Iran Celebrates Pro-Palestinian Protests Spreading Across US Colleges

Iranian leadership has mobilized its public messaging in staunch support of the pro-Palestinian protest movement sweeping universities across the United States, portraying Washington as hypocritical in its handling of demonstrations at home and abroad amid aggravated geopolitical tensions over the war in the Gaza Strip.

With more than 1,000 people arrested over the course of the last 11 days of demonstrations that have spread to dozens of campuses, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi hailed "the uprising of Western students, professors and elites in support of the oppressed people of Gaza" as "a big event with vast dimensions that cannot be extinguished by beatings, arrests and acts of violence," during a cabinet meeting Sunday.

"Today, thanks to the blessing of pure blood of the oppressed martyrs of Gaza," he added, "the true face of Western civilization has become more and more clear to the people of the world that the claim to support freedom of expression do not adhere to anything other than maintaining their domination."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani also weighed in the following day, telling attendees of a trade exposition in Tehran that "what we have witnessed in American universities in recent days shows the awakening of global society and the world's thoughts regarding the Palestinian issue and the depth of public hatred toward the crimes of the usurping Zionist regime and the genocide supported by America and some European governments."

Kanaani argued that by allowing law enforcement to "deal violently with student demands, the U.S. government has effectively ignored its human rights commitments and adopted double standards," according to the semiofficial Tasnim News Agency.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged of rallies being organized on Iranian campuses in solidarity with U.S. protesters, expressing condemnation of Israel's ongoing offensive against the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza.

The Iranian reactions come shortly after Washington called out Tehran in the latest State Department human rights report published last week.

The report argued that the nation's "already severe restrictions on human rights worsened in a number of areas during the year," and went on to list an array of alleged abuses, including violence and discrimination against women, political repression and arbitrary arrests and executions.

U.S. officials included a section specifically on how "the government severely restricted freedoms of peaceful assembly and association" despite guarantees for such rights enshrined in the Islamic Republic's constitution. The report accused Iranian authorities of responding violently to peaceful gatherings, including those associated with the 2022 wave of demonstrations that erupted after the death of a 22-year-old woman held in police custody over allegedly failing to adhere to the country's mandatory headscarf laws for women.

Newsweek has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Iranian Mission to the United Nations for comment.

Hundreds of protesters were reportedly killed during those nationwide demonstrations in Iran and thousands more arrested. As with a number of previous rounds of widespread protests in Iran, the movement was cheered on by U.S. officials, who criticized Tehran's response.

"There is no doubt that the Iranian regime seeks to mislead its own people and will use any event in the news to fuel that effort," a State Department spokesperson told Newsweek. "Iran's leadership has continued to push the false narrative that the United States instigated the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in Iran."

"Such accusations are false and simply show that the regime is more focused on deflecting blame than listening to the demands of its people," the spokesperson added.

In light of the demonstrations now rocking the U.S., a report issued Sunday by Amwaj.media demonstrated how Iranian media was reacting. Much of Iran's influential conservative elite have rallied behind the double standards narrative, with newspapers such Vatan-e Emrooz and Hamshahri calling out Washington, while a number of reformists have taken a more critical approach, with some journalists openly questioning the ability of Iranians to be able to protest in a similar fashion at home without severe repercussions.

Meanwhile, the war in Gaza continues to aggravate long-simmering tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Shortly after taking office in early 2021, President Joe Biden's administration began a series of multilateral negotiations toward reinstating U.S. participation in a landmark 2015 nuclear deal reached by former President Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice president. The agreement was abandoned under former President Donald Trump who doubled down on sanctions against Iran, largely restricting Tehran's trade ties with the West.

The Islamic Republic has always denied seeking a weapon of mass destruction, but U.S. and Israeli officials remain wary of the nation's nuclear program, through which uranium enrichment has expanded significantly since the U.S. exit from the nuclear accords. Discussions to restore U.S. participation under Biden lasted for around a year and a half but ultimately broke down in late 2022, and the White House has since largely sidelined the effort.

The war in Gaza has only exacerbated frictions between the U.S. and Iran, which praised Hamas' October 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel that sparked the current conflict. Iran has also supported a number of "Axis of Resistance" militias that have conducted attacks on Israel and U.S. troops in the region in the months since the war began.

Rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have fallen off considerably since February, when tensions soared after the U.S. conducted intensive airstrikes against militia positions in Iraq and Syria in response to the deaths of U.S. troops at the Jordan-Syria border. But a new attack last week sparked fresh U.S. condemnation along with concerns over a potential looming escalation.

Iraqi militias aligned with Iran have warned that they would mount a new offensive if U.S. troops were not withdrawn from the country, something the Biden administration has expressed no plans to do thus far. The Syrian government, also a close partner of Tehran, has repeatedly demanded U.S. troops exit as well.

The unprecedented direct exchange of attacks between Israel and Iran that occurred earlier this month following Israel's deadly strike on a consular building attached to Iran's embassy in Damascus has also put the region on edge.

As Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri hailed Iran's role as pillar of Persian Gulf peace at a ceremony on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to the Islamic Republic as "the greatest threat to regional stability and regional security" at a joint meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia.

Update 04/30/2024, 7:12 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comments from a U.S. State Department spokesperson.