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".
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