Raisi at the United Nations and Anniversary of Iran’s 2022 Protests

Iran had prepared for the worst as President Ebrahim Raisi took to the podium to deliver his United Nations General Assembly address September 19. The General Assembly coincided with the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s tragic killing in the custody of the morality police, and the regime feared renewed protests to commemorate the occasion. There were indeed a few protests, but they largely occurred outside of Iran, which Raisi attributed to “foreign machinations.” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps mouthpiece Sobh-e Sadeq delivered a similar analysis and triumphantly claimed the lack of public protests in Iran marked “the end of an illusion.” However, all cannot be well if foreign governments, as Raisi and the IRGC claim, can so easily mobilize protests against the regime. The source of the IRGC’s expressed pleasure – not pro-regime rallies but rather the absence of widespread anti-regime protests in Iran – also indicates the regime’s awareness of its unpopularity.

• September 19: Sobh-e Sadeq’s editor, Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, wrote in the weekly’s editorial: “Life goes on, and the counterrevolution’s attempts to take advantage of the anniversary of last year’s events remain frustrated. This despite the unprecedented hybrid warfare against our dear country. A war that, according to our security services, involved at least 20 states conspiring against the Iranian nation … The hybrid warfare tried to deceive the people, in particular the youth, and rattle the resolve of the authorities … According to the relevant authorities, many of those arrested during the first hours and days of last year’s unrest were under the illusion that they had prevailed and the Islamic Republic was on the verge of collapse. They reacted arrogantly to the security services, but as days passed and they realized the Islamic Republic was still in charge, they expressed remorse and begged for clemency and mercy. They said that they would no longer be deceived. Deceived by whom? Deceived by satellite television channels, social media, and by those … whose work was based on lies.” They were deceived by “people who were provoking hatred, anger, and revenge against the regime among the youth.”

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