The initial response in Tehran to the September 9, 2011 takeover of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo by protestors was typified by satisfaction, support, and praise for the takeover and for the Egyptian people, and by claiming that the incident drew its inspiration from the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian students. Also expressed was satisfaction that the Egyptian people itself was calling the shots and acting against Israel, and there were also calls for other Muslim states to immediately close Israeli diplomatic representations on their soil – before their peoples did so violently. It was also hinted that the masses in Muslim countries would soon be acting likewise against embassies of states supporting Israel.
The incident was depicted in Tehran as a turning point in Egypt-Israel relations, following which the Egyptian leadership would be forced to comply with the demands of the people and rescind the Camp David Accords. Two top Iranian officials also expressed their hopes that the Zionist regime would be destroyed.
Basij Commander: The 1979 Takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran Inspired the Incident
Basij commander Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi praised the Egyptian people for the attack on the embassy, and said that it had been inspired by the Iranian takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran over in 1979. Naqdi warned Israel that if it returned its diplomats to Cairo after the incident, they would be taken captive by Egyptians. He added that the incident proved the fundamental anti-Zionist nature of the Egyptian revolution.
Naqdi called on the Turkish authorities to learn a lesson from the takeover of the embassy in Cairo and to shut the Israeli Embassy in Ankara before the Turkish people itself did so.[1] He called on the governments of the world, especially of the Islamic states, to close Israel's embassies in their countries before their peoples do what the Egyptian people did and "take a final decision regarding the extermination of this racist regime."[2]
The Society for the Defense of the Palestinian People, headed by Hossein Sheikh Al-Islam, advisor to Majlis speaker Ali Larijani, congratulated the Egyptian people for its takeover of the embassy, praised this revolutionary measure, and expressed hope that the move would herald additional operations by more peoples in the region that would lead to the destruction of Israel: "If only the Arab and Islamic fervor of the other nations would take the lead of the revolutionary and Islamic Muslims, so that a comprehensive effort will be launched to remove the cancerous growth and the corrupt germ [that is] Israel from the region."[3]
Mohammad-Reza Kashefi, a student Basij council member at Tehran University, predicted that the embassies of other countries supporting Israel would also fall at the hands of the Muslim peoples.[4]
The Takeover – A Turning Point in Egypt-Israel Relations That Will Lead to the Rescinding of the Peace Agreement
Ali Akbar Velayati, advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told the Iranian news agency ISNA that the storming of the embassy was an important milestone marking the anticipated wane of the relations between the two countries: "The Egyptian youth movement's attack on the embassy of the Zionist regime in Egypt is as important as the Camp David [Accords] – but in the opposite direction."[5]
In an interview with the Iran Diplomacy website, Iranian diplomat Hossein Royvaran called the incident a turning point in Egypt-Israel relations, adding that the number of demonstrators in front of the Israeli Embassy in Egypt had "topped even [the number of demonstrators at] Tahrir Square." He said that after the takeover of the embassy, the Egyptian authorities could no longer ignore the will of the Egyptian people, which was demanding that the Camp David Accords be amended or revoked.[6]
An article in the Jam-e Jam daily stated that the embassy takeover was part of the young Egyptians' struggle for independence and of their "confrontation with the plots devised against their revolution." The article added, "With this move, the Egyptian people, which since the beginning of its rebellion has stressed that some of its fundamental demands are distancing from the Zionist regime and drawing closer to the resistance, has pounded the final nail in the coffin of the Zionists in its land – thus taking another step towards the rescinding of the Camp David Accords."[7]
An article in the moderate-conservative daily Ebtekar likewise concluded from the takeover of the embassy that the majority of the Egyptian people wanted the Camp David Accords rescinded.[8]
Cartoons on the Fars News Agency Website
In a September 11, 2011 cartoon on its website, the Fars news agency, which is close to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), showed the Egyptian eagle expelling the Israeli mouse. Another, on September 12, showed the Israeli mouse caught in the Egyptian trap outside its hole, labeled "Israeli Embassy."[9]
Endnotes:
[1] Tehran praised Ankara for expelling the Israeli ambassador over Israel's refusal to apologize for killing nine activists on the Turkey-based Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in May 2010. It should be noted that new tensions are currently souring the "spring" in Tehran-Ankara relations, following reports that Turkey has reached an agreement with NATO on conditions for deploying Western radar systems on its soil.
[2] Kayhan (Iran), September 11, 2011; Fars (Iran), September 10, 2011. Esmail Kowsari, deputy chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that, at an extraordinary session held September 10, 2011, his fellow Majlis members expressed full support for the ransacking of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo. Press TV, Iran, September 12, 2011.
[3] ISNA (Iran), September 11, 2011. Majlis National Security Committee chairman Ala Al-Din Boroujerdi also called on the Muslim countries to sever relations with Israel, saying: "The occupation of the embassy of the Zionist regime in Cairo is not only an important message to the U.S. and Israel, but also to the Muslim countries, and they must sever their relations with the Zionists before their peoples go into action and take over the embassies of the Zionist regime." Resalat, Iran, September 12, 2011.
[4] Fars (Iran), September 11, 2011
[5] ISNA (Iran), September 12, 2011. On another occasion, he said: "The seizure of the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday marked a turning point in the contemporary history of Islam and the world... This great incident… indicates that the uprisings taking place in Muslim countries are Islamic in nature... Hopefully, Muslims will be able to revive the glory of ancient Islam through the wave of Islamic awakening [sweeping] across the region." Mehr (Iran), September 11, 2011.
[6] Irdiplomacy.ir (Iran), September 10, 2011
[7] Jam-e Jam (Iran), September 12, 2011
[8] Ebtekar (Iran), September 11, 2011
