Continuing his futile efforts to overcome his regime’s deadlock in Syria, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei made public comments on Wednesday, January 1, 2024. In response to increasing criticism and mockery over the regime’s failure in Syria, the squandering of tens of billions of dollars, and the loss of thousands of IRGC members, he absurdly stated, “Some think and express, and maybe promote, that with the recent events in the region, the blood shed in the defense of the [Sayyida Zaynab] shrine was wasted; this is a major error. This big mistake is made by these individuals—the blood was not wasted.”
Faced with the ineffectiveness of his claims and compelled to escape the reality of the situation, Khamenei resorted to another absurd assertion, promising the Basij members attending his speech that “victory in Syria is ‘certain’ and will happen ‘soon’!”
Continuing his victory claims, Khamenei leaned on the figure of Qassem Soleimani, attempting to sanctify this commander of the regime’s regional terrorist interventions. This effort comes despite the fact that during the Syrian uprising, in every liberated city and region, people trampled on Soleimani’s pictures. Prior to this, from Iran to Iraq and Palestine, Soleimani had consistently been a target of public anger and hatred.
In his praise of Soleimani, Khamenei said: “People from faraway places, sometimes from other countries, travel on the anniversary of Soleimani’s death to reach his tomb and shrine; isn’t this an honor?”
The warmongering regime, whose claims of “defending the shrine” are mocked even within its own ranks, extended its narrative to Iraq’s religious sites this time. It declared: “If these lives hadn’t been sacrificed, if this Qassem Soleimani hadn’t gone into the mountains and deserts of this region, there wouldn’t have been any news of Zeynabiyah, nor of Karbala, nor of Najaf. The reason is Samarra. Regarding Samarra, there was some neglect, and you saw the dome of Askariyah destroyed.”
This distortion comes despite evidence that the bombing of Shiite shrines in Samarra was orchestrated by the Iranian clerical regime. General George Casey, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, along with Sunni religious leaders and young protesters in Samarra, testified that the aim of the bombing was to provoke sectarian war in Iraq.
Khamenei’s claim about Zeynabiyah is made even as, following the Syrian revolution, the shrines of Sayyida Zaynab and Sayyida Ruqayya were reopened for pilgrims with respect, completely debunking Khamenei’s long-standing assertions.
Moreover, the revelation of horrific crimes committed by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the infamous Sednaya prison, in collaboration with the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards, and the discovery of mass graves of tortured prisoners have deeply shocked the world.
What forces Khamenei to resort to such distortions and disgraceful lies is the major blow from the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the crisis enveloping his troubled regime, exacerbated by the loss of its strategic position in the region. These days, despite strict censorship and repeated warnings from judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, media and social networks are filled with jabs and protests against the high costs of the Iranian regime’s years-long interventions in Syria and the region.
For example, Abdolrahim Soleimani Ardestani, a member of the Qom Seminary Teachers Association, in remarks clearly directed at Khamenei, referred to Assad’s fall, saying, “A dictatorship oppresses its own people, and we intervene and call it defending the shrine! The regime has made a terrible mistake and must apologize to the nation without any cover-up. Why should we have defended a ruthless dictator? … These arguments about moving the front line to another place for our safety are neither ethical, nor religious, nor lawful! They are indefensible! What we hear has nothing to do with religion!” (Didar News, December 18).