Quds Day Procession in Tehran

Iran marked the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day today, the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan. Marchers chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” slogans and burnt the U.S. and Israeli flags. This year they also had a new slogan: “Death to Al-Saud.”

The Quds Day procession began 36 years ago by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, and was dedicated to the “liberation” of Jerusalem. It has evolved into an annual rite of hatred against the U.S., Israel and other perceived enemies.

Photo credit: Quds Day procession in Tehran; 10 July 2015 (Fars News Agency)

Iran Marks Annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day

Iran today marked the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day. Large crowds of Iranians participated in rallies across the country. The Quds Day was introduced in the early days of the Islamic Republic as a day of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and as a movement to “liberate” Jerusalem, hence its name. Throughout the years it has become a day of public demonstrations against Israel. This year, the plight of the people in Gaza is the main theme of the demonstrations.

“I hope that the people in Gaza can have a normal life and all of them should stand up to this end and we can gain victory against the aggressors if Muslims grow united,” President Hassan Rouhani told reporters while participating in the Quds Day rally in Tehran today. (Fars News Agency, 25 July)

Photo credit: Iranian president Hassan Rouhani at this year’s Quds Day rally in Tehran, 25 June 2014. (FNA)

Ahmadinejad’s New Threats Against Israel

By Nader Uskowi

A day after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that the ‘fake and bogus’ state of Israel will disappear, the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told a rally in Tehran commemorating the Quds (Jerusalem) Day that there was no place for Israel in a future Middle East.

“You want a new Middle East? We do too, but in the new Middle East ... there will be no trace of the American presence and the Zionists (Israel),” Ahmadinejad said.

Of course the U.S. is not part of the Middle East, but Israel is. How could there be no trace of it in the region? How does Ahmadinejad hope to achieve that goal? If his comments were not callous hyperbole, which they could very well be, they were one of the most threatening and dangerous comments ever made by an Iranian leader against the very existence of the state of Israel.

When Ahmadinejad had started his presidency, he made a controversial comment on wiping Israel off the map. Many supporters of the Islamic Republic at the time accused the press of mistranslating and misinterpreting the new president’s comments. They argued that they were not meant as existential threat against Israel. After seven years in presidency, he essentially makes the same comments. And there are no other ways to translate and interpret these latest comments.

Of course Israel has on too many occasions threatened to strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, but this blogger does not recall any instance of Israel threatening the very existence of the state of Iran, presumably through a nuclear war. Using such threatening comments against Israel is uncalled for and is indicative of the hatred of the Iranian leadership toward the Jewish state; a hatred that has transcended into the state ideology.

In the very tense situation in the region these days, the hope is that the cooler heads prevail. Callous use of language could only spiral into even more dangerous situation that the leaders on both sides need to carefully avoid.

Photo Credit: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the recent Mecca Summit. REUTERS/Susan Baaghli  

Khamenei: ‘Fake and Bogus Zionist Outgrowth (Israel) Will Disappear’

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said today that Israel is a “fake and bogus outgrowth" in the Middle East that will disappear. Khamenei made the comments a day ahead of Friday’s ‘Quds’ rallies across Iran to condemn the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and its existence as a Jewish state.

“The star of hope will shine for Palestine and the [occupied] Islamic land will definitely be returned to the Palestinian nation and this bogus and fake Zionist outgrowth (Israel) will disappear off the sphere of geography," Khamenei said. (Tabnak, 16 August)

Karroubi Under Siege

Above: Hojjat ol-Eslam Mehdi Karroubi

Below: Karroubi's residence. Anti-Karrubi graffiti written on the walls

A large group of Basijis has gathered outside the house of one of Iran's opposition leaders, Hojjat ol-Eslam Mehdi Karroubi, in Tehran, preventing him from leaving his residence to participate in today’s Quds Day marches. The government is concerned that Karroubi’s presence on the streets of Tehran might incite anti-government and pro-Green demonstrations in Tehran.

Top photo: File photo, Press TV

Bottom photo: AP

Iran Celebrates Quds Day

Iran Celebrates Quds (Jerusalem) Day

Tehran. 3 September 2010

Bottom photo: Radical chic displaying Palestinian flag

Photos: Hamid Forootan, ISNA

Security Forces Deployed in Tehran Ahead of Quds

Security Forces Deployed in Tehran Ahead of Quds Day's

Pro-Government Marches Scheduled for Friday 3 September

Tehran, 2 September 2010

Tehran will celebrate Quds (Jerusalem) Day on Friday. The security forces today staged a citywide exercise in Tehran, called Mahar (“Contain”). The forces are deployed throughout the city to contain any possible anti-government demonstrations by pro-Green sympathizers during the huge government-sponsored marches scheduled for the Quds Day.

Photo: Mehdi Ghasemi, ISNA