TEHRAN, 1 December 2003 — More than 10,000 Iranian revolutionary militia chanted “Death to America” outside the former US Embassy in Tehran yesterday, wishing defeat in Iraq on the “Great Satan.”
“The region will only see peace and calm when the occupiers get out,” Yahya Rahim Safavi, head of both the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Bassij militia, told the crowd of men and women who had been bussed to the city center compound. “We hope that the US is dealt a humiliating defeat in Iraq, so the US warmonger administration won’t get re-elected to send US children to the Iraqi quagmire,” he added.
“The attack on Islam has begun, but the future of Islam is to spread peace and security throughout the world,” Safavi said, standing behind a symbolic trench made of sandbags in front of the main entrance to the former embassy.
The Bassiji, the men wearing camouflage fatigues and the women in the all-embracing black chador, chanted the usual slogans of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
The Americans have started “a new front in Iraq ... to dominate the Islamic world, and execute the Zionist regime’s Nile to Euphrates strategy,” Safavi said, referring to Israel’s alleged ambitions. “The occupation of Iraq is the second tragedy in the Islamic and Arab world,” he added, the first being the fate of the Palestinians.
The Americans not only invaded Iran’s neighbor “to dictate their policy” worldwide and to take over Iraqi energy resources, but also “to save the Zionists from their inescapable death,” Safavi said.
A final statement read from the podium, saying that “All our support goes to the Palestinian intifada and the Lebanese Hezbollah,” the Iranian-backed Shiite group opposed to Israel, was answered with chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is the Great).
The statement also warned “domestic enemies”, saying that “in this (international) crisis ... all those who attempt to break unity are committing an act of treason against Iranians and the Islamic Republic.”
The Bassiji “army of 20 million” — official figures give 10 million — vows absolute loyalty to the leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini and his successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Each factory, mosque or university has its own bassiji, who are often dispatched to break up political disputes and demonstrations.
But passers-by just glanced briefly at Sunday’s demonstration by the ardent bassijis carrying banners with bold lettering, “Victory is Islam’s”.
