed students in Tehran. His offices summary of the speech on Twitter in heated and confusing language indicated that the Supreme Leader still resents the protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential election:#Leaderin today's meeting:those who condemned state 4rigging in 2009 say the contrary in private. So why did u impose those damages 2CNTRY?
khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir)July 28, 2013
Ayatollah#Khamenei:what would've happened in 2009 if God didn't help and groups of people had clashed in#Iran?Look at#Egypt& the region
khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir)July 28, 2013
Perhaps the Supreme Leader was warning his audience never to think of taking of the streets. However, he also had other troubles on his mind, in this case the political turmoil in Egypt. Press TV summarises:
Ayatollah Khamenei said, the depth of the Islamic Awakening is existent in these countries, but because issues have been mismanaged and [they] blundered, today, the situation in the great country of Egypt has become very painful.
Beyond that careful, coded language is the Islamic Republics disappointment with the failure of the Islamic Awakening that it proclaimed in early 2011, just after the overthrow of the Mubarak regime.
Of particular interest is Khameneis reference to issues being mismanaged, a slap at the Muslim Brotherhood and other forces behind the recently-deposed Morsi Government.
Tehran had proclaimed an alliance with the Brotherhood after the 2011 Revolution, looking for it to lead the Awakening and thus support Iranian interest in the Middle East. That ambition was immediately checked, however, by the military rule over Egypt in 2011-12.
More importantly, it was checked by the Brotherhood and President Morsi after he took office in June 2012. Far from endorsing Tehrans positions, Morsi challenged them on issues from Palestine to Syria. The highlight, or low-light for the Supreme Leader, was the Egyptian Presidents declaration at no less than the podium of the Non-Aligned Movements summit in Tehran in August 2012 that Irans Syrian ally was responsible for the bloodshed in the country.
But the Supreme Leaders bitterness, even as he said the Islamic Awakening is an very important issue that cannot be ruined by the Wests antitheses is not just about the past. It holds the practical question for the present: what does Tehran do now about the situation in Egypt, Syria, and the Middle East when that Awakening does not awaken?
More on The Supreme Leaders speech
Hanif Zarrabi-Kashani brings more detail on the Supreme Leaders exchanges with students on Sunday.
During a Q&A part of the event, a student asked Ayatollah Khamenei what the term moderation promoted by President-elect Hassan Rouhani and his supporters meant exactly.
The Supreme Leader gave a guarded answer, The President-elect has come up with this slogan, surely he expressed your own understanding of the term and subject of moderation.
A few students asked about the sedition the protests after the disputed 2009 Presidential elections. Ayatollah Khamenei responded. to which Ayatollah Khamenei touched up on:
When reviewing this bitter event, the main issue is that they (the seditionists) violated the law and behaved in an uncivilized manner, and stood on the other side of the law and inflicted damage and harm on our dear Iran.
Of course in all of the corners and cracks of such a big incident there could be some issues, where sometimes an innocent person can be cruel, but the main issue should not be lost because of these (smaller) issues.
Why and for what reason did they take to the streets to deal with their claim that there was cheating in the 2009 election? We have repeatedly asked and proposed this question publicly, so why havent they answered? Why havent they apologized?
In private meetings they say fraud has not occurred, so for what reasons did you make the country suffer and want to bring it to the brink?
Do you know what would have happened if God didnt help us during the sedition of 2009 and groups had fallen (died)? Do you know what type of days this country would have seen? Of course, God did not will it, and the nation used their intuition.
Ayatollah Khameneis personal website posted aseries of photosof the event.
Swaziland, Syria and Guinea-Bissau On The Guest List For Rouhanis Inauguration But Not U.S.
Mehr Newsreports on Mondaythat 13 heads of states, five parliament speakers, and six foreign ministers are to attend President-elect Hassan Rouhanis inauguration ceremony on August 4.
Mehr notes that a Majlis official told Fars News on Sunday that the Presidents of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Armenia, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Guinea-Bissau, Togo, and Tajikistan would attend the ceremony.
The Prime Ministers of Syria and Swaziland have also sent positive RSVPs, Mehr said.
Russia, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Oman, and Congo are sending their Parliament Speakers to the ceremony.
The full guest list will be ready by Thursday. It is not yet clear whether former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will be on it.
Tough Talk From MP Aboutorabi-Fard Irans Might Protects All Muslims From Imperialist Hegemonies
Principlist MP Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi-Fardtalked aboutIrans soft and hard power with` ambassadors from Islamic States on Sunday, presenting the Islamic Republic as the major power whose military might and defensive capabilities protect not only itself but all Muslims.
Aboutorabi-Fard boasted that: Irans defensive power is, in the first place, aimed at preventing the US interference in the region, and secondly to cut off imperialisms hand of the oppressed countries in the world.
No speech about Irans military might would be complete without a reference to an Israeli plot, and Press TV supplies this in the form of a quote from the Palestinian Authoritys Ambassador to Iran, Salah Zawawi, who said that the crises in Egypt and Syria can be traced back to Israeli plots.
ByEnduring America
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