Heydar Moslehi, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s special representative to the Islamic Republic Guards Corps (IRGC), has launched a scathing attack on Western embassies in Tehran. According to Moslehi, during the 2009 mass protests against the regime, the British embassy instigated an attempt to change the regime in Tehran and had “mobilized more than 250 people to reshape the future of the Islamic Republic.” This was a reference to political actors within the Islamic Republic that came out in support of the reformist protesters. Moslehi continued to predict that the “Americans and their cohorts have planned a more complete sedition to take place in the [2017] presidential elections.”
Comment:
Moslehi is a Khamenei loyalist and was the Minister of Intelligence during the 2009 anti-regime mass protests that lasted over six months and shook Iran to the core. His comments about events in 2009 are aimed at individuals within the present ranks of the Iranian regime who were then sympathetic toward the reform-seeking protesters. The insinuation by Moslehi is that many of these unnamed officials are today aligned with President Hassan Rouhani. The renewed charges by Moslehi have to be seen in the context of intensifying factional rivalry in Tehran in the lead up to next year’s presidential elections when Rouhani is expected to seek a second term.
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