The Ayatollah Khamenei and Twitter - Communicating Iran's Geopolitical Reality

While the world seems to hang on every utterance from Donald Trump's Twitter account, his preferred method of communication, there is another world leader that also has a Twitter account that he uses for similar purposes; to send messages to the world and to propagate his agenda to the citizens of the country that he leads.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the 78-year old Supreme Leader of Iran who assumed office in June 1989 has a Twitter feed which was launched in March 2009 that provides us with an inside glimpse into the mindset of the religious ruling class in Iran and how they feel about their long-time adversary, the United States.  In this posting, I want to provide you with a few of his postings that are of interest, particularly in this time of growing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.  We will start with the most recent tweets and work backwards in time over the past two months.

1.) June 6, 2018:  This is the Ayatollah's response to the ongoing issues facing Palestinians:

In another tweet from June 4th, he notes that "supporting the Palestinian nation is a source of grace for the Islamic Republic of Iran":

He also notes that the Palestinian cause is not a tactical issue, nor is it a political strategy.  It's an issue of beliefs, an issue of the heart and an issue of faith.

2.) This tweet from June 4, 2018 refers to the Supreme Leader's recent orders to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to begin the process of enriching uranium up to a level of 190,000 SWU (separate work units) without delay:

3.) Here is an interesting tweet from May 29, 2018 which notes that, in light of their backing out of the JCPOA, the Americans cannot be trusted as was predicted by the Ayatollah:

The prediction that came true!#JCPOAhttps://t.co/jsGdjyVRyl pic.twitter.com/L6dnLSDKqq

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 29, 2018

 

4.) Here is the Ayatollah's take on the United Nations and how it should be investigating human rights issues in the United States, complete with a graphic outlining the issues, from May 25, 2018:

5.) Here is a tweet from May 24, 2018 outlining how the government of Iran should interact with the United States in the future in light of what Iran has learned from America's recent withdrawal from the JCPOA:

This tweet was preceded by several tweets on May 23rd where he outlines his thoughts on how Europe should respond to the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA including guaranteeing business transactions with European banks, guaranteeing the sale of Iran's oils and standing firmly against the U.S. sanctions on Iran.

6.) Here is a rather interesting tweet from May 13, 2018 showing the Ayatollah reading a translated copy of Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff's inside look at the Trump Administration:

7.) Here is the Ayatollah's take on why there has been nearly 4 decades of geopolitical tension between Iran and the United States from May 9, 2018:

8.) Here is the Ayatollah reminding Americans of a painful time in its recent history from April 24, 2018:

When the American eagle sank into the sands of Iran's deserthttps://t.co/3fZcGRd2Pm pic.twitter.com/YKc7Vnta6h

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) April 24, 2018

 

9.) Here is the Ayatollah's comment on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States from April 15, 2018:

10.) Lastly, here is a rather prescient comment from the Ayatollah about why the United States is so interested in what happens in Iran from March 27, 2018

While these are but a very small sampling of the Ayatollah's Twitter feed, they certainly provide us with an interesting glimpse into the mindset of Iran's leadership.  Despite what we are told about Iran by the Western media, it is quite apparent that they have a good grasp of their current geopolitical reality, particularly the reasons for the ongoing friction with the United States.  At the very least, some of his logic is pretty hard to argue with and should not be dismissed out of hand simply because his nation is deemed part of the "Axis of Evil".