Raisi Administration Under Attack By Iranian Politicians

Hossein Ta’eb stated that today "we no longer have aerial bombardments and missiles" and instead a "hybrid war" is taking place.

The clerical regime has blocked thousands of website for the past two decades, but expanded its Internet restrictions at the beginning of antigovernment protests in September.

"The Internet is in control of the enemy, so we have to restrict it to deny the enemy success in its hybrid war," added Taeb.

Islamic Republic officials use the term “enemy” to refer to the United States and its allies.

During a speech at Tehran Polytechnic University (Amirkabir) on Monday, he also attributed support by celebrities for public protests to "hybrid war", claiming that in a hybrid war the fans of a celebrity must get excited to create violence.

Ta’eb also referred to Prince Reza Pahlavi's appreciation for the prominent Sunni cleric Mowlavi Abdolhamid's criticism of the government, saying "we do not have ethnic and religious differences, and Shia and Sunni live together, but some people want to take advantage of this."

He once again accused the US of seeking to create "social rifts" in Iran, so that "both sides in the society will clash first, and then they clash with the government".

He did not say who exactly he meant by the two sides and did not provide any evidence for his claims.

Over 400 political activists and journalists have signed a statement in support of Green Movement leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s call to end clerical rule in Iran.

“With the current social awakening, and the society’s disillusionment with reforms within the current [political] structure, there is no other way than allowing the people to decide their own destiny,” the statement said while expressing its support of Mousavi’s three-stage proposal and a “peaceful and non-violent transition” to a democratic government and the “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement.

Mousavi, who was a presidential candidate in 2009 and has been under house arrest since 2011, said in a statement on February 4 that fundamental change was required to “save Iran” and proposed elections to appoint a constitutional assembly to write a new constitution and a referendum on the new constitution and its proposed form of government.

The statement which was released Sunday said the outcome of a political structure based on the rule of Islamic clerics, after four decades is corruption and injustice, a government that is structurally incapable of dealing with an array of crises, and social and political freedoms that have been suppressed.

In another statement, 112 reformists who are mostly former government officials, issued a similar statement Sunday admitting the goals of the 1979 revolution to have justice and democracy in Iran have failed, and voiced support for Mousavi’s demands.

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In the current atmosphere the support for Mousavi and his demand for transition from the Islamic Republic could entail serious repercussions for its signatories, who had so far remained loyal to the Islamic Republic.

It can also be a serious set back for the regime, as its opponents have begun uniting and organizing in the diaspora, while it is losing its traditional power base.

In 2009 Mousavi’s refusal to accept the results of the election sparked widespread protests that were brutally suppressed after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei accused him of “sedition” along with former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi, another candidate in the same elections, and former president Mohammad Khatami.

The signatories of the statement include many of Mousavi’s former supporters and other reformists including Hashem Aghajari, a reformist politician who in 2000 was sentenced to death (later commuted) for “disrespecting Islam and Islamic sanctities” in a speech, and politicians such as Abolfazl Ghadyani who has been a harsh critic of Khamenei in the past decade.

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Among the signatories there are also women’s rights activists such as Noushin Ahmadi-Khorasani who was among the founding members of the One Million Signatures campaign, former student activists such as Abdollah Momeni who has been jailed several times in the past two decades, and veteran journalists such as Mashallah Shamsolvaezin who founded several popular reformist newspapers including Jame’e (Society) from 1998 onward.

Mousavi’s proposal has found support with some others including the prominent Baluch cleric Mowlavi Abdolhamid Esmail-Zehi, and leading reformist politicians Mostafa Tajzadeh and Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, both of whom are behind bars.

In a statement issued with five other political prisoners last week, Tajzadeh and Hashemi said “the only way out of the impasse for the government is to surrender to the right of the people to determine their own destiny.”

Tens of expatriate “Republican” figures and activists in a separate statement on Friday called Mousavi’s proposal “a positive and forward-looking proposal towards strengthening solidarity among the rainbow political atmosphere of Iranians seeking a transition from the Islamic Republic”.

Iran newspaper, the mouthpiece of the government, on Sunday mocked Mousavi’s proposed elections and referendum and said his record already included “insurgency against the republic during the 2009 sedition” while the semi-official Mehr News Agency in a commentary on the same day claimed that his statement proved again his “hostility” at a time when unrest in the country has subsided.

Karrubi has so far not made any comments about transition from the Islamic Republic but Khatami in a statement last week, a day after Mousavi’s declaration, called on the government to meet the people's demands and prevent a revolutionary change.

Reports from Tehran say that French-Iranian dual national academic Fariba Adelkhah has been released from jail. Adelkhah was sentenced to five years in 2020 on national security charges that she denied. Reports say that there are still several other French nationals in jail in Iran who are in essence Iran's hostages.

For decades, the Islamic Republic has been arresting foreigners and dual nationals on vague and trumped-up charges, keeping them in prison until it can make a deal with Western countries either for money, diplomatic concessions or freeing its agents convicted abroad.

Speaking on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told an NPR correspondent that an agreement to swap dual national prisoners with the United States is on the table.

He said that releasing Iranian-American Siamak Namazi is pending some technical measures on the part of the United States. However, he did not elaborate on the nature of those measures.

Amir-Abdollahian also tried to sound optimistic on the nuclear issue, as Iran finds itself under more isolation and the pressure of sanctions. He said that there is still a window of opportunity for all sides to return to the JCPOA.

Meanwhile, the violation of human rights by the Iranian regime during recent protests, and Tehran's involvement in Moscow's war against Ukraine have made the situation more complicated, making it difficult for the United States and Europe to make a deal with Iran.

On the domestic front, while according to political activists only around 150 of the prisoners "pardoned" by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were actually released from jail until Friday, reports came in Saturday morning about more political prisoners being released from detention.

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One of them was Farhad Meysami, whose heart-wrenching pictures were released last week following a long hunger strike. Meysami who was sentenced to five years in jail, was freed only four months before the end of his sentence.

While reports in Tehran indicated that President Ebrahim Raisi was going to make a “very important” announcement in his revolution anniversary speech on Saturday, his remarks contained nothing other than the usual unfounded claims about the Islamic Republic being the top power in the region, having achieved great success in many areas.

After the speech however, Iranian media sources quoted Raisi as having said that all students, cultural and athletic figures and media activists in jail are also going to be pardoned. Raisi tried to portray the amnesty as a measure championed by his government rather than the Iranian Judiciary Chief, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, who had called for a partial amnesty.

More than 90 Iranian journalists and a dozen athletes are said to have been detained during the protests since September, and many have already been released.

It is still not clear how many of the "tens of thousands" of prisoners who were to be freed based on Ejei's request are still remaining in jail and how many have been released.

Raisi’s promise to release more detainees was also vague. He did not mention how many prisoners would be included in the amnesty. However, he said the "fatherly amnesty" is a measure to confront the enemies who sow discord in Iran.

He also promised that the government is planning to facilitate the return of Iranians living abroad including those who have possibly acted against the law, but declined to elaborate. He only said that people will be notified of the measures "soon".

In the past few months, protesters on the streets have been looking up to some leading opposition figures abroad, particularly the exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi whose father was ousted by the Islamic Revolution of 1979 when he was still a teenager.

Many have hoped that the exiled prince and others, mainly activists and celebrities who have been campaigning against the regime, would form a united front, coordinate moves against the regime, lobby with western powers, and eventually assume the leadership of the revolution when the time comes.

Having to look up to the diaspora is in fact a situation imposed by the Islamic Republic which has practically eliminated, or forced into silence, any strong opposition figure or group inside Iran that could pose a danger to its existence.

Five months after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini sparked widespread protests in Iran, the opposition in diaspora seems to have come to an agreement to work together. Leading opposition figures – including exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi and seven others at an event Friday in Washington DC expressed their views and their vision of the future and said they are drawing up a manifesto for the revolution.

Meanwhile, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was a presidential candidate in 2009 and has been under house arrest since 2011, said in a statement a week earlier that fundamental change was required to “save Iran” and proposed elections to appoint a constitutional assembly to decide the future form of government and a referendum on the new constitution.

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Mousavi’s rejection of the reform option in the Islamic Republic which puts him in the same boat as the diaspora figures has been met with admiration and antipathy alike. Many agree that declaring that the Islamic Republic is no longer reformable was a brave move on the part of Mousavi, a staunch believer in the Islamic Republic who served as its prime minister in the 1980s.

When asked by BBC Persian about the possibility of collaboration with Mousavi at the event Friday, Prince Reza Pahlavi said the diaspora opposition aims at “maximum participation” in the struggle against the regime and welcomes anyone who wants a secular Iran, not a reformed Islamic Republic.

“Reza Pahlavi’s response about Mousavi’s statement was diplomatic. In a way, he tried not to cause animosity…I hope his supporters will agree that Iranian politics is multi-faceted,” Mojtaba Najafi, a France-based academic tweeted referring to the many Pahlavi supporters’ strong objection to Mousavi and other reformists.

The former crown prince and the former prime minister in the Islamic Republic say the future form of the government should be decided by the people of Iran through the free election of a constitutional assembly and referendum.

In his short statement, Mousavi also called for cooperation among all political forces and figures who believe in preserving the country’s “territorial integrity” and “non-violence” to decide the transition from the Islamic Republic.

But differences between the political views of Pahlavi, other activists and Mousavi also run very deep, probably on many issues, as long as the former official has not acknowledged his responsibility in the misdeeds of the regime in the 1980s.

At the event, for instance, Prince Reza Pahlavi brought up an issue which could potentially be divisive: Relations with Israel.

When speaking about water crisis as one of Iran's major problems, he said Iran could seek assistance from “the best of Israeli experts”. He also referred to the former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who “wanted Israel not to exist at all” which implied he favors normal relations with Israel.

Mousavi and his supporters are now in agreement with the diaspora opposition that the people should decide the future form of government through a free vote, but although they may not call for Israel’s annihilation like Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, they are more likely to champion the Palestinian cause and be opposed to recognizing Israel.

However, Mousavi is not the leader of the young protesters in the streets, who seem to oppose a revolutionary foreign policy and favor good relations with regional countries.

He made the remarks during his speech on the 44th anniversary of the establishment of the Islamic Republic.

His statements echo similar claims by regime officials, especially during the five months of anti-regime protests that began in September following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

Women have faced many restrictions and prohibitions in the four decades since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, including the imposition of mandatory hijab, and the ban on singing and dancing.

In addition to lifestyle restrictions, women are discriminated against in obtaining high-level government posts and in receiving inheritance.

The current protests against the regime are partly driven by women and many men who resent the suppression of equal rights.

In another part of his speech, Raisi emphasized that the slogan "Neither East, nor West" is still one of the pillars of the Islamic Republic, although the regime has aligned itself with Russia and China.

For more than a decade, Iran and the governments of Russia and China, as "Eastern powers", have had close relations in various fields, including the military cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in the war on Ukraine.

In another part of his speech, Raisi said the protesters had been "deceived during the riots", alleging that they "realized the enemy is looking for sedition."