DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran faces a brand new spherical of protests difficult the nation’s theocracy, nevertheless it looks as if the one factor folks there wish to discuss is half a world away: Venezuela.
Because the U.S. navy seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran, over the weekend, Iranian state media headlines and officers have condemned the operation. Within the streets and even in some official conversations, nonetheless, there is a rising query over whether or not an analogous mission may goal the Islamic Republic’s prime officers together with the supreme chief, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The paranoia feeds into wider worries amongst Iranians. Many worry that shut U.S. ally Israel will goal Iran once more because it did throughout the 12-day conflict it launched towards Tehran in June. Israel killed a slew of prime navy officers and nuclear scientists, and the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear enrichment websites. Khamenei is believed to have gone into hiding for his safety.
“God bless our chief, we must be cautious too,” mentioned Saeed Seyyedi, a 57-year-old instructor in Tehran, frightened the U.S. may act because it did in Venezuela.
“The U.S. has at all times been after plots towards Iran, particularly when points like oil, Israel are a part of the case. As well as, it may be sophisticated when it’s blended with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Lebanese (group) Hezbollah and drug accusations.”
The U.S. lengthy has accused the Iranian-backed Hezbollah of operating drug-smuggling operations to fund its operations, together with in Latin America, which the group denies.
Instantly after Maduro’s seizure, an analyst on Iranian state tv claimed, with out providing proof, that the U.S. and Israel had plans throughout the conflict final yr to kidnap Iranian officers with a crew of dual-national Iranians. Even for conspiracy-minded Iranian tv, airing such a declare is uncommon.
Then on Sunday evening, the distinguished Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Javedan warned an viewers at prayers in Tehran College that Khamenei’s life was in peril.
“Somebody mentioned he had a nasty dream that the chief’s life is in peril,” Javedan mentioned, with out elaborating. “Please pray.”
Nonetheless, Iran is roughly twice the dimensions of Venezuela and has what analysts take into account to be a a lot stronger navy and sturdy safety forces. The reminiscence of Operation Eagle Claw, a failed U.S. particular forces mission to rescue hostages held after the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran, additionally haunts Washington.
Then there’s the political scenario in Iran, with its theocracy protected by hard-liners throughout the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, who reply solely to Khamenei. They may launch assassinations, cyberattacks and assaults on delivery within the Mideast, warned Farzin Nadimi, senior fellow on the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage who research Iran’s navy.
And crucially, Iran additionally nonetheless has fissile nuclear materials.
“Within the grand-strategy scheme of issues, they want to consider the day after,” Nadimi mentioned of anybody contemplating a Venezuela-style raid. “Iran is a way more complicated political scenario. They need to calculate the prices and advantages.”
Others marvel what a part of the world the U.S. would possibly take curiosity in subsequent, whereas critics have warned about setting a harmful precedent.
“The regime in Iran ought to pay shut consideration to what’s taking place in Venezuela,” Israeli opposition chief Yair Lapid posted on social media on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t immediately hyperlink Maduro’s detention to Iran however acknowledged the protests sweeping Tehran and different cities, saying: “It is extremely doable that we’re standing for the time being when the Iranian individuals are taking their destiny into their very own palms.”
Hours earlier than the U.S. motion in Venezuela, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran that if Tehran “violently kills peaceable protesters” the U.S. “will come to their rescue.”
On Monday, Iranian International Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei denounced the feedback by Trump and Netanyahu as an “incitement to violence, terrorism and killing.”
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican who had been near Trump however resigned Monday after a falling-out with the president, immediately linked the Venezuela operation to Iran.
“The subsequent apparent remark is that by eradicating Maduro it is a clear transfer for management over Venezuelan oil provides that can guarantee stability for the following apparent regime change conflict in Iran,” Greene wrote on social media.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican, placed on a “Make Iran Nice Once more” hat throughout a Sunday phase on Fox Information. He later posted a picture displaying him and Trump smiling after the president autographed a similar-looking hat.
“I pray and hope that 2026 would be the yr that we make Iran nice once more,” Graham mentioned.
Even Saudi Arabia, Iran’s longtime rival that reached a Chinese language-mediated détente with Tehran in 2023, gave the impression to be interested by a doable U.S. intervention in Tehran.
“By dragging Maduro earlier than a U.S. courtroom, Trump despatched a message extra brutal than the huge bombs his plane dropped on Iran’s nuclear amenities,” Ghassan Charbel, editor-in-chief of the Saudi-owned, London-published Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, wrote Sunday.
“How devastating it have to be for Iran’s supreme chief to listen to of Maduro’s abduction by the hands of American forces.”
