Khamenei, whose public statements should be taken seriously, is promising some sort of devastating “punch” against the West on Thursday the 11th, the same day as the Green Movement is calling for a monster protest against his regime.
What might he have in mind? I don’t know; they say a lot of things just for effect, but threats/promises from the supreme leader have a certain standing. If I were an Israeli official, I’d recheck my information on Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Some think he’s preparing some kind of attack against Israel. Surely there has been no shortage in recent weeks of nasty language against the Jewish state. Here’s Foreign Minister Mottaki a day ago:
“Iran is facing a mad nation led by insane people. This is the reason why all of us in the region – in Syria, in Lebanon, and the Palestinians – must be prepared constantly for any crazy operation against us.”
Other Iranian leaders have spoken of the “inevitability” of Israel’s destruction. Maybe they have something in mind.
The other obvious possibility is that he’s ordered a massive, Chinese-style crackdown on the opposition. Since he believes that the opposition is foreign-based and foreign-controlled, a devastating massacre might count as a big “punch” to the West.
He’s totally obsessed with bringing an end to the protests, and the nightly chants of “Death to the Dictator” that haunt him so. In the last few days he’s been telephoning opposition journalists and intellectuals, telling them to give it up, and the preparations for the crackdown have gone so far as to replace the traditional plastic garbage cans in Tehran — in which demonstrators have been setting fires to combat tear gas — with metal ones. I don’t understand the point of that, but I’m sure it annoys the sanitation workers, who will now have to hoist much heavier containers.
Meanwhile, the purge of journalists and activists continues. Since June 12th, the regime has arrested slightly more than 11,000 people, more than 3,000 of whom are still in those nightmare cells. Executions continue at a regular tempo, as does torture.
The Greens expect the regime to go all out on Thursday. The leaders believe they will be arrested on Friday, and are prepared for it. In his recent interview Mousavi remarked that a large number of his best friends were in prison, and he was sad not to be with them.
He also said that the Green Movement did not depend on his leadership, or anyone else’s.
That theory may be about to be tested by Ali Khamenei, starting Thursday.
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