TEHRAN -- Iranians have staged nationwide rallies to mark the 12th anniversary of huge demonstrations held across the country in support of the Islamic establishment.
The demonstrators, from various social strata, took to the streets in the capital Tehran and other cities on Thursday, carrying placards and chanting slogans in solidarity with the Islamic establishment.
The event commemorated the 12th anniversary of the 2009 pro-establishment rallies on the ninth of the Persian calendar month of Dey, which falls on December 30.
The nationwide demonstrations have since been lauded as Dey 9 epic.
The million-strong 2009 rallies restored tranquility to the country after months of political wrangling and foreign-backed riots, and ended the sedition ensuing the presidential election in June that year.
During the riots, a group of demonstrators offended the sanctities of the Iranian people on the day of Ashura, which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam and grandson of Prophet Muhammad (Peace upon Him).
The unrest was orchestrated by two of the presidential candidates who had lost the election, claiming that the results had been rigged. Both remain under house arrest on charges of provoking the public and harming the national security.
Addressing the rallies in Tehran, representative of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Abdollah Haji-Sadeqi said the “darkness induced by the sedition failed to make people confused about the realities.”
He said by taking part in post-election demonstrations in support of the Islamic establishment, people “put the last nail in the coffin of a sedition whose master plan was made in more than a decade and even its name had been mentioned by one of the U.S. senators during a session of Senate four years earlier.”
“The Islamic Revolution is no more limited to Iran. It has conquered key bunkers of the world and the enemy is going downhill toward its final defeat. The Zionist regime is erecting a wall around itself and thinks of ways that would help it survive. An enemy, which once was dealing with Palestinians’ stone, is now unable to head off their missiles,” he added.