Iran insists that the riots, which lasted four days from August 6-9, were peaceful protests by citizens angry at the ruling monarchy.
Brig. Gen. Masud Jazayeri, the spokesman for the armed forces, continued that theme last week.
“The [British] ruling regime is not able to resist the people’s will and demands. People have the right to subvert a system they do not favor,” he said, without seeming to recognize the implications of those words for the Islamic Republic.
Jazayeri described the British monarchial ruling system as “decayed and outdated.”
The general predicted that what he described as an “uprising” would roll across Britain, spread soon to other Western nations and eventually lead to the complete collapse of “American liberal democracy.”
He said the popular protests could not be contained through repressive police actions because the public’s patience with despicable policies adopted by their governments had been exhausted.
Jazayeri also said the London protesters were inspired by Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
News outlets in Iran have continued to use the present tense in describing the unrest in Britain that ended three weeks earlier.
The Iranian media have also made a great deal of Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposal to shut down social media in times of disorder so they cannot be used to assemble crowds. That is something the Islamic Republic has done repeatedly since the post-election disorders broke out in 2009. However, the Iranian media do not say that Britain was inspired by Iran to do that; instead, they have been critical of Britain for censorship and oppression in blocking social media.
However, Home Secretary Theresa May announced last Friday that after a full review the government had decided it would not shut down social media sites in times of disorder. That, however, did not stop the Fars news agency from reporting two days later that blocking social media was British policy.
