What is happening in Iran?

During the last few months, different news agencies including Western Persian-language media have been publishing stories on mainstream or social media – stories that raise unfair allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Western countries try to induce disorder and mutiny in Iran by supporting and equipping hostile groups and enemies of Iran, arming them and providing them facilities and intelligence. The antagonistic content published in the media spans various issues, including nuclear energy, human rights, military, security etc. This is while these groups and the media act against a country that is a member state of the international community; they, therefore, threaten the peace and security as well as sovereignty and national security of a country that is a member state of the United Nations.

These groups and media have continuously encouraged unrest and disorder in Iran and have gone as far as teaching civilians how to make incendiary weapons. They even tell people to seize and disarm Iran's military and security institutions and to infringe state buildings; they also ask the states to suspend or withdraw diplomatic relations with Iran.

Regardless of the politicized allegations on international media, the reality is something else. During the last decades, the people of Iran have endured the cruellest international sanctions, including the secondary sanctions imposed by the US, just because they want to enjoy their inalienable right to peaceful atomic energy. Despite complying with international obligations, Iran faced a pressure campaign imposed by the previous American president. Shortly after, Major General Qassem Soleimani, Iran's senior military commander and the hero of the fight against terrorism and extremism, was assassinated during an official mission to a foreign country.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw more than 150,000 Iranian citizens die as a result of the lack of vaccine export to Iran at the proper time due to the sanctions and the obstacles posed by the West. However, Iran managed to produce the first Covid vaccine in the Muslim world and could not only overcome the mortality rate, but also export the vaccine and the other medical equipment to other countries.

After the pandemic, at a time when the world was trying to recover from the shocks caused by this ominous virus, and to revive the economy and social resources, the lamentable death of an Iranian woman led to more controversy against Iran. In this atmosphere, some Western countries along with their media, contrary to all the principles and rules of international law, have called for turmoil against a UN member-state, and asked protesters to resort to aggressive measures, destroying urban infrastructure and public and private properties. At the same time, Iranian law-enforcement forces were killed due to the riots or by cold weapons or direct gunfire in the streets. According to the law, these people were just performing their legal duties to establish order.

Cross-border smuggling of weapons and ammunition into Iran, destruction of public property, disruption of the democratic order and public order, arson, vandalism, threat, intimidation, assault and battery, assassination, terror and lynching are only parts of the destructive and illegal actions taken by these so-called freedom fighters and defenders of human rights. Most of the weapons used were foreign and unknown in Iran, thus exported from outside the country. Their task seemed to be to disrupt order and security.

In one of the cases, the ISIS terrorist group attacked a religious site and martyred dozens of women, men and children praying in the Shahcheragh Shrine of Shiraz. Still, the propaganda machinery against Iran acted so brazenly that even when ISIS officially accepted responsibility for the terrorist attack, hostile groups and their media distorted the reality to insinuate that the attack was carried out by forces affiliated with the government.

The West and its biased media have launched their propaganda machinery to promote violence, aggression and terrorism in Iran. By settling in countries that claim democracy and respect for the rights of nations, some people openly and blatantly act against the territorial integrity, sovereignty, national unity, stability and the national security of a member-state of the United Nations. This is while the international community, international organizations and even some supporting states stay silent before this breach of international law. Some countries, including the US and its allies, even openly support them and finance them. The thirst for power in these hostile groups is such that they do not hesitate in taking brutal, violent and deadly action to build a case against Iran in order to divert public opinion and influence the feelings of the people.

Announcing grandiloquent and deceptive slogans – such as freedom and defending women's rights – is not only deceptive, but also a cover for creating disorder and damage to democratic structures, spreading hatred, and creating ethnic conflict and sectarian war in Iran. With a brief look at the functional and organizational history of each of the active groups in the recent riots, the falsity of their allegations will be determined.

For example, in the past, and during the Iran-Iraq war, in alignment with the Iraqi Baath regime and using borrowed weapons, the hypocritical group of MOK attacked the border cities of Iran and massacred thousands of women, children and unarmed civilians. Once again, this group has activated its death squads against the people of Iran in two phases including field operations in the Iranian cities, and then psychological warfare operations in cyberspace through spreading lies, slander and libel, and fabricating criminal cases against the government and publishing unrealistic content in their media in order to distort the facts about Iran.

During the last decades, hostility, terror and killings of civilians have been the common pain of the two great nations of Iran and Pakistan. The two countries have suffered from this, and families have lost their loved ones as well. The honourable people of Pakistan understand this pain as the two countries have sacrificed many precious martyrs for the cause of security, stability and peace.

To conclude, it is worth mentioning that the two friendly, brotherly and neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan have always supported each other during hard times throughout their mutual history – and are proud of their cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious links and commonalities. It should be remembered, and of course a brief look at the region confirms it, that the security, stability, sustainable development, integrity and constancy of the geopolitical and geostrategic position of the region and its party states comprise a comprehensive and monolithic entity. Therefore, security and stability in one area can contribute to the security and stability of the other areas in the region.

Strengthening the geo-economy of the region, boosting economic and commercial prosperity, connecting the border crossings gates, expanding the transportation corridors, guaranteeing safe and current flow of energy and maintaining the security of infrastructures in the region – all of this requires security, stability and continuity of geographical borders, territorial integrity of the countries of the region, internal security and political stability throughout the region.

The writer is the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Pakistan.