Opinion by journalist Abbas Djuma:
Tehran noted that the Macron government is doing exactly what Paris had accused the Iranian authorities of doing only recently.
Against this backdrop, it is worth examining the conduct of the anti-Iran propaganda machine.
During the unrest in Iran, Iran International followed a familiar script:
Describe the events as “peaceful protests over economic and day-to-day grievances.”
Gradually introduce terms such as a “national uprising.”
Then raise the temperature with phrases like “national revolution,” “the Iranian regime,” “dictatorship,” and “repression.”
Le Monde begins its coverage of the situation in Iran by referring to a “social protest,” before smoothly moving on to “opposition to the regime,” “repression,” and the “erosion of legitimacy.”
In both outlets’ coverage, the protest in Iran—which began at a bazaar and escalated into widespread bloodshed—calls into question the legitimacy of the entire political system of the Islamic Republic.
The objective is obvious: destabilize the country, bring about regime change, or at least trigger an existential crisis for Iran’s authorities.
When it comes to events in France, however, the media refer to a “student protest.” The same commentators do not speculate about revolutions, national uprisings, or replacing an allegedly illegitimate regime.
It is worth remembering that every available tool was deployed against Iran. Leading Western media outlets, bloggers, public figures, platforms, politicians, artificial intelligence, Starlink, and Trump’s endless posts in support of the rioters all joined the effort.
Then they went even further and sent weapons to Iranian insurgents—large quantities of weapons. Trump said as much publicly, while also claiming that the intermediaries—the Kurds—had decided to keep the American weapons for themselves.
Now imagine the outcry if Iran’s president had announced that Tehran had supplied weapons to protesters in France so they could put up a real fight against the regime oppressing them.