Afghan expats decry anti-Iran protests
Thousands of Afghan nationals residing in Iran have taken to the streets of a northwestern city to decry the “suspicious” anti-Tehran protests in Afghanistan as an “enemy plot.”
Protesters hailed the solidarity between Iran and Afghanistan on Saturday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Shouting slogans like “The enemy’s plot is to sow discord” and “Muslims, stay vigilant!” and carrying banners reading “Viva Iran and Afghanistan,” the crowd proceeded through the streets of Mashhad, the capital of Khorasan Razavi Province.
One Afghan figure delivering a speech at the event, condemned the latest move as “anti-Islam,” saying, “Those who gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul and insulted Iranian officials and the Islamic Republic’s flag, which bears the pure name of ‘Allah,’ were provoked and deceived by the global arrogance.”
On January 13, a group consisting of less than 50 Afghan nationals chanted insulting slogans against the Islamic Republic of Iran based on the allegation that Iran had delayed the transit of fuel trucks to Afghanistan.
Western media launched propaganda against Iran by trying to harm Iran’s popularity in Afghanistan and undermining its efforts in reconstruction of Afghanistan.
“The Afghan expatriate are gathering today in Mashhad, Tehran and Qom it is their Islamic duty [to do so], in the face of unfair desecration of the Holy Qur’an by the Americans,” said Hojjatoleslam Seyyed Isa Hosseini Mazari, who heads a religious information website, Tebyan.
“Attacking and insulting the Holy Qur’an is not the only crime of the US forces in Afghanistan and probably will not be ther last,” he added.
Protesters issued a joint statement at the end of the demonstration in which they said that the global arrogance “has adapted a new scenario with the aim of sowing discord between Iran and Afghanistan.”
The statement also said that all “Afghan woes” are the outcome of the 2001 US-led invasion of the country.
The demonstrations came a day after hundreds of Afghan nationals gathered in front of the UNHCR office in Tehran to protest the anti-Iranian insults made by a few Afghans in Kabul.
