Iran Dismisses Uprising as ‘Israeli Plot,’ Claims Protests Under Control
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi claimed Wednesday that the massive national uprising against the regime he serves was an “Israeli plot” carried out by “ISIS-style terrorist operations,” and that the regime defeated these “terrorists” after three days of pitched battle.
“These terrorist cells entered the protests using Daesh-style terrorist operations. They shot police officers, burned them alive, beheaded them and targeted civilians,” Araghchi said. claimed in an interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier. “Daesh” is another name for the Islamic State.
“For three days we didn’t fight protesters. We fought terrorists,” Araghchi said.
According to Iran’s foreign minister, Israel’s sinister plot was to force the Iranian regime to kill thousands of people, which would pressure President Donald Trump to keep his promises. promise to defend the demonstrators.
“They wanted to increase the death toll. Why? Because President Trump had already said that if there were killings, he would intervene. Their goal was to drag the United States into the conflict,” he accused.
“This was a deliberate plot by Israel. They sought to create more deaths by targeting ordinary people and police officers,” he said.
As he has done many times before, Aragchi asserted that the uprising had been suppressed and that the regime had established “full control over the security situation.” He said further unrest could only be the result of outside forces using their malign influence to cause more chaos on Iran’s streets.
“Hopefully we will not see a high level of tension, which could be disastrous for everyone,” he said.
The commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization that oversees both overseas espionage and domestic oppression operations, echoes Araghchi’s talking points Wednesday on Israel and the United States’ use of “ISIS-style mercenaries” to provoke unrest.
“The powerful and popular IRGC is at the highest level of readiness to provide a decisive response to the miscalculations of the enemy and its Daesh-like domestic mercenaries,” said Major General Mohammad Pakpour.
“Relying on Almighty God, under the leadership of the Supreme Leader and through the sacred unity of the Iranian nation, we will cancel the plans of the leaders of the White House and Tel Aviv against a ‘strong Iran’,” he promised.
Pakpour accused President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of orchestrating the violence in Iran.
“Without a doubt, Trump and Netanyahu are the killers of Iranian youth and defenders of state security,” he said, insulting Netanyahu as a “child killer” and Trump as a “criminal gambler” and the “Nimrod of the times.”
Nimrod was a biblical figure, the great-grandson of Noah and a legendary hunter, whose negative reputation rests either on his alleged role in the construction of the Tower of Babel or something like Bugs Bunny said once about Elmer Fudd, depending on who you ask.
IRGC Ground Forces Commander Brig. General Mohammad Karami, said On Thursday, Iran is “facing a global and multifaceted war with the enemy”, of which street protests are only one facet.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, dutifully recited the talking points by asserting that “the main killers of the Iranian people” are “1-Trump” and “2-Netanyahu”.
Contrary to the claims of these Iranian officials, international media and human rights observers say the vast majority of the thousands of victims of the uprising are Iranian civilians murdered by the regime, not police and security forces. Death toll estimates range from 2,400 to more than 20,000, with most observers agreeing that the regime’s blocking of online communications made it very difficult to confirm the number of victims.
The Associated Press (AP) said Nationwide protests on Thursday “appeared increasingly stifled” after a week of bloody crackdown, which included police efforts to prevent unauthorized access to the internet by confiscating Starlink devices.
“In the Iranian capital, Tehran, witnesses said recent mornings had shown no new signs of bonfires set the night before or debris in the streets. The sound of gunfire, which had been intense for several nights, had also subsided,” the AP reported.
“The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Chinese counterpart that the situation in the country was now stable,” the report added.
