Iran Army Commander Calls Protesters ‘Flies’

Iran’s Army Ground Forces Commander has threatened antigovernment protesters with a harsh response if the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei orders it.

Kiumars Heydari said Wednesday that “the flies,” implying the protesters, would have no place in the Islamic Republic if Ali Khamenei ordered a tougher clampdown on nationwide protests.

“The enemies” have carried out their “attacks and hostilities” since the day the Islamic Republic was established, but they could not do anything, and now that the Islamic Republic “has become stronger, they definitely cannot do anything wrong.”

Iranian leaders accuse “enemies” including the United States of fomenting the unrest. A group of 227 parliament members in Iran called on the Judiciary Sunday to issue death sentences for people arrested during the ongoing antigovernment protests.

The hardline lawmakers urged the judiciary to “deal decisively” with the “perpetrators” and followed the same unsubstantiated argument that protesters are either foreign agents or have been “deceived” by them.

Government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi also said on Tuesday, “it would have been a “piece of cake” for police forces to use live rounds on the protesters,” and people would be afraid to leave their homes. His comment elicited a lot of angry reactions on social media.

Jahromi argued that the government will not resort to such actions because youths on the streets are not enemies but “our wrongdoer children.”

One of the biggest challenges to Iran's clerical leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the seven-week-old demonstrations have persisted despite a deadly crackdown and severe warnings from security forces.