Muharram and Biden.
Little things matter in politics and deescalation.
I would tend to have a different reading of this. If Biden sought to send a deescalation message to Iran, he probably would have chosen a topic more exclusive to Iran. In my opinion, it makes sense to view this under the angle of the latest anti-Iran policy adjustments conducted by the US regime under Trump already: namely, the attempt to turn non-Iranian Shia communities against Iran, particularly in the Arab world.
Indeed, following the 2007-2019 period, during which the US regime and its clients essentially banked on takfiri and/or sectarianist anti-Shia groups to bring down the Axis of Resistance, they now appear to be trying to foment opposition to Islamic Iran among the very same Shia communities their terrorist patsies used to target for years. This is mostly done through so-called "civil society" movements such as the foreign-funded and -backed protests we witnessed in Iraq and Lebanon as of late, which have been marked by a clearly anti-Iranian tinge. To this end, the enemy's narrative-building revolves around two main pillars:
1) Blaming on Iran every hardship and destruction caused directly or indirectly by the zio-American empire and its destructive, warmongering policies. Here, the short attention span and reduced memory of the "Twitter" newsfeed generation comes in handy.
2) Misrepresent Iranian policy as motivated by chauvinistic, exploitative, imperialist goals. In short, try and suggest that Iran is attempting to "revive the Persian empire" by subjugating its neighbors, when in reality what Iran does is to enter partnerships with on equal footing, with the aim of boosting Resistance against illegitimate foreign occupiers. So the enemy is increasingly playing the "Arab vs Iranian" card, feeding anti-Iranian strains of Arab nationalism. While simultaneously trying to delegitimize the Islamic Republic in the eyes of islamists, by falsely suggesting that the IR is a nationalist state dissimulating its "true nature" behind an Islamic veil.
This "tweet" by Biden is primarily directed at Shia Muslims outside Iran and seeks to convey the notion that the geopolitics of Shia Islam needn't be centered around Iran. That the US can be as much a "friend" to Shia communities as Iran. Likewise, there may be a globalist, Noahide kind of undertone to it, when Biden appears to dilute Shia Islamic values and rites in some sort of an ecumenism.
Āghāye Tahlilgar offers a pretty good analysis on the subject:
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Concerning the foregoing discussion about Seyyed Raisi's nomination of Mohammad Mokhber as his first Vice President, here's the latter's resume to date:
- Creation of a million jobs in rural and deprived areas of the country.
- Establishment of the largest ethane extraction plant of Iran.
- Construction of 2100 schools.
- Construction of 1700 mosques and cultural centers.
- Participation in the creation of 45000 residential units for low income households.
- Construction of 12 hospitals and 250 healthcare centers in deprived areas.
- Launching of the largest mobile hospital of Iran with 110 beds on an area of 3000 square meters.
- Distribution of 12 million welfare and healthcare packages in deprived areas during the corona crisis.
- Distribution of 1 million packages of stationery in deprived areas.
- Procuring and supplying tens of thousands of wheelchairs to handicapped citizens.
- Treatment of 13000 infertile couples.
- Providing cochlear implants to 5000 hearing impaired children.
- Arranging for the liberation of over 3000 prisoners.
And more...
As Āghāye Tahlilgar says, considering the position held by Mokhber as of late (Chief of the Headquarters for the Execution of the Imam's Order), it represents a better record than 8 years of activity by the likes of Rohani, Jahangiri and so on.
This said, the Vice President ought to publicly address two points for which he has been criticized. First, why the announced production goal of the Barekat vaccine was not met, as mentioned by PeeD. And second, reports that his son has served as a CEO in several companies. Note that his daughter however was one of the first persons to participate in the Iranian Covid-19 vaccine trials.
I'm not in the know of the actual replies to these questions, but as far the Barekat issue is concerned, maybe a project of this scale can escape the authority of a single person, meaning that even if he delivered the best managerial performance possible, some other institution or office involved may have caused the delay without Mokhber being able to prevent it, depending on how the decision-making hierarchy and process is structured in this particular domain. Who knows.
At any rate, he also scored numerous achievements, Barekat production delay notwithstanding. So at worst, his overall record has been balanced.
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In order to evaluate the nominees to President Raisi's cabinet, the proposed list of Ministers is of greater import than the Vice Presidents. Some names amongst these I was admittedly not familiar with, but it would appear that officials from the Ahmadinejad era are prominently represented!
Choices such as Hossein Amir Abdollāhiān at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - as much as Iran's enemies are going to hate this, I am certainly enjoying it to no end!, Ahmad Vahidi at the Ministry of the Interior, Ezzatollāh Zarghāmi at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Rostam Ghāsemi at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development etc are good ones.
Let's hope Said Mohammad will be nominated Special Governor of Sistān-Baluchestān province, as per Āghāye Tahlilgar's hypothesis. As Special Governor (distinct from a regular provincial Governor), he would be present routinely at cabinet meetings.
