In a speech on February 17, 2025, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei once again revealed his deep fear about the unstable state of the regime and the inevitable prospect of its overthrow. He acknowledged the sequential desertions and demoralization among the regime’s rank and file and dispirited forces with the phrase “doubts about the pillars of the state!” and, to boost their morale, resorted to empty boasting.
“Today, in terms of hard defense, in terms of the enemy’s hard threat, we have no worries or problems. Today, thank God, we ourselves know, our friends know, and our enemies know that Islamic Iran, in terms of its ability to deal with hard threats, is at a high level, and the people feel secure in this regard. Therefore, our issue today is not the enemy’s hard threats,” Khamenei said.
If Khamenei’s problem is not a hard threat, then what is it?
Acknowledgment of Feeling Danger from Inside the Country
In this speech, Khamenei said: “Today, our enemies admit that they have come to the conclusion that if they want to overcome the Iranian nation, if they want to push the Islamic Republic back from its powerful positions, the way is to create problems inside the country, inside the nation, and inflict the people with problems and soft threats.”
These words indicate that the most important priority for the Supreme Leader, as always, is to preserve the regime against the danger of being overthrown by the people and their fiery uprising. Unlike in the past, when Khamenei used foreign threats as an excuse to justify internal repression, he now explicitly admits that the real threat comes from inside the country and from within the Iranian people.
His statements can also be interpreted from the angle that street repression can no longer control the deep social and political crises. The regime’s main enemy is not Khamenei’s delusions about foreign conspiracies, but the Iranian people; people who, according to him, are the subject of a “soft threat!” due to their increasing and escalating awareness of political and social issues, and each of them, by organizing a base of revolution in their homes, streets, and workplaces, can ignite the matches ready for an uprising.
Filling the Empty Bag with Government-Staged Shows
In this speech, Khamenei once again tried to promote the street carnival and the exposed show of government-organized crowd-making on the anniversary of the anti-monarchical revolution as evidence of his regime’s legitimacy. He claimed that these marches show that the people still support the regime. The reality is that such shows are organized with huge expenses, forced mobilization, and threats to employees and students, and have nothing to do with the real demands of the people.
Khamenei is making these statements while the claim of Jamshid Amouzegar, the then Prime Minister of the Shah, on April 10, 1978, about the gathering of 400,000 people in Tabriz is still in the collective memory of the Iranian people. The Shah regime was busy making fake crowds by bringing the army, police, and SAVAK [Shah’s secret police] onto the scene in the guise of plainclothes agents while the officials and leaders of the regime were competing with each other in buying real estate in California to flee the country.
Khamenei’s main challenge is that people no longer trust official narratives. In today’s world, with the expansion of social networks, the truths behind these shows are revealed. Scenes of empty streets, pre-determined slogans, and carrying government placards can no longer deceive society.
Confession to Failure with the Phrase “Soft Threat”
Khamenei admitted that the issue for his government today is not the enemy’s hard threat, but the soft threat. He defined this threat: “What is a soft threat? A soft threat means manipulating people’s public opinion, creating discord, creating doubt about the pillars of the Islamic Revolution; this is a software threat. A soft threat means creating doubt about resistance against the enemy; this is what they are doing.”
This confession is proof of the fact that the regime has become powerless in the face of people’s awareness. Khamenei knows that the Iranian people have risen up to confront the regime’s lies by relying on information, awareness, and social networks. The mentality of society can no longer be changed with censorship, filtering, and government propaganda.
In order to survive, the regime is trying to keep people in ignorance and unawareness. But people are becoming more aware day by day and are no longer deceived by government shows. The widespread protests of students, workers, teachers, and other dissatisfied groups in Iran show an increase in the level of public awareness. This has terrified the regime.
By carefully examining the content of his statements, it can be understood that it is not the people who have fallen into doubt about the “pillars of the regime” (i.e., the rule of clergy and the policy of repression and export of terrorism). The people’s stance towards this regime has been clear for years. Khamenei’s reference is to the regime’s crumbling base of loyalists, which can no longer be preserved with the regime’s superficial and propagandistic slogans.
A Futile Attempt to Justify the Regime’s Enemy-Making
Khamenei continued his speech and tried to justify the regime’s enemy-making. He said: “Some, in incomplete analyses, like to pretend that Iran itself creates enemies with its own hands, this is not the case.”
Everyone knows that the regime’s aggressive and repressive policies are due to its fascist nature, and creating a fictitious enemy to justify these policies is an inherent characteristic of fascism.
The mullahs’ regime is the main cause of enemy-making by suppressing the people, supporting terrorist groups in the region, and creating internal and external crises. The Iranian people know well that the real enemy is not outside the country, but within this oppressive regime.
A Future Without the Mullahs’ Rule
Khamenei’s statements reveal his fear of the future more than ever before. He knows that Iranian society no longer accepts the medieval and outdated system of the mullahs’ rule. Every day that passes, the foundations of his rule become shakier and the wave of public anger expands. As mentioned earlier, the real threat that Khamenei is talking about does not come from foreign enemies, but from within the streets of Iran and from among the people who no longer want to submit to the coercion and oppression of the absolute rule of the mullahs.
This speech as a whole is an acknowledgment of the weakness, decline, and inevitable end of religious fascism. The Iranian people, more aware and determined than ever, are moving in the direction of overthrowing this dictatorship in line with the organized resistance and Resistance Units. A future without the mullahs’ rule is on the horizon.
Source » eurasiareview