Iranians mark 2009 pro-establishment rallies

Millions of Iranians have poured on the streets across the country to commemorate the seventh anniversary of mass rallies held n December 30, 2009 to protect the Islamic Republic. 

People rallied in various cities, including the capital Tehran, on Thursday to celebrate “Dey 9 epic” which restored tranquility to the nation after months of political wrangling and unrest that had ensued the presidential election in June of the same year.

Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei described the event as the true manifestation of the nation’s and the Islamic establishment’s political progress.

“Such a glorious and matchless demonstration was a shot at the heart of the United States, Israel and enemies of the Islamic establishment,” he said in a speech in the central city of Yazd .

“Enemies were seeking to pit political parties against each other and accomplish their vicious plots against the establishment and our sacred Islamic Revolution but they failed,” he added.

On December 30, 2009, millions of people took to the streets in Tehran and several other major cities and condemned the foreign-orchestrated unrest, which erupted following the 2009 presidential poll.

Protesters also sought to vent their anger at the incidents that had taken place days earlier in Tehran, where a group of demonstrators offended the sanctities of the Iranian people on the day of Ashura, which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (PBUH), the third Shia Imam and grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The unrest was orchestrated by Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Musavi, two of the candidates who had lost the election, claiming that the results had been rigged. Both remain under house arrest on charges of provoking the public and harming the national security.