An Iranian academic claims that pro-Palestinian protesters who have taken over American universities would support Iran in a war with the United States.
Tehran University professor Foad Izadi, who was educated in the United States, declared that “these are our people” in an interview with Iranian state television station IRIB Ofogh on April 26.
He said Iran’s brutal Islamic dictatorship, of which he claimed to be a part, was fueling protests from coast to coast in the United States.
On Tuesday night, hundreds of police cleared protesters from Columbia University in New York City, and the next night police attacked the UCLA encampment. The police presence at the protests comes after many became dangerous with students fighting each other or taking over university buildings.
Tehran University professor Foad Izadi declared that “these are our people” in reference to American protesters in an interview with Iranian state television station IRIB Ofogh on April 26.
Izadi also claimed in the interview, translated and published online by the Middle East Research Institute, that Iran had Hezbollah-like militant cells hidden in the United States.
‘Sooner or later, this kind of support for the Zionist regime by the US regime will diminish. It may not stop completely, but its decline is important,” he stated.
“We are watching the protests and we like what we see, but it shouldn’t end like this.”
Izadi attempted to take credit for Iran keeping “the Palestinian idea alive”, stating that it would have been “closed years ago” if it were not for the Iranian regime.
“The idea of resistance belongs to Iran, but at the operational level, when it comes to recruiting connections and building networks, the [Iranian] “The state has not been involved at a sufficient level,” he said.
The professor then made his boldest claim: Students and other protesters would support Iran over their own country if there were ever a conflict.
“These are our people,” he said.
“If tensions between the United States and Iran rise tomorrow or the next day, these are the people who will have to take to the streets to support Iran.”
People link arms as they gather inside the pro-Palestinian protester camp on the UCLA campus.
Dozens of universities like Columbia (pictured) have tents full of students and outside agitators crouching on the grass and refusing to leave.
NYPD police officers dressed in riot gear burst through a window of a Columbia University building occupied by dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters to begin clearing them out.
Izadi claimed that Iran could do more damage to the United States with an armed militant group than in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has caused chaos for decades.
“Personally, I think the potential to repeat in the United States what Iran did in Lebanon is much greater,” he said. ‘Our Hezbollah-style groups in the United States are much larger than the ones we have in Lebanon.
“The Americans are the Great Satan and our main enemy, but we have hope in these areas.”
Izadi earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Houston and his doctorate from Louisiana State University before returning to Iran.
While at LSU, he interned at the USC Center for Public Diplomacy with a “research project examining the recent goals and methods of American public diplomacy in Iran.”
Their project would “identify institutional processes and actors in US public diplomacy initiatives toward Iran and investigate how these initiatives fit with the concept of new public diplomacy.”
Students and protesters at the City College of New York also clashed with police Tuesday night as the city cracked down on pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses.
Protesters light flares and shout from inside the closed doors to CCNY as hundreds of other protesters gather outside.
In Houston, he won an award for his article A Discourse Analysis of American Newspaper Editorials: The Case of Iran’s Nuclear Program.
Izadi frequently posts videos of American university protests, expressing support for protesters and attacking police.
“Press freedom, American style: the demonstration is in support of the Palestinian people and the cameraman was arrested along with more than 50 students,” he wrote on April 26.
When the US Congress passed a bill providing billions of dollars in military aid to Israel, he lashed out in an April 20 post.
‘The Prime Minister of the Zionist regime that kills children: Financial support for Israel is “defense of Western civilization.” It’s really the same. The end of Western civilization is the same crime seen in Gaza,” he wrote.
