Iran's Khamenei Tries To Boost Confidence Among Loyal Forces

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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

In a report titled, “Do German Instagram employees help the mullahs?”, Bild investigated the removal of critical posts by Iranian users on Instagram, alleging that German employees help the platform to practice the censorship.

Bild added that “some of the Farsi-speaking Instagram moderators are said to have a positive attitude towards the regime and interpret the Instagram community rules strictly against the Iranian opposition in order to block posts critical of the regime.”

In May, some Iranians complained that their Instagram posts were being restricted, allegedly by other Iranians working for the company’s content review subcontractor.

Some BBC sources alleged that pro-regime employees of the German branch of Telus International, a Canadian contractor which provides content moderation to Instagram, are responsible for restricting antigovernment content of Iranian users.

A few days later, three human rights groups called on Meta, the owner Instagram and Facebook, to review its Farsi-language content procedures for Iran.

Bild says Golsa Golestaneh and Maryam Namazi two Iranian activists as well as an Iran International journalist Maryam Moqaddam have told the daily their critical posts have been deleted by Instagram.

A spokeswoman for Instagram parent company Meta told Bild, “Our teams are following the situation very closely. They will remove content that violates our rules and will fix bugs with mistakenly removed content as soon as possible.”

However, Bild asks Instagram officials how one can draw attention to the crimes of the Iranian regime when depictions of police violence or demonstrators calling for the overthrow of the government are considered depictions of violence.

Signs of the apparently incurable impasse have appeared in bitter comments by Iranian academics and political activists such as Mohsen Renani who has said in a note published on social media that "the government is trying to stop a flood by shooting at it, thinking that bullets can stop the deadly torrent. At the same time, intellectuals are standing behind the flood and trying to direct it."

Renani said that in the current revolt "the younger generation of Iranians is throwing up the remnants of an old and outdated government. They also do not want us intellectuals who kept silent for a long time in the face of discrimination, narrowmindedness and foolishness."He added that both the government and the intellectuals lag behind the new generation. The flood is raging on and what the government can do to stop it?"

As reports indicate in recent days, the government's last resort has been seeking help from reformists it neglected, suppressed and humiliated at least since 2020 if not long before that.

Referring to her meetings with Judiciary Chief Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei and Security Chief Ali Shamkhani, Fatemeh Rakei, the deputy chairperson of the Reform Front has said: "It may be too late for reconciliation, but we still have time to stop bloodshed and violence." She said in those meetings she called on the government to stop violence against protesters and begin to listen to them instead. She also reminded officials that real tolerance and reconciliation should mean that everyone will be entitled to voice their views and demands.

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Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's daughter Fatemeh has admitted she met with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba but has said Mojtaba told her he has been left out of top-level decision making and has been "just nobody" since last year. In that case, it is not clear why he met Rafsanjani's daughter. Earlier, Security Chief Ali Shamkhani was quoted as having said that Rafsanjani and former leader Khomeini's family members have been called on to ask the protesters to stop their rallies.

Hundreds of Iranian social media users slammed the meetings with reform figures and the members of the two clans. Several social media users opined that the meeting with Mojtaba might be an indication that plans are underway to depose Khamenei and replace him with Mojtaba. Others said this was an indication that Khamenei must leave."

Outside Iran, Iranian political commentator Reza Taghizadeh said in a tweet: "They shamelessly took Taliban II to Kabul based on an inauspicious plot and once again made the reactionaries the rulers of Afghanistan. Bringing Islamic Republic II to power in Iran using government-backed reformists in partnership with leftists is a more dangerous plot."

Meanwhile, Iranian reformist political activist Gholam Ali Rajaei pointed out that serious change is not likely to be easy as "Clerics cannot tolerate not being in power." In another statement Rajaei said that as a first step the government needs to "shut off the annoying loudspeaker in Mashhad." Earlier Rajaei and other Iranian commentators had pointed out that Mashhad's Friday Prayer Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda and the editor of Kayhan newspaper Hossein Shariatmadari constantly pump out hate-speak, annoying key groups of politically active Iranians such as filmmakers, athletes, youths and women.

Blaming these radicals for recent attacks on clerics in public places, Rajaei said in his interview with Rouydad24: "Decision-makers should silence these individuals." His advice must have been already taken on board as Khamenei's office cautioned Alamolhoda to be mindful of what he says. However, there has been no indication of any attempt to silence Shariatmadari.