US to Iran: World will be watching what you do
Iranians’ courage should be applauded, envoy tells UN Council
AUN Security Council emergency meeting on the protests roiling Iran showed Tehran “the world will be watching” its actions, the US ambassador said.
“The world should applaud their courage” and amplify their message, said UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, portraying the protests as a human rights issue that could spill over into an international problem. “The Iranian regime is now on notice: The world will be watching what you do.”
Before the Council meeting, she said: “The Iranian regime is paying $6 billion to support the Syrian regime and the people of Iran are poor,” calling on the Iranian authorities to stop supporting terrorism.
“The Iranian people are rising up in over 79 locations throughout the country,” Haley said. “It is a powerful exhibition of brave people who have become so fed up with their oppressive government that they are willing to risk their lives in protest.”
But Russia and Iran complained tartly that the US was dragging a council focused on international security into what they called a domestic matter.
In demonstrations across Iran, chants are going up against the military’s vast and shadowy war in Syria, one of Tehran’s closest allies and a front-line state in its confrontation with its arch-enemy, Israel.
Although the protests have focused on economic issues, demonstrators have also voiced opposition to the government’s policy of sending young Iranians to fight and die in Syria and spending billions of dollars on the military when they say the priority should be working to provide jobs in Iran and control the rising cost of living.
Their slogans include, “Leave Syria, think about us!” and “Death to Hezbollah!” the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group that has been a key instrument of Tehran in Syria’s war.
Religious war
Iran’s theocratic leadership has cast the effort as a religious war for Shiites and to deal a crippling blow to what it says is a US-Israeli conspiracy to destroy Syria.
But it is motivated by geopolitical concerns, too. Syria, bordering both Israel and Lebanon, is a key node to Iran’s network of deterrence against Israel.
Tehran needs Damascus as both a conduit to and sponsor of Hezbollah, Iran’s vanguard force in the region.
Today, Iran’s military and an array of regional militias under its command operate with wide latitude in both Syria and Iraq. It is also invested in the Gaza Strip and is accused of supporting Al Houthi militias in Yemen. Across Iran, banners honouring the young men who have died fighting in Syria hang over public spaces as a reminder of their sacrifice.
Imams memorialise the dead at Friday prayers, and media outlets pay tribute to the “martyrs” who have died “defending the holy shrine” of the Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) granddaughter, Sayyida Zeinab, in Damascus.
In September, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, prayed over the casket of 25-year-old Mohsen Hojaji at a funeral broadcast nationwide, followed by a large rally in Tehran — moves crafted to stir patriotism in a country growing weary of the military venture in Syria. Iran has not disclosed how many of its soldiers have been lost in Syria. Mohammad Ali Shahidi, the head of the Martyr’s Foundation of the Islamic Revolution, which supports veterans and families of the dead, says more than 2,000 men have been killed, though roughly half are foreigners from Afghanistan and other nations fighting under militias organised by Tehran.
In November, the semi-official Fars news agency reported the death of an Iranian brigadier general in Al Bu Kamal, a Syrian town overlooking one of the country’s main crossings into Iran. Fars said the general was killed by a mortar shell in a battle with Daesh terrorists.
That same battle was directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s own Maj. Gen. Qassem Sulaimani, who was shown in videos published on social media addressing fighters in Persian. He had under his command Shiite fighters from Hezbollah and Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces, as well as Syrian troops and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Major battles
Syrian rebels say the Revolutionary Guards have directed several major battles on behalf of Al Assad’s forces and has bases across the country.
Iran spends more than $12 billion annually on its military, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It is understood to spend millions more on subsidies and exports to Syria, whose economy has been shattered by the war.
The protests now shaking Iran erupted after President Hassan Rouhani’s latest budget proposal disclosed cuts to local subsidies while preserving privileges for the military and religious institutions.