PHOTO: Rally in Tehran’s Azadi Square challenging the “victory” of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, June 15, 2009
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In a twist on the Iranian regime’s reaction to Donald Trump’s victory in the US, the Revolutionary Guards are using the surprise to defend the disputed 2009 Presidential election.

Reaction from Iranian officials have varied from a cautious welcome to hopes that Trump’s success marks US “collapse” to President Rouhani’s declaration that the July 2015 nuclear deal must continue to be implemented. However, Fars News, the outlet of the Guards, is more concerned with the “Love Trumps Hate” rallies across the US.

Fars tries to use the development to cast aside the protests of more than a million Iranians to the “victory” of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 2009 vote:

The protests against the Iranian presidential election results which occurred in Tehran from 2009 into 2010…were titled as “Green Movement” by the proponents, and “Persian Awakening” by the Western media and Persian-language news outlets….

These state-funded news networks reported “several irregularities”. Just like the opposition candidates, they claimed the votes were manipulated and the election was rigged. They then encouraged the protesters to take action, to take matters into their hands, and to take it as a call to arms. Tragic enough, some protesters settled for more!

Unsurprisingly, Fars does not refer to the suppression of the demonstrations, with the killing of scores of protesters, detention of thousands — some of which are still in prison — suspension of political parties, and banning of newspapers and websites. Nor does the Guards channel mention that the leaders of the Green Movement — 2009 Presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and Mousavi’s wife, academic and artist Zahra Rahnavard — have been under strict house arrest since February 2011.

Instead, Fars maintains:

[Western commentators] say those who oppose Donald Trump’s election have been through a collective trauma that has left them feeling rattled and afraid….Still, they never say violence is the solution, let alone encourage the “mixed-up” voters to stay in the streets – unlike the way they prescribed utter violence and destruction in Iran’s 2009 “post-election stress”.

Regime Warning After US House of Representative Extends Sanctions

Senior Iranian officials have warned Washington that the July 2015 nuclear deal may be “kicked away”, following the approval by the US House of Representatives of an extension of Iranian sanctions legislation.

The representatives voted 419-1 on Tuesday night for a 10-year reauthorization of the Iran Sanctions Act, initially adopted in 1996. The bill will now go to the Senate for confirmation and transmittal to President Obama for signature.

The Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, tweeted:

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, responded, “If you extend the sanctions, this will mean kicking the JCPOA away and we will confront it through implementing powerful technical packages.”

Iranian State media are posting a reminder of the Supreme Leader’s remarks in July, “We will not violate the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], but if the opposite side violates it — as US Presidential candidates are currently threatening to tear up the JCPOA — if they tear up the JCPOA, we will burn it.”