Khamenei's Defiance Dashes Hope For Solution To Iran’s Crisis

As Iran's largest uprising in four decades continued for the 25th day on Wednesday, the country’s ruler Ali Khamenei pretended to be unaffected by the upheaval.

The 83-year-old Supreme Leader in charge for 33 years called the uprising a "minor incident" although it has posed an unprecedented challenge to his rule and the very existence of the clerical regime.

Calling for harsh measures against the protesters as usual, Kahmenei charged that "Some of those in the streets these days are either the agents of the enemy or sympathize with the enemy. The Judiciary and security officials should fulfil their responsibility against these individuals. And there are still those who take to the streets because they have been provoked by others. The officials need to have some cultural plans for them."

A disconcerted Khamenei who as delivering a speech seemed to have lost his contact with reality, characterizing the uprising as "a reaction by the enemies to Iran's progress and the Iranian nation's innovations." Meanwhile he suggested that Iranian officials should resist the enemy’s plot and go about their "business as usual" regardless of "minor incidents."

While protests have been going on within less than a mile of his office like almost everywhere else in the country, Khamenei called them "scattered riots here and there." He insisted that "recent developments are not spontaneous" and blamed "the enemies’ propaganda" as the driving force of the protests. Khamenei one again charged that "foreign politicians in Europe, United States and elsewhere" have been instigating the uprising.

This comes while many Iranian officials and politicians as well as sociologists, economists and other academics have warned that the protests, ignited by the killing of a young woman in police custody last month, were fuelled by the government's broken promises and the people's accumulated demands and frustrations.

They have also warned that Khamenei and his regime are facing a new generation that does not care about the values imposed by the regime through morality police and other coercive institutions.

On the same day that Khamenei made the defiant remarks, Iranian reformist cleric and politician Mohammad Ali Abtahi acknowledged that "the world is listening to the voice of Iranians' protest and stressed that this voice should be also heard inside Iran."

He criticized the government for simply trying to cope with popular dissent when it manifests itself rather than trying to understand the cause of the protests. The government should have paved the way for political reforms and the creation of political parties. In the absence of political parties, the shocks created by dissidents will be directly pointed at the government, he said.

In another development, former Labor Minister Ali Rabiei warned that if the dissatisfactions are not addressed properly, dissent will remain active and sooner or later it will find its way into the streets. Rabiei who was a member of Iran's intelligence community for many years, said that crisis management is a science which should be used before, during and after every crisis.

Iranian analyst Morteza Kazemian wrote on Twitter: "Khamenei is not feeling well. He attributed the protests to the enemies, and called for confrontation with protesters." Another Twitter user, Ehsan Soltani said that "Khamenei's remarks had only one message: There will be no change. Like all dictators, he does not listen and will not correct his behavior. The only thing that can happen to them is that they can be toppled."

Former reformist MP Mahmoud Sadeghi wrote that "Khamenei's remarks destroyed any hope of a peaceful solution to the current crisis."