Everything is the fault of the U.S. in Iran, a country where shouting “death to America” is almost regarded as a national refrain, a point reiterated Thursday by President Ebrahim Raisi.
As the Islamic republic reels under everything from daily protests after the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country’s morality police to the struggling economy and record inflation hovering near 60 percent, Tehran looks at Washington and sees it as the source of all evil.
Iran’s president repeated that message during a public address at the 36th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran, tapping into a theme previously espoused that called for the destruction of the “capitalistic, militarized, racist, barbaric, Satanic system called America,” claiming all the world’s problems would simply disappear if the U.S. was laid flat.
He accused the U.S. of conducting a “failed policy of destabilization” targeting his nation on a variety of fronts while claiming its military has seen off U.S. forces without ever firing a shot.
“The Iranian nation has invalidated the American military option and, as they themselves have admitted, brought the policy of sanctions and maximum pressure a humiliating failure,” Raisi said, according to a transcript of his remarks as reported by AP.
President Ebrahim Reisi used a speech during 36th International Islamic Unity Conference, in Tehran, Iran on October 12, 2022, to make a series of sweeping accusations against the U.S. (Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In this Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022, photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, protesters chant slogans during a protest over the death of a woman who was detained by the morality police, in downtown Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo)
“Now, following America’s failure in militarization and sanctions, Washington and its allies have resorted to the failed policy of destabilization.”
He went on to later join Israel and the U.S. together as working against Iran. Raisi declared:
The United States and the Zionist Regime have caused insecurity, violence, terrorism, war and anxiety in the region through aggression, occupation, apartheid, oppression and killing of children and civilians in Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan. Now, there is no other way than the end of the occupation and surrendering to the vote and the right of nations to determine their own destiny.
The president did not otherwise directly address the national demonstrations which took place across at least 19 cities on Wednesday.
He did focus on the variety of ills hitting the country as it struggles with a tightened economy driven by sanctions and a soaring, double-digit inflation rate.
As a result, the cost of goods and services has increased by 1,135 percent over the past decade.
Food price rises are even more staggering. Chicken is almost 20 times more expensive than 10 years ago, while the price of cooking oil is 40 times higher.
The sanctions, coupled with economic mismanagement and corruption, have seen the Iranian economy denied any substantive growth in the past decade.
The BBC reports with a stagnant economy, it is no surprise the total number of people in work has hardly changed over the past decade or so. It has hovered around 23 million, despite the population growing from 75 million to 85 million.
The national currency has fared little better.
Over the past five years, the value of Iran’s rial has fallen by almost percent. Back in 2017, one U.S. dollar on the open market was worth just under 40,000 rials. Today, it is worth more than 330,000 rials.
With the prospects of the U.S. returning to the nuclear deal and lifting its sanctions having dimmed in recent months, Iran is set to remain an isolated country, with the government relying on selling oil on the so-called grey market to make ends meet all while blaming Washington.
Indeed, crying “Death to America” is a common pastime in Iran, used as a formal greeting and religious habit wherever observant Muslims gather. It is also shouted as an opener or closer to large public gatherings, family events or between passers-by in the street.
The latest sheeting home of blame to the U.S. for all Iran’s troubles comes just one week after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the violent anti-government protests raging across the country were caused by the U.S. and Israel who challenge the Islamic republic’s authority.
As Breitbart News reported, Khamenei said social unrest in the country has one owner. “These riots and insecurities were designed by America and the Zionist regime, and their employees,” he declared.