Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that the United States and other Western nations are seeking to portray the Islamic Republic as “unsuccessful and doomed” because it has served as the “main model” for uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the region.
“The Islamic awakening in the region has been inspired by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, and it is the outcome of Iranian nation’s resistance,” Mr. Khamenei said, according to comments published by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
“The arrogant powers being led by the U.S. are fully aware of the fact that Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is the main model for the popular uprisings in the region. Hence, they are trying to portray the same model as something unsuccesful and doomed.”
Mr. Khamenei reportedly made the comments during a six-hour visit to the country’s Ministry of Intelligence. He said the ministry’s “main duty” is to “prepare long-term projects” and implored officials to learn from the latest events.
“The current developments in the region will definitely influence future events across the globe, thus these events should be actively monitored and their diverse aspects should be closely studied,” he said, according to the state-controlled Press TV news agency.
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also lashed out at the United States on Thursday, saying that the “U.S. should know that the region can’t stand its wicked behavior and will take a stand against them.”
Mr. Larijani mused that “what worries the U.S. is that the developments in the region would follow along a similar path taken by Iran 32 years ago.” His comments were published by the semi-official Fars News Agency.
While praising the democratic protest movements across the region, Iranian authorities have been brutally suppressing the domestic “Green Movement,” which bloomed after the disputed June 2009 election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
The man widely thought to have won that vote, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, has disappeared in recent days, along with his wife and the other main Green Movement leader, former parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, and his wife.
The four reportedly are being held in prison, and senior Iranian judicial officials have promised to try them for sedition — a crime that carries the death penalty.
• Ben Birnbaum can be reached at 138247@example.com.
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