History repeats itself ... unfortunately

This was like history unfolding itself right in front of our eyes. A group of Basiji thugs and hooligans, under the guise of “university students” attacked and swarmed the British embassy in Tehran in response to Britain’s talk of sanctioning Iran’s Central Bank as a part of their comprehensive effort to rein in the regime’s pursuit of nuclear bomb.

Let me start with the fact that usually almost none of these people are ‘students’ (defined as individuals in pursuit of science and knowledge in an institute of higher learning). These are the militia and pressure groups routinely used by the regime and factions within the regime (mostly on the side of Khamenei and ultra-conservative mullahs) as their fascistic arm to do the jobs that cant be done legally or under the umbrella of law. Even if some of these individuals possess a University Id, they are those who have been strategically ‘placed’ in the institutes to monitor and spy and if needed, be the insiders for the regime to ‘handle’ genuine students’ movements from within. Therefore labeling these purchased hooligans ‘students’ is the regime’s way of discrediting the real students and student movements.

It came as no surprise when one of the first photos that came out of this event showed a well known IRGC commander - Qods Force division, a certain Karim Jalali who was immediately identified by the Iranian activists and exposed here.

The second matter of note is to address the ambiguity of the foreign press who, as usual, are muddled and still naïve enough to not have understood the mechanics of politics in Iran. Someone with a little more time invested in Iranian politics would easily spot the factions behind this (no matter how desperately these ‘students’ want to claim they are not connected to any political faction). Khamenei and the ultra-conservatives and the ruthless IRGC stand to gain the most from this as this method of Political-Suicide suits their agenda of isolating Iran even more as well as Khamenei’s inherent paranoia of everything and everyone especially the threat of improving the relationships with the west. So despite the insistence by the networks and pundits, this move has been well planned, orchestrated and supported by the supreme leader’s gang.

And if there was any need for more proof, we have the security forces who were in charge of protecting the sovereignty of embassies merely stood aside and became bystanders as the small horde of Basiji militia attacked and invaded the embassy. The same security forces who showed extreme brutality and barbarism in their methods of dealing with un-armed innocent Iranian protesters on the streets  during the disputed elections demonstrations, were overwhelmed and incapacitated by a gang of 250-300 ‘students’? Really?

After a while and much damage to the compound, the security forces managed to expel most of the attackers (regime’s media relations must have been very active) only to be ‘over-powered’ once more and this time there was talk of taking 6 people as hostage. Although the news on this hostage taking has been confirmed and denied, which leaves it an ambiguous matter to be resolved later. The report of the 6 hostages was seen in the state agencies, but were immediately removed, most probably by higher order as there must have been some frantic political haggling and arm wrestling between the conservatives and Ahmadinejad’s group.

On the international front this bode very badly for Iran as well as the regime. The European Union was the first to condemn this act with promise of further and harsher response against Iran. Did the regime strategists even consider the ramifications of such a move and their relationship to Europe where they have extensive trade deals with?

You know Iran was in real trouble when their usual staunch allies and partners-in-crime, Russia and even China (the unscrupulous government that usually turns a blind eye to nearly any atrocity and crime as long as there is some profit, direct or indirect, for them) condemned this act. This also plays right into the hands of the neo-cons and the war-mongers who have been banging their war drums lately, but with this, the drums will be much lauder than usual.