In an interview with the defense reporter from the Iranian regime-run Fars News Agency, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, the former minister of the Revolutionary Guards, discussed the Islamic uprisings in the Middle East and Iran’s corresponding role: “When people gain awareness and rise up, they become victorious. It is this populist support, as well as the support offered by the Iranian government to these protests, that is enough; we do not need to directly meddle.”
Rafiqdoost, in reference to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, stated: “Our revolution, in comparison to the movements that people in the region have undertaken, was much greater. Our people rose up against the fifth largest non-nuclear army in the world and won.”
He continued:
We fought for a full year on the streets and then we found ourselves climbing up the tanks; but the Egyptians climbed the tanks too soon in their movement. I hope they do not get fooled and are not diverted from their path and mission….The fact that our people and our government support these protests emboldens the citizens of those countries and will make them victorious.
Rafiqdoost added: “We must publicize the issue of a possible U.S. military attack on Libya and announce that anytime the U.S. military’s presence is felt, it should be turned into their graveyard. We must give a directive to the people of the various regions that they should, without hesitation, kill the first American who steps foot on their land. I had openly said this during the imposed war (Iran-Iraq) as well, and it is for that reason that I cannot travel abroad.”
As a side note: Mohsen Rafiqdoost, as the minister of the Revolutionary Guards, was personally responsible for establishing ties with various terrorist groups around the world, as well as funding and arming them. Also, four years after the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Mohsen Rafiqdoost boasted that “both the TNT and the ideology, which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marines headquarters, were provided by Iran.”
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