Millions of Iranians turn out to defy Trump 'bullying'

Tehran: Iranians streamed into streets across Iran marking the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution amid the new US administration's stepped-up anti-Iran rhetoric.  

Millions of people, men, women, young and old came out to join annual rallies across the country to mark the triumph of revolution that ended the monarchical rule of the US-backed Pahlavi regime on Bahman 22 (the date on the Persian calendar coinciding with the anniversary of the February 11, 1979 Islamic Revolution). The anniversary of the Islamic Revolution falls on February 10 this year.

The revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, established a new political system based on religious democracy.

This year's rallies were held amid ratcheting up of pressure and tough talk against the Islamic republic by the administration of new US President Donald Trump has been .

In the capital Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani addressed demonstrators at Azadi Square, preceded by celebratory parachuting and aerobatics. Senior officials also joined the marches in Tehran.

'Bullies will regret threatening Iranian nation'

"This turnout is a response to false remarks of the new White House rulers and the people are telling the world through their presence that the Iranian people must be spoken to with respect and dignity," President Rouhani told the rally at Azadi Square.

"The Iranian nation has shown during the past 38 years that it will make anyone who speaks to Iranians with the language of threats regret it," the president added.  

Both in the region and the US, some inexperienced figures have taken over the helm, said Rouhani, warning that "all should now they have to speak with the language of respect and praise in front of the Iranian nation."

"The nation will respond incisively in the face of threats.... The one, who proceeds to threaten our nation and Armed Forces, should know that our nation is united and vigilant, and will stand up to ill-wishers," he added.

"The whole world has accepted our nuclear right," he said. "Today, we are happy to see our nuclear industry offering its products to the international community and moving towards the path of international trade," Rouhani said.

The country now possesses one of the most modern centrifuges at its nuclear facilities, namely IR-8 centrifuge, Rouhani noted.

The Iranian president further praised the country for producing close to three million barrels of oil and condensates over the past year, up by 2.3 percent during the previous year.

He said Iran also managed to repatriate $1.7 billion of its assets frozen in American banks and taken legal proceedings at The Hague to take back more, Rouhani said.

"Our legal experts, politicians, and diplomats will not yield until they have restored the country's rights." 

Final communique 

The demonstrators, in a communique issued at the end of the Friday rallies, stressed that the US remained Iran's "enemy number one" and that the Islamic Republic's security was "non-negotiable." 

The statement said the Iranian nation regarded its "missile power" the symbol of its "deterrence power," a guarantee for its national security, and its "defensive red line." 

It also stressed continued work to strengthen Iran's defensive and missile power as a right of the Iranian nation under international law and the United Nations Charter and the rejection of any interference in that regard. 

The statement also urged vigilance against enemy plots and called on the administration to take action to foil such schemes.

This year's rallies are of higher significance and look set to be one of Iran's biggest as they coincide with a political maelstrom in Washington kicked up by US President Donald Trump and his political point men against Tehran.

In a move which sparked widespread censure, the new US president signed a sweeping executive order on January 27 to ban citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, from traveling to the US.

On February 3, the Trump administration also imposed new sanctions on Iran over a recent missile test, claiming that the missile launch violated UN Resolution 2231 that endorsed the July 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US.

Throughout the US presidential campaign, Trump also criticized the administration of Barack Obama for being "too soft" on Iran, promising to "rip up" Iran's nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iranian officials have rejected and condemned the recent anti-Iran threats by the new US administration.  

On Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the Iranian people would be responding to Trump's anti-Iran threats on the upcoming anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  

"Trump says, 'Fear me!' No. The [Iranian] people will respond to these remarks on Bahman 22 and will show what position the Iranian people assume vis-a-vis threats," the Leader said in a meeting with a number of commanders, officers, pilots, and staff members from Iran's Air Force and the country's Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base