The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) published an announcement on May 14, 2018, condemning the transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. In the statement, it leveled criticism at President Donald Trump and the harm done to Palestinians during the Nakba Day protests:

These dark intrigues will strengthen the unity of the Muslims and lead to the fulfillment of the promise to put an end to the regime that has occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The IRGC continued:

This shameful and diabolical move by the president of the inhuman U.S. regime of transferring the embassy to Jerusalem [Bait al-Maqdis in the original] and officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Zionist regime is an insult to the first prayer [the first Qibla, prayed in the direction of the al-Aqsa mosque] and its sacred importance to Muslims and the Islamic nation. This will not strengthen the shaky foundations on which the Zionist entity rests and will not guarantee the safety of the Zionist occupiers…. [Transferring the embassy] will cause a new wave of conflict against America and rage and hatred toward those who support this shameless step even beyond the region…. This step is a new level in the crises and tensions surrounding the White House’s policy and strategy and will be a nightmare for the Zionists, who will not have any refuge apart from living in shelters.

The notice, which expresses the “Islamic Resistance Front’s” support for the Palestinians, stresses that the Palestinian uprising (intifada) will show the Americans and anyone else who supports this step that “the expulsion of the occupiers and their supporters from the region and the international scene, and especially the leaders of the White House, is the true vision of Jerusalem.” The Revolutionary Guards ended with a warning that the Islamic nation and the “resistance front” (Iran, Syria, and the terror organizations under the patronage of Iran) “will react to this insult to Muslims.”¹

At the same time, the “Justice-Seeking Student Movement” offered a reward of $100,000 to anyone who will blow up the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Written on the students’ news agency’s website, the reward is offered in response to “the transfer of the embassy to the holy al-Quds [Jerusalem]…. Trump’s action has led to rage and hatred from the Muslims and the seekers of freedom in the world.”²

During the last week of the month of Ramadan, on June 8, 2018, Iran will mark “international Jerusalem Day.” Every year on this day, calls to destroy Israel and “death to America” are heard. The Jerusalem issue, which is the only common denominator between Iran and the Arab and Muslim world, will continue to be the main channel through which Iran will attempt to gain support in the region from the leaders of Arab regimes. The connection between Jerusalem and the United States and the U.S. decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal are both very loaded issues that reinforce the claims of the conservative camp in Iran, intensify the tension inside Iran between the various streams, and impede the attempts of the Iran’s president and foreign ministry to salvage the nuclear deal.

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Notes