• Near East.The Iraqi Parliament approves the expulsion of US troops
  • Near East, US bases and refineries, Iranian objective

A little over a month ago the city of Ahvaz and the entire province of Juzestán, of Arab majority, with a low standard of living and shaken by separatist conats, were the focus of large and violent anti-government protests. Dozens died, many at the hands of volunteers from the Revolutionary Guard of Iran , whose wing of foreign operations was led by the assassinated general Qassem Soleimani. But yesterday, a crowd immensely larger than the protesters of yesteryear flooded the streets to receive the coffin of the 'martyr'.

The same images of massive marches and rigorous mourning, barely seen since the burial of the leader of the Ruhola Khomeini Revolution in 1989, were reproduced in the holy city of Mashad, which subsequently received the remains of Soleimani. This Monday will be Tehran who does it. The city council prepared the tribute yesterday - the general will be buried in his native Kerman - installing tents on the streets where, following tradition, tea and sweets are served to the congregated to mourn the dead. In the central Vali Asr square a large banner was erected that read: "Your blood challenges any adversary."

On the eve of another monumental show of support for the most popular character in the Iranian establishment , the activity at Mahdi's exchange office was frantic . "There are many trying to get dollars, fearing something will happen that shakes the economy," the money exchanger told this newspaper. "But as fast as the rial can be devalued, the trend can also be reversed. I think the government is not looking for a war, but we are among allied. Trump has made good those who killed Iranians ."

Such has been the effect of Donald Trump's decision that, according to the American press, he took against the recommendation of some of his advisors and, of all the options presented to respond to what the US perceived as a threat to his interests in Iraq, The most extreme. Its effect within Iran, whose society, deeply nationalistic, is galvanized by an intense rejection of foreign interventionism , is to close ranks between factions, even antagonistic, to the perception of an external threat.

In the early morning of yesterday, Trump caused a twist to this feeling by announcing, in a tweet, that he had drawn up a list of 52 targets to attack within Iran , one for each hostage kidnapped in the US embassy taking in Tehran 1989. The President said that some of these sites "were of a very high standard and very important for Iran and for Iranian culture," a statement that was interpreted as a direct threat from Washington to the historical heritage of the Iranians.

Quickly, social networks such as Twitter were flooded with messages from Iranians, many of them in exile, blaming the US for pretending to commit what is typified by the Geneva convention as a "war crime." Trump again united many Iranians against him. Images of the monuments and favorite places of a country widely listed by Unesco accompanied the complaints of users who came to compare Trump with the Islamic State or the Taliban.

Iran has renounced all its commitments to the 2015 nuclear agreement this Sunday. Tehran will not impose the uranium enrichment limitations stipulated therein , although it is willing to continue cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Organization and to reverse its decision if the US Suspend all sanctions. The announcement was previously planned as a fifth step of a phased plan, but circumstances seem to have conditioned it, raising its terms.

The current crisis has its origin in the decision of Donald Trump, in 2018, to withdraw from the atomic pact, reimpose sanctions and force the rest of the countries to comply with them . Although the rest of the signatories, such as the European Union, expressed their dissatisfaction, Iran has repeatedly accused Brussels of failing to comply with its commitment to the text, which prevented Iranian access to the atomic weapon in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. Last May, in response, Iran began to give up its commitments.

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  • Iran
  • Donald Trump
  • European Union
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  • Islamic State

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