The Repeat of October 7 — This Time with More Power!*

“10 Mehr” Group, April 17, 2024 — After several months of “strategic patience,” the Islamic Republic of Iran gave a knockdown response to the illegal and criminal aggression of the Zionist regime of Israel and showed that its silence until this moment was not due to weakness but inspired by a well-thought-out policy to advancing a long-term asymmetric war while preventing Israel from achieving the goal of expanding the war in the region.

The heroic action of the IRGC, army, and other Iranian military forces on April 14, 2024, which was merely a legal defensive military action against foreign aggression, brought the liberation movement of the people of the region into a qualitatively new stage. If the heroic movement of the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023, showed that the peoples of the region were ready to directly confront the invaders of their lands, Iran’s military operation on April 14 showed the world that now the people of the region are not only ready, but also have military strength and have acquired what is necessary to defend themselves against foreign aggression. It was the first time, in decades, that the myth of the impenetrability of Israel’s defense system was shattered by a regional power, and despite all the military and satellite protection by the US and its other NATO and regional allies, Israeli military bases within its illegal borders were hit by Iran’s drones and long-range missiles.

With this operation, Iran breathed a new spirit into the bodies of the liberation fighters of the region and their allies in the world. The people of Gaza celebrated the flight of Iranian missiles over the sky of their land. The “Peopular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” announced in a statement: “Iran’s unprecedented attacks, the first of its kind in history against the Zionist regime, are an important turning point in the battle of Al-Aqsa storm and in favor of the resistance factions…”. And Scott Ritter, an American military expert and political activist who defends peace, said: “With this, Iran showed its deterrence superiority… Israel thought it could attack Iran and not suffer any consequences…. Not so anymore.”

The heroic actions of Iranian armed forces showed that Iran is no longer the same Iran, Israel is no longer the same Israel, and the world is no longer the unipolar world under the domination of the imperialist bully.

But apart from this important achievement of Iran, the dangers caused by the new situation should not and cannot be ignored, especially in terms of the country’s internal security. Although — due to the conflict in Ukraine and the focus on confronting China regarding Taiwan, on the one hand, and the risk of cutting off oil exports from the region, on the other hand — the United States and NATO are currently unwilling to expand the war at the regional level, and  are trying to dissuade Netanyahu from taking another crazy action like as the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, this in no way means that the threats against Iran have decreased. According to General David Petraeus, the former head of the “CIA”: Although “the United States would like any retaliatory attack by Israel to be limited…. Israel can carry out a covert attack” and “follow asymmetric attacks and so on.”

Thus, Iran and the region are currently facing two serious dangers: first, Netanyahu’s renewed madness and his disobedience to the American will to prevent the regionalization of the war; and second, the escalation of “covert and asymmetric attacks” by Israel, the US, and their supporters inside Iran aimed at creating dangerous difficulties for the country’s internal security. Regarding the first case, we have no doubt that the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran have made the necessary calculations in advance and have the necessary preparations for any possible incident. But in relation to the second case, the issue is much more complicated. The enemy can easily use existing grievances, the disastrous economic situation of workers and other hard-working toilers, the buried anger caused by unreasonable and illegal repressions, the gaps caused by narrow-minded and unnecessary cultural and social polarizations, and even the presence of supporters of the West within government institutions, to create insecurity inside the country, and even move towards fueling separatist actions in Iran’s border areas.

In the “Political Platform of 10 Mehr Group for the Current Stage of the Struggle,” which was published in the month of February 2024, we warned about these dangers, which, in our opinion are the Achilles heel of the Islamic Republic of Iran in this process of resistance against the US domination and the crimes of its puppet regime,  and we find it necessary to repeat this warning once again:

The problem facing the State of the Islamic Republic of Iran today is the fact that the millions of toilers whose support is the only guarantee for the country’s internal security and the success of its pro-East policy are the very same people who have witnessed the destruction of their welfare, livelihoods, and fundamental rights due to the unscrupulous privatizations by neoliberal economic policy; severe economic exploitation; and the suppression of their legitimate protests over the decades. And as we have witnessed in recent months and years, the imperialist powers have used every opportunity to re-direct this accumulated and rightful anger to toward the destabilization of the country. And this is the most important danger that threatens the security and territorial integrity of our country today — a danger that no military and/or security capability can neutralize by itself. Thus, it can be said that today the internal threat to Iran’s national security is more serious than the external one….

And have emphasized that internal security cannot be ensured by using repressive methods because:

Today, the United States and its allies are pursuing the policy of promoting a vicious cycle of intensified protests and increased repression within the country to the point that the protesting dissidents end up begging the U.S. and the West to intervene as “defenders of democracy and human rights” to save them from their desperate situation….

Under such circumstances, the ant-U.S. faction that looks to the East faces an inevitable choice: either continue the internal neoliberal economic status quo and intensify suppression of legitimate protests; or understand the current critical situation and take practical measures to regain the trust of a large part of the masses … and carry out a serious, practical, and swift fulfillment of the needs and demands that were suppressed over the past four decades. This is a choice that will shape the future of our homeland in the context of the present global battle.

Now, with Iran and the region entering a qualitatively new stage, concerns about the enemies’ exploitation of internal fissures have intensified. In such a situation, any action that helps to widen the existing social and economic divisions and helps to polarize the society even more than before can only serve the goals of the enemies of our country. It is hoped that the authorities of the Islamic Republic will be able to ensure the internal security of the country as well as its external security by properly dealing with the existing fissures, and thus closing the door to the current and future conspiracies of the enemies of our country. This also requires taking decisive actions in the domestic arena, just like the decisive actions that were taken internationally.

April 17, 2024

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* Translated from Farsi text.