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Trump ramps up pressure on Iran as tensions rise
Fox News reporter Danamarie McNicholl reports from West Palm Beach, Florida, on the latest on tensions with Iran. The Institute for National Security Studies’ Andrew Boren also joined “Fox News Live” to discuss escalating military pressure in the Middle East.
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Iranian regime releases stage image of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei According to opposition groups operating abroad, it is an attempt to show strength and bolster the nervous military.
The photos, released by Iranian state media on January 31, marked Khamenei’s first public appearance in weeks and showed him praying at the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as regime officials issued new threats to the United States and Europe.
Ali Safavi Senior Official iranian national resistance councilsaid the images were not intended to appease the public but to boost morale among the regime’s weakening security forces.
“The image of Ali Khamenei is pure propaganda,” Safavi told Fox News Digital. “He wanted to show that he was not afraid of death, but at the same time he was desperately trying to boost the morale of a demoralized army.”
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance in weeks to raise new threats from the United States. (Iran’s Supreme Leader’s Office Credit/AP)
Safawi said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remained the regime’s backbone of power, but there were signs of tension after weeks of crackdowns on nationwide protests.
“The purpose of these images is to demonstrate strength and buttress the power of repression,” he said. “But at the bottom, the regime is facing the reality that its criminal gangs cannot go against the will of the people, and Khamenei knows that the situation will never return to the way it was before December 28.”
The photo’s release coincides with European Parliament appeal Designates the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
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Opposition groups said the supreme leader attended prayers at the founder’s grave as officials issued new threats against the United States and Europe. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/Associated Press)
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is the backbone of this regime,” Safawi said. “Its dismantling will only happen after a fundamental shift in the balance of power and the emergence of organized resistance on the ground. Only then will defections at the lower levels of the army become meaningful.”
Tehran reportedly reacted angrily to Europe’s move, with Iranian lawmakers turning up in Islamic Revolutionary Guard uniforms in an elaborate show of solidarity.
According to reports, a banner hung on the speaker’s podium that read “The Revolutionary Guards is the world’s largest counter-terrorism organization” and the flag of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards was also prominent. Times of Israel.
Opposition groups say the Iranian regime is demonstrating strength by displaying images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during prayers. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/Associated Press)
“We saw the same thing when the United States designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019,” Safavi said.
“More than half of these MPs are former IRGC commanders,” he added. “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps dominates Iran’s economy and penetrates the executive, legislative and judicial branches, as well as educational institutions.”
After the United States dispatch naval strike group Khamenei, who was led to the region by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, also warned on Sunday that any military action would trigger a wider regional conflict in comments reported by Iranian state media.
“We are not the ones waging war,” Khamenei said. “But if the United States attacks or harms Iran, the Iranian nation will be severely affected – any war initiated by the United States will spread throughout the region,” he said. Report.
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president Donald Trump “We will find out” whether Khamenei’s warning was correct if Iran failed to reach a deal on its nuclear program, it said on Sunday.
“Doing business with Iran means doing business with the IRGC,” Safavi said. “The IRGC is the regime — even the clergy.”
