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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the Iran Iraq War battles

In the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei makes all the key decisions and takes a public stance on all vital and strategic issues regarding Iran. He has the last word. He makes his public views known either in Friday Prayer sermons or in meetings with government officials.

Last week, Khamenei made two public speeches and talked about the explosive state of the country.

Not a day goes by that Iran’s officials and parliament members don’t talk about their concerns over the unstable state of the society and their fear of protests. Nonetheless, Khamenei tried to whitewash his concerns saying that there was nothing to worry about.

“Do not be worried at all with regard to our country’s situation. Nobody can do a damn thing”, his website Khamenei.ir quoted him as saying in one of his speeches during the past weeks, which was published only a day after the new U.S. sanctions against Iran took effect.

Then on Monday, August 13, in a speech about the economic stagnation and the unprecedented fall of Iran’s currency, he claimed that the main problem was due to mismanagement and not entirely to sanctions, Iran News Wire reported.

“More than the sanctions, economic mismanagement (by the government) is putting pressure on ordinary Iranians… I do not call it betrayal but a huge mistake in management,” state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

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He then threatened those involved in economic corruption saying the people responsible for the market’s downfall had to be punished.

“The corrupt people (officials) should be punished firmly,” Khamenei said on Monday.

Even a person with little to no understanding of the economic situation in Iran and the society that rises up in protest over the economy, can plainly see what is behind the poverty, unemployment and serious social and environmental calamities. The heads of state are to blame, who have plundered billions, leaving nothing in the banks for the people.

It is safe to say that none of the factions in the system, from hard liners to the so-called reformists, want to negotiate with the West. No one has a solution for the civil unrest and all of them warn about the upcoming dangers that the system faces.

When speculating about whether a society is ripe for revolution, they say that “when the lower classes can no longer tolerate the status quo and the higher ones (officials), cannot do anything”, that’s when conditions are ready for change.

We can undoubtedly see this in the slogans being chanted by protesters these days on the streets.

“Iranians, enough is enough”, they chant, declaring they can no longer tolerate the dire conditions in Iran.

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And unmistakably, the “higher ones”, have no solutions. This failure, or numbness on the part of the government has been reiterated by officials time and again, including former President Ahmadinejad and Saied Hajarian, a well-known reformist.

Of course the main reason the regime cannot do anything is because Iranians are chanting, “we don’t want a clerical government”, and that “the game is over for reformists and hardliners”, in their protests.