Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi accuses 'great Satan' US of inciting chaos, protests

After US President Joe Biden, in his first-ever public statement on ongoing Mahsa Amini protests, hailed the bravery of Iranian women, Tehran issued a scathing response to the US holding it to account for inflaming the political upheaval. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday derided the Biden administration and accused what he called "Satan America" of inciting chaos and violence in the Islamic Republic. Biden had shunned the violent crackdown by Iranian authorities labeling them as "not so good people." He had acknowledged that the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in morality police's custody is an "awakening moment" for women and girls of Iran. 

“I want you to know that we stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran, for real, for real,” Biden told reporters in California, adding that Iranians are protesting to “secure their very basic, fundamental rights.”  

America 'the Great Satan'

Reacting fiercely to Biden's support of the anti-regime and anti-hardline clergy structure protests, Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi said, that the remarks of the American president indicate that he is "inciting chaos, terror and the destruction of another country." "It serves as a reminder of the eternal words of the founder of the Islamic Republic who called America 'the Great Satan,'” Raisi said referring to the first supreme leader of Iran, late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei's stance on America.

Khomenei, the strongest Iranian clerical leader yet under whom Iran became a symbol for fundamentalists throughout the Middle East, is known for the Islamic Revolution. Iran's most powerful voice, Khomenei, is often associated with "Death to America" slogans demonizing Western culture. the first Iranian supreme leader converted the Western-like Iranian society into an Islamic state ousting the then-political leader called the 'Shah' and ran the country as a theocracy from 1979 until his death in 1989.

Raisi launched an anti-US tirade against the American leader for expressing solidarity with the anti-conservative women protesters. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blames Isreal and US as behind the protests to debilitate Iran's progress. Oslo-based Iran Human Rights says that as many as 201 have been killed since protests began on September 16.

"The enemy's plot must be countered by effective measures to resolve people's problems," Raisi said, according to a statement from the president's office.

Raisi in his previous addresses had questioned the "double standards" exhibited by the Western governments whom he accused of fuelling human rights violations in their own states. He had pointed at America's “deathly silence” on the incident of the demise of homeless women in the West. A woman, in her 30s, sleeping underneath cardboard in the parking lot of a Vons grocery store in Echo Park, United States, was run over and killed by a big rig. Her body lay for hours before a passerby summoned the cops, L.A.County coroner’s office said in a statement. Raisi pointed to several such cases as he likened them to angry protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini. Iranian president denounced the US for expressing what he claimed was “joy and happiness” about Iranian problems and shortcomings, and feeling “angry about every good, innovative and creative move of the Iranian nation.”

Joining Raisi's own reflection, Iranian foreign affairs spokesman Nasser Kanani in a statement said that Iran will "not be swayed" by external interference. In an Instagram post, Kanani wrote: "We will together defend the independence of Iran," shortly after US Treasury sanctioned the Iranian morality police on October 6 for a violent crackdown on protesters.