An incendiary article in the revolutionary newspaper of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran earlier this month threatened the United States, its assets and its allies in the Middle East.
According to a Dec. 11 article titled “Maximum Pressure with a Balance of Horror and Fear,” Kayhan wrote, “Today, following the Imam [Khomeini’s] The only way to counter America's belligerent policy and to deter and isolate the Zionist regime is to apply maximum pressure through a 'balance of terror and fear'.
The Islamic Republic uses the phrase “Zionist regime” in the pejorative sense of the Middle East's only democracy without referring to the Jewish state as Israel.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini was the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader of Iran's clerical regime, uses the Caihan newspaper to express his views and thinking. The Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) was the first to find and translate Kayhan's article from Farsi into English.
Iran's proxies have intensified their attacks on US forces since Tehran's strategic partner Hamas invaded Israel and killed 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, in southern Israel.
In his article, Kayhan boasted that Khomeini developed a strategy of “horror and fear” to fight the West and insisted on attacking American ships in the Persian Gulf. According to Kayhan, Iran “has now developed a powerful, effective and viable deterrence mechanism in the Persian Gulf and international waters, and has forced its will on the Americans.”
A US State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “Calls to terror and fear are abhorrent and dangerous. The United States does not seek conflict with Iran, but as the Biden administration has shown, the United States will do what is necessary to defend itself, its people and its interests from threats emanating from Iran.”
The spokesman added, “In public and private messages to Iran, we have made it clear that it will not escalate or expand the conflict or take advantage of the current situation. And we have a strong presence in the region, including the arrival of two aircraft carrier groups. , any actor in the region – Now is not the time to take advantage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas to expand this conflict — whether it's a nation state or otherwise.”
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