Tehran, Iran (AP) – During the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran backed a protest call for “neither east nor west”, rejecting the United States and the Soviet Union, which were eventually blocked in the Cold War. This sentence is still at the door of Iran’s foreign ministry.
Russia’s war with Ukraine, however, has shown how much Tehran has leaned on Moscow in recent years, as the failure of its nuclear deal with world powers has caused decades of anger at the United States. Members of the Iranian Paramilitary Revolutionary Guards train Russia’s ground-to-air missile systems and aircraft. Tough President Ibrahim Rice visited Russian President Vladimir Putin on one of his first trips abroad.
The war also reveals deeper gaps in Iranian domestic politics as well. Iranian municipalities have great sympathy for Ukraine, a country that organized a pro-democratic “orange revolution” similar to the “green revolution” that shook Iran more than ten years ago but was overthrown by of force.
Iran’s historic fight with Russia is combined with some with the broader sense that Moscow’s support betrays the Islamic Republic’s often-expressed message of opposition to the world’s major powers.
“We need to help the oppressed citizens of Ukraine, as well as the people of Palestine and Yemen, because they are the target of the military,” said Zohreh Ahmadi, a mother of two in the Sarcheshmeh district in central Tehran. “Violence kills children and women in Ukraine”.
The state -controlled Iranian television network, whose English -language Press TV describes itself as a “voice of the voice,” is close to Russian -speaking points. He used the Moscow euphemistic term “special operation” to describe the early days of the war. Reports of the killing of civilians by Russian forces in Bucha contain headlines that falsely describe it as a “fake attack” or “provocation” on the Press TV website.
Most likely part of the Iranian government’s anger against Ukraine was caused by the crash of a Ukrainian Guard plane in 2020 that killed 176 people. Tehran has denied within days that it shot down the plane, saying the troops made a mistake after Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in response to the assassination of a senior general in Iraq.
Ukraine’s criticism of Iran has become more direct over time. This was said by Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Kazem Sedigi in a sermon in March after Russia started a war with Ukraine.
“In the case of the plane, Ukraine treated us badly and abused it to support the United States,” Sedigi said.
He was also involved in “Ratabutism” in both the Iranian and Russian state media, releasing a separate issue due to hypocrisy while addressing the issue.
“The wars in Yemen and Syria have caused the deaths of innocent people, but there is a lot of propaganda about Ukraine and it is racism,” Sedigi said.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state affairs, said his country was opposed to “war and destruction” while blaming America for the fighting. He also raised a long -standing suspicion he shared with Putin that the United States, rather than ordinary citizens, was exacerbating what he described as “color coups” in support of democracy.
For Putin, Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution and the subsequent Maidan protest movement toppled pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Yanukovych.
But other members of the Iranian Shiite theocracy have expressed concern over Tehran’s stance on the war.
Mohsen Aminzadeh, former deputy foreign minister under reformist president Mohamed Khatami, who was later arrested after the controversial 2009 election, in an interview recently called Iran’s position “bad”.
“This has been the worst and most passive position in Iranian diplomacy since 1979,” Aminzadeh told Ayandeh Negar, a recent monthly.
Recently, 17 people on the streets of Tehran wanted to talk to an Associated Press reporter about the war, while others refused. 12 of them supported Ukraine, three reiterated Iran’s official position and two supported Russia.
“I support Ukraine,” said Sajad, a 26-year-old computer programmer. Like others, he spoke on the condition that he be identified by name simply for fear of repression. “Russians are wrong to kill innocent people. Why should we be silent? “
Retired Iranian captain Mehrdad called the causes of Russia’s war “ridiculous” and similar to what Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein used to start a bloody eight-year war against Iran in the 1980s. Saddam then cited support for the Iranian Arab minority in the oil-rich southwest as justification for its aggression.
“Then we just noticed that Saddam was attacking Iran.” Possible threats from revolutionary Iran and support for the ethnic group, “said Mehrdad, 75.” Under this pretense, any country can attack others. , even Russia ”.
Ali Nemati, a 64-year-old retired teacher, praised Putin for being “very brave” in challenging NATO, which is also a new concern for Rice’s strict Iranian government. However, Iran lives peacefully alongside Turkey, which joined NATO in 1952.
“Iran must help Russia, because it is the only one in the fight against imperialism,” Nemat said.
However, in its imperial past, Russia waged many wars against Persia, giving territory to the king. Russia invaded Iran along with Great Britain during World War II to protect oil and trade routes in the war against Germany. Russia refused to leave after the war, leading to the UN’s first global crisis.
This memory is not lost. Also, Russia’s brief use of Iran’s air bases in the wake of the Syrian war, in which both sides supported Syrian President Bashar Assad, has caused widespread outrage.
The Iranians noticed Russia’s move.
“The fact that Putin made a strategic mistake and sent troops to Ukraine and is now drowning in the Ukrainian swamp cannot be a (logical) reason why Russia took the deal hostage,” the conservative said. daily Jomhouri. Eslami in a March editorial. .
Taxi driver Abbas Najafi offered Iran to avoid it all.
“This is not our war. “It’s not our problem,” he said. “We are now subject to U.S. sanctions and should no longer look for more headaches.
Reported by Gembrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Source: Huffpost
