Thousands protest in Tehran and the region against Israel, US
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Protesters in Beirut gathering for a rally in solidarity with Iran on June 20.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TEHRAN – Thousands of people rallied in Tehran, Baghdad and Beirut on June 20 after weekly prayers to protest against Israel’s strikes on Iran, chanting slogans against Israel and its main backer, the United States.
Images on Iran’s state television showed protesters in Tehran holding up photographs of commanders killed since the start of the war, while others waved the flags of Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“This is the Friday of the Iranian nation’s solidarity and resistance across the country,” the news anchor said.
“I will sacrifice my life for my leader,” read a protester’s banner, referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to state television, protests took place in other cities around the country, including in Tabriz in north-western Iran and Shiraz in the south.
Israel launched a blistering attack
Imam Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari, who led Tehran’s prayers, told worshippers that Israel had attacked Iran out of “despair”, the official Irna news agency reported.
He accused Israel of launching a “psychological war” to “pit the people of the country against the government”.
“Their plans were precise, but their calculations were laughable,” he said.
With warnings of all-out regional war intensifying, fears are growing over an intervention by Iran-backed Iraqi factions, who have threatened Washington’s interests in the region if it were to join Israel in its war against Iran.
‘No right’
In Iraq, thousands of supporters of powerful cleric Moqtada Sadr rallied on June 20 after prayers in Baghdad and other cities.
Mr Sadr, who has previously criticised Tehran-backed Iraqi armed factions, retains a devoted following of millions among Iraq’s majority community of Shi’ite Muslims.
“No to Israel! No to America!” chanted demonstrators gathered in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, the cleric’s stronghold in the capital.
“It is an unjust war… Israel has no right” to hit Iran, said protester Abu Hussein.
“Israel is not in it for the (Iranian) nuclear (programme). What Israel and the Americans want is to dominate the Middle East,” added the 54-year-old taxi driver.
In the city of Kufa, protesters set fire to Israeli and American flags.
Iraq is both a significant ally of Iran
In Lebanon, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters took to the streets in the group’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Men, women and children waved the flags of Iran, Hezbollah and Lebanon, with some holding pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei.
“It is my duty to stand with (Iran) against the Zionist Israeli enemy,” said Mr Adnan Zaytoun, 60.
Hezbollah, which suffered heavy blows
To supporters like Mr Zaytoun, “if anyone attacks us, we will defend ourselves, but we do not support war”.
Mr Fadel Saad, an 18-year-old student, said: “We are here to show the American and Israeli enemies that we are resilient and will not be defeated… even if they destroy our homes over our heads.”
In Yemen’s capital Sanaa and other areas, tens of thousands of people gathered for protests organised by the Iran-backed Huthis, according to their official media outlets. AFP
