The enemy pursues regime change in Iran; Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib told a gathering of Iranian diplomats in Tehran on Friday.

Islamic Republic official offer refer to the United States and sometimes to its allies as ‘the enemy’.

“The enemy is definitely after regime change and will not relinquish that goal. That regime change is aimed at altering the nature and essence of the Islamic Republic,” Khatib said.

The Iranian regime has blamed months of protests as a plot by foreigners and even insists that the Woman, Life, Freedom movement is a ploy by enemies to ideologically defeat the clerical political system.

Officials and senior clerics have made the issue of forced hijab a political red line and insist that if they retreat and allow women freedom in their attire, the foundations of the regime will crumble.

Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, a firebrand religious hardliner, in a speech on Friday echoed Khatib’s remarks, saying that the “enemy” encourages women to unveil because it wants to weaken and put an end to clerical rule in Iran.

Alamolhoda, a staunch supporter of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi.

Khatib also claimed that the hardliner government of president Raisi has had foreign policy success and added, “The foreign ministry will have a busy year this year.”

Iran re-established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia in March, but is still under Western, particularly US sanctions for persisting to expand its nuclear program.