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Raisi responds to Biden: Iran was freed 43 years ago and is determined not to be occupied by you

By Ilya Tsukanov – Samizdat – November 4, 2022

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi responded to Biden’s promises to “free Iran,” giving the US leader a history lesson on when the Islamic Republic gained true freedom.

“I was informed a few hours ago that the president of the United States had uttered some words due to distraction, he said [the US was] aiming to ‘free Iran’,” Raisi said in a speech in Tehran on Friday marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy, which the Islamic Republic celebrates as the ‘National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance.’

“Iran was freed 43 years ago and is determined not to be occupied by you. And we will never be your milk cows,” Raisi said, referencing the Iranian Revolution which overthrew the country’s US-backed dictator, the Shah.

Biden made the provocative comments at an election stump speech in California on Thursday. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran. They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon, you’ll see,” Biden said.

The president did not elaborate, and it’s not clear what prompted him to make the comments, given that the part of his speech immediately preceding the “free Iran” comments was devoted to injuries suffered by US troops in US wars of aggression over the past two decades.

“You know, we found out that a lot of our soldiers, more people were coming back from Iraq, Afghanistan with serious brain injures and tumors, than any other war in American history. Other than the Civil War. Maybe more amputees are coming back than in any wars in American history. And those burn pits. Those burn pits,” Biden said.

In his response Friday, Raisi stressed that “today is the symbol and manifestation of the arrogance of the ruling system of the United States, which, according to Imam Khomeini, is the Great Satan and is ready to destroy many nations and people of the world in order to achieve its interests.”

The Iranian president highlighted the US’s involvement in over 300 wars and 62 coups around the world, and the US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and accused Washington of founding and supporting terrorist groups across the Middle East.

Iran has faced more than a month of deadly protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who fell into a coma and died in hospital several days after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly wearing a headscarf improperly. While protest organizers and Western officials and media blamed Iran’s authorities for beating Amini into a coma, CCTV footage released by authorities appeared to show that she was not abused in custody, and had collapsed after getting into an argument with a minder.

Iranian authorities have accused the United States and Israel of fomenting unrest via networks inside Iran and online. The BRICS group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) charged the West with attempting to provoke a color revolution in the Islamic Republic. The anti-government protests began a day after Iran moved to officially join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

President Biden’s comments hinting at regime change in Tehran mark the latest escalation of tensions between Iran and the US amid the stalemate in negotiations on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Washington walked out on in 2018, but which the Biden administration has pledged to restore.

November 4, 2022 - Posted by aletho | Timeless or most popular | Iran, United States