Iran's Supreme Leader Draws a Line in the Sand

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, used his Friday June 19 sermon in Tehran to warn protesters to back down or face a crackdown. According to Suzanne DiMaggio, Asia Society’s Director of Policy Studies who ran a U.S-Iran Track II dialogue from 2001 to 2007, “Khamenei’s speech had three main objectives."

The first was to draw a clear line in the sand and issue an explicit warning of ‘bloodshed and chaos’ if protests continued. He has since followed through on this warning -- reports of a heightened crackdown and graphic video showing violent repression carried out by Iranian security forces are now surfacing on YouTube and other sites.

Another goal of Khamenei's speech was consolidation. This crisis and infighting among the country’s power brokers represent the most serious threat to the Islamic Republic since the early days of the revolution. Khamenei was unambiguous in his support of Ahmadinejad, making it clear that a new election was not a possibility. Khamenei’s third goal was to assert that Iran was under siege from abroad, implying that Britain and the United States were sponsoring activities aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic. "Reaching some kind of political compromise, which would have been difficult to imagine even under better circumstances, now seems out of the question."

Suzanne is in New York.
 Please contact Asia Society Press Officer Stephanie Hoo to arrange an interview or media appearance. [email protected] 212-327-9295