THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT IRAN AND THE PROTESTS

Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran and a former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, once again cuts through the truth and dismantles the most aggressive CNN propagandists (never call them “journalists”), such as Christiane Amanpour, who in the 1990s also led war-inciting propaganda against Serbs in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Amanpour: You heard what President Trump said — that he heard there are no longer any killings and that there will be no executions. That is what Foreign Minister Araghchi told Fox News yesterday. Do you think he said that to Trump and his administration, via Fox or in some other way, in order to avoid military intervention?

Marandi: No. He was telling the truth. And the way you frame your question is completely incorrect. And Iran is not a “regime.” You do not call Saudi Arabia or the Emirates — your allies — regimes.

Amanpour: You know what, Mr. Marandi — on my show, I use that terminology. I’m just trying to ask you questions. Have the protests been crushed?

Marandi: No, that is yet another false framing you are using. In the first two days after the currency collapse, there was no repression of protests whatsoever. American manipulation in neighboring countries led to a 30–40 percent drop in the currency. Then protests broke out in the streets, and you know that very well. There were no arrests. No one was harassed. Not like in the United Kingdom, where people carrying banners against genocide are arrested, or in Germany, where people wearing keffiyehs and expressing solidarity with Palestinians are beaten in the streets. There were no arrests. Only two or three days later did violent infiltrators appear, many of whom had guns and knives. There is footage of this. Anyone who looks at my Twitter account can see all these people. They attacked police stations. They killed police officers inside stations. They killed around 100 police officers and more than 300 members of the security forces, including volunteers. Yesterday, we had a massive funeral in Tehran for hundreds of them. But the Western narrative is that these were “peaceful protests.” The Israeli regime published a tweet in Persian — and you know Persian — saying that their people were on the ground. Mossad said this. Pompeo, the former head of the CIA, said Mossad is present. Israeli Channel 14 said this two days ago. A tweet was also published stating that weapons were delivered from a foreign country. And they were. That is why hundreds of police officers were killed in Iran. The Israelis say this themselves, but Western media ignore it because it destroys the false narrative that these were merely peaceful demonstrators.

Amanpour: Mr. Marandi, both you and the foreign minister previously said there were ten days of peaceful protests. We reported that. But we also have videos that surfaced despite the internet blackout, for example from Abadan in Khuzestan province, showing Iranian forces firing on demonstrators. CNN could not verify the exact date, but the videos are from recent days. We have also seen the bodies of demonstrators in morgues, families coming to collect them. Do you deny that your forces killed demonstrators?

Marandi: “My forces?”

Amanpour: The forces of the Republic.

Marandi: You are denying the truth. Many of those bodies were police officers. Many were people killed by those violent elements. One woman was killed in a clinic — they set the clinic on fire and a young nurse burned to death inside. Two young men in a mosque — they were surrounded and Molotov cocktails were thrown until they died. A three-year-old girl was shot. They shot many people, and they also fired at the police from within the crowd. There is a great deal of footage of this.

Amanpour: I have seen some of that footage, but I must ask you: do you acknowledge that many demonstrators were killed?

Marandi: Don’t say “acknowledge.” I am telling the truth, and CNN is not. CNN supported the genocide in Gaza.

Amanpour: Please, don’t say that now.

Marandi: CNN supports genocide.

Amanpour: All right. Go on.

Marandi: Violent elements and the police were firing at each other, and innocent people in between were killed in the crossfire. Some of those people were deliberately killed by the violent elements. I spoke with a doctor who operated on the wounded. He said most of the wounds were from bullets fired from pistols at very close range, likely from within the crowd itself. Why did this happen? As the Iranian foreign minister said — who needs this war? The Israeli regime does. There is an entire process: first manipulation of the currency, then unrest, then a consensus in the West to support it. If you want to help the Iranian people — lift the sanctions. Stop strangling people in Iran, in Cuba, in Venezuela. Stop helping Israel bomb Gaza and Iran. That is how you help the Iranian people.

Amanpour: An emergency room doctor said the following about the night of January 8… (testimony of a doctor about a massive influx of wounded patients and overwhelmed operating rooms). Iranian state television reported that there were thousands of dead and wounded.

Marandi: No, Iran never said that several thousand people were killed. Reuters made that up. The numbers have not yet been published. They probably will be soon. But as I said, most of those killed were police officers, security personnel, volunteers, or people caught in crossfire. But, Christiane, there is one final thing I want to tell you: the narrative of the United States and the West about Iran is completely clear. Their goal is to antagonize Iran and implement the policy desired by the Israeli regime. If war breaks out, have no doubt — oil and gas supplies in West Asia will stop, which will dramatically change the lives of people all over the world. And those who started the war, and those who supported it in their own countries, will face the consequences.

Amanpour: Let’s return now to what triggered these protests, which is, as your own leaders have said, a legitimate uprising over economic problems and the collapse of the currency. You have now blamed Israel and the United States for this. However, your president, President Pezeshkian, said at the very beginning of the protests: “Do not accuse the United States and do not blame others. We must manage our own problems. We must find solutions.” That is what he said at the time. He also dismissed the governor of the Central Bank. The Supreme Leader said he understands and accepts that there are serious economic problems and threatened the violent elements. So why do you claim that the outside world organized the collapse of the currency when your own leaders say they must respond better to the needs of the people?

Morandi: No, Christiane. Listen to my answer. The West is not “the outside world.” The West is a minority. And the rest of the world is appalled by what the West has done in Gaza. So this is not the “international community.” As for Iran and Iranian leaders saying that we must fix conditions in the country — of course we must. They have a responsibility. But the president has repeatedly said that the United States is waging war against us. You take one part of his statements and erase the other. You do the same with the statements of the Supreme Leader. There is no doubt that the United States and its allies have been strangling the Iranian people — ordinary people — for decades. That is a fact. The Iranian government is trying to cope with this, which is why Iran is turning to BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and other international alliances. The West is waging an economic war, and Iranians are looking for a way out. Iran has many problems, but this did not begin with protests. It began with currency manipulation.

Amanpour: You say the president speaks differently — I am not misquoting him. But let me ask you a question, because this is one of the key issues — the internet shutdown. It is clear that people like you and the political leadership can speak out and communicate whenever you want. The foreign minister gave a thirty-minute interview to American television yesterday. But ordinary people cannot see what is happening, nor can they send information out of the country. The question is — why? I also wonder whether you have ever considered that over the past 20–25 years there have been multiple uprisings, and each one has been suppressed. Do you ever ask yourselves whether the Islamic Republic can survive by relying on such methods, on “crackdowns”? Has it lost its legitimacy?

Morandi: No, there is no “crackdown.” The Iranian people are among the most politically aware in the world, precisely because in the West there exists an entire Persian-language media empire that attacks Iran 24 hours a day. Billions of dollars are spent on this every year. On Monday, you forgot to mention that millions of people took to the streets of Tehran, as well as millions in other cities, protesting against the violent elements and terrorists and expressing support for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Why did up to three million people come out onto the streets of Tehran? Why? There were live broadcasts. Hours of coverage on many channels. Al Jazeera English was there. RT was there. Turkish media were present.

Amanpour: And we showed that as well. We did not air hours and hours of programming, but we certainly showed—

Morandi: You ignore that crowd of people, that ocean of people. Are those people unaware of what is happening in Iran, or do they simply know that reality is different from the Western narrative? And why, after all, was the internet shut down? The answer is obvious: these were not spontaneous riots. As soon as communication was cut, the violence quickly subsided, because those people were coordinated with foreign intelligence services. When they lost communication, everything collapsed. By Saturday evening there was almost nothing left, and since then the situation has been calm. There is also another reason.

Amanpour: All right, all right… (interrupts him).

Morandi: Because of the threat of an American attack, Iranians want the United States — that is, the Trump administration — to have as little information as possible at this moment about Iran’s military capabilities. So the country is largely offline. Even I don’t have access…

Amanpour: Okay, okay, Mr. Morandi, I understand.

Morandi: As you know, I’m on Press TV.

Amanpour: I know, I know. But the internet still exists. It’s just that those who are allowed to speak have access to it. In any case, you’ve made your point. I appreciate it. Now I have to continue with the program.

Photo: CNN / Screengrab