Students members of Iran’s Basij Resistance Force – a volunteer militia operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps – took part in flag burning activities outside the former US embassy in Tehran yesterday.
Despite what is being billed as a ‘thawing’ of relations between Israel and the West following the recent nuclear deal, the students set fire to American, British and Israeli flags.
About 30 student Basij members trampled and burned the flags at an unveiling ceremony of a plaque on the former embassy’s fence, according to Agence France-Presse. The plaque depicts 100 derogative expressions such as “Great Satan” used to describe the United States by the revolutionary founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the late Ayatollah Khomeini.
The flag burning took place less than two months after the signing of the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and various world powers, including the US and Britain. After the conclusion of the nuclear deal, Britain and Iran reopened embassies in each other’s country, although as Breitbart London reported Britain’s embassy in Tehran still bore the “death to England” graffiti painted on its walls after its closure.
In another sign the much-vaunted thawing of relations between Iran and the West is more of a one-sided affair, earlier this week police in Iran arrested people selling clothing showing British and American flags. According to the Iranian Students News Agency (considered to be one of the most independent and moderate Iranian media organisations) clothing showing the flags as well as those with “Satanic symbols” were seized from shops in Tehran.
Tehran’s police chief, General Hossein Sajedinia, said reports about the activity had been received in the past fortnight leading to surveillance, confiscation, closure and detentions.
Although the nuclear deal was met with celebrations in Iran, the country’s senior leaders have said nothing will change in their approach towards the US. As Breitbart London reported earlier this week, that is also true for their attitude to what they call “the usurper Zionist regime” with a senior Iranian official stating “Israel should be annihilated.”