Tehran and Mashhad Friday Prayer Leaders Protest Rouhani's Remarks on Engagement with the World

Kazem Sedighi, the interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran, described President Hassan Rouhani's government's efforts to join the global community as 'the beginning of renewed dependency' and stated, 'They want to recreate the Qajar era.' The Friday prayer leader of Mashhad also called 'engagement with the enemy' meaningless. According to reports from Iranian news agencies on October 30, Mr. Sedighi, in this week's Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, without mentioning Hassan Rouhani or the eleventh government by name, said that a group has 'revived the discussion of joining the global community.' He added that these individuals 'say how can we ignore America's power' and 'those who think they can live without America do not have a revolutionary life.' This cleric addressed these individuals, saying, 'It is you who are not alive because if you had a belief in the leadership, you would say, like the Imam, that we will crush America underfoot.' In statements aligned with these remarks, Ahmad Alamolhoda, representative of Ayatollah Khamenei and Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, also stated that engagement with enemies makes no sense and not engaging with them means great jihad. He added, 'In the political arena, the enemy's demand is that we accept the enemy's international equations, adjust our political path to serve the imperialist interests of the enemy in the world, and they will not settle for anything less... How can we submit to the enemy's demands?' This principled cleric continued, 'Is America the world? Are these the world? They are world-devourers, not the world itself; then you want to make deals with them and say constructive engagement with the world, without constructive engagement with the world we do not have export development, without constructive engagement with the world we do not have economic growth, without constructive engagement with the world we become this and that, we name America as the world and then constructive engagement! Can we have constructive engagement with the enemy?' These comments came a day after President Hassan Rouhani's speech emphasizing the necessity of expanding Iran's relations with the global community. Mr. Rouhani stated on Thursday, October 29, that 'exports do not come from fighting with the world' and one cannot rely solely on 'four security forces.' He added, 'Some think that when we say constructive engagement, we mean smiling at Westerners and Europeans, talking, and having lunch together; it is not like that.' After the Vienna nuclear agreement, Ali Khamenei and his close associates have repeatedly warned about what they call 'the danger of political, economic, and cultural infiltration of America in Iran' and the 'optimism' of Hassan Rouhani's government towards America. Ayatollah Khamenei also stated on October 28 of this year that he has repeatedly warned officials in private meetings about 'retreating' in the face of America and the West. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the IRGC, and Ali Saidi, representative of the Supreme Leader in this military force, have also recently directed harsh criticism at the foreign policy of Hassan Rouhani's government and expressed concern about the continuation of these policies. Mr. Jafari stated that some officials in the Islamic Republic are 'out of sync' with the leader's views and that the 'optimism' of some towards the West is 'worrisome.' Ali Saidi also mentioned that 'today we are faced with a government that has divergence and challenges with some issues of the principles and foundations of Imam and leadership.' According to Mr. Saidi, 'The government [of Hassan Rouhani] says we must establish relations with America, and this is not compatible with the principles and foundations that religion has determined for us.'