Basij Commander: Kerry Personally Manages the Project to Overthrow the Islamic Republic

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Basij, stated in a speech before Friday prayers in Shahr-e Rey that the United States has allocated "over two billion dollars in secret funding" for the "overthrow of the Islamic Republic" and that 200 million dollars of this amount is being spent personally by John Kerry. According to Iranian news agencies, the head of the Basij Organization claimed that his source for this news was the confessions of what he called "overthrow spies" who were recently arrested in Iran and were receiving orders "only through an intermediary from John Kerry (the U.S. Secretary of State)." According to Brigadier General Naqdi, 200 million dollars from the two billion dollar U.S. budget for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran is "managed personally by John Kerry." He emphasized, without referring to the negotiations between Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, and his American counterpart regarding Iran's nuclear file in recent months, that "the same person who smiles at the negotiating table and is almost moved to tears with joy for the negotiations has personally planned and is managing 34 overthrow projects." The Basij commander listed "cyberspace, feminism, tourism, street and electoral riots" among these U.S. projects for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. In another part of his speech, Mohammad Reza Naqdi described "infiltration as America's last weapon" following Ayatollah Khamenei. He continued without specifying the identities of the arrested individuals and without clarifying who he meant by "overthrow spies": "Some of the arrested spies were receiving orders only through an intermediary from John Kerry." The head of the Basij emphasized that based on information from recent arrests, "the arrested spies were not of the type of informant spies but were trained spies for operations." In recent weeks and months, following the warning from the leader of the Islamic Republic about "enemy infiltration" in Iran, the intelligence forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arrested several Iranian bloggers and journalists. These arrests provoked a swift reaction from officials in Hassan Rouhani's government. For instance, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, described these arrests in a live television program as aimed at "political settling of accounts" and "exaggeration." However, a day later, in another interview at the press exhibition, this official announced that the goal of the recent arrests was to "protect journalists." Hassan Rouhani also expressed his concern in his speech to the cabinet about the misuse of some terms and the concept of "infiltration," which faced backlash from the leader of the Islamic Republic.