MIDDLE EAST, NORTH AFRICA Supreme Leader: Do Not Let the Enemy Dominate Cyberspace

OE Watch Commentary: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei considers the 1979 Islamic Revolution not only a political revolution but also a cultural one. In the accompanying excerpt, the Iranian cyber issue news portal Gerdab.ir provides coverage of Khamenei’s remarks delivered before the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body whose main job is to select a new supreme leader upon the incapacitation or death of the sitting leader. Khamenei began his remarks expressing condolences on the deaths of the late Expediency Council Chairman Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi and Guardian Council member Ayatollah Mohammad Danesh Zadeh Qomi Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei meets with Iran’s Assembly of Experts on 14 March 2019. (Momen) within the previous three months, a move Source: Gerdab.ir, https://gerdab.ir/files/fa/news/1397/12/25/41546_312.jpg which highlights the aging of the clerical generation who “The enemy’s maximum attack requires maximum led Iran’s Islamic Revolution. His public meeting with the Assembly of Experts likewise focuses attention--probably mobilization on our part.” purposely--on the 79-year-old Khamenei’s own mortality and his hopes for a smooth transition following his death. In his remarks, Khamenei uses rhetoric that parallels past Sunni extremists like Abdullah ‘Azzam (Al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden’s mentor), and argues that Western culture is an element of ‘soft warfare’ which must be defended against with the same ferocity as more traditional military strategies. Here, he singles out cyberspace as a main field of battle. While he does not address Iran’s own cyber warfare capabilities, he does argue that the Islamic Republic must strictly control the cyber domain to prevent its use by Western powers to reach Iranian youth. Indeed, he argues that not only does Iran face a challenge from the United States and “the Zionists,” but also by Europeans and the West more broadly. Such hostility toward Europe suggests that Iranian diplomatic efforts to divide the United States and Europe are tactical and that Iranian diplomatic outreach to European states is limited to business but insincere regarding political reform. Nationalist sentiment remains high in Iran, even among those who are not particularly sympathetic to clerical rule. Khamenei’s suggestion that Western powers have laid cultural siege to Iran likely seeks to tap into this sentiment. However, 40 years of frustration with clerical authorities and widespread sentiment among ordinary Iranians that Iranian and Western liberalism are not mutually exclusive, will limit the resonance of his message. Still, the notion of besiegement and the need to wage a cultural battle provides a useful insight into Khamenei’s mentality. Khamenei intersperses his speech with quotations from the Quran. Of those included with the excerpt, the first—Sura [chapter] 60—is nicknamed “Mumtahanah” [“Examining Her”] and warns Muslims not to make enemies with God and discusses the story of Abraham. The second, Sura 20, is nicknamed “Ta Ha” after its first two letters in Arabic and discusses the story of Moses.End OE Watch Commentary (Rubin) Source: “Nagazarid Doshman bar Fazai’ye Mojazi va Farhangi Kahvar Mosalet Shavad (Do not let the enemy dominate the cyberspace and culture of the country),” Gerdab.ir, 16 March 2019. https://gerdab.ir/fa/news/28369

Do Not Let the Enemy Dominate Cyberspace …Well, let’s speak again of another issue: Delineating the enemy to protect against a soft invasion. It is one of the most important things necessary to do… When the border is not clear, the enemy can penetrate, cripple, manipulate, can dominate cyberspace. If the border is clear to the enemy, his domination of cyberspace will not be easy in such a cultural environment. This is also an issue which the verse [Qur. 60:1] points out: “O you who have believed, do not take My enemies and your enemies as allies, extending to them affection while they have disbelieved in what came to you of the truth.” God Almighty forbids that we deal with the enemy in this way. This is also a point…. I’ll end with two points: First, the enemy’s maximum attack requires maximum mobilization on our part. Today, the invasion of the enemy is maximized, that is, they use all their facilities and capabilities. First of all, the Americans and on the margins below, the Zionists, that is, the Zionist regime and, alongside them, are the Westerners and all of the Europeans…. Americans have repeatedly said that the sanctions we imposed against Iran are the most severe sanctions in history. They are right. At one point, I have also said that the failure the United States will face in this case will be the hardest failure for the United States, God-willing. If we are, God-willing, correct and we move correctly, we will move forward. So, one point is that before a maximum offensive, it is necessary to have a maximum mobilization. The second point is that the basis of work is the divine citation: “Do not slacken in My remembrance.” [Qur. 20:42].

OE Watch | May 2019 37