Yesterday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke to a meeting of 50,000 Basij commander from across Iran in commemoration of the end of Muharram, the ten days of mourning marking the martyrdom of the Shi’a holy figure Imam Hossein. The speech appeared aimed at rallying his conservative domestic base by insisting that Iran would not retreat when it came to its nuclear rights and portraying the West as brutal and hypocritical. Khamenei used the example of Zeinab, daughter of Imam Ali, and her brother Imam Hossein, Shi’a icons of resistance, to illustrate Iran’s situation today in nuclear negotiations. He stated that retreat “is forbidden from the perspective […]
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