Tehran’s top diplomat posts video saying anti-regime protests were a ‘terror operation’ by Mossad; Israeli president says regime in ‘no position to lecture others on morality’
By AFP and ToI Staff20 January 2026, 1:55 pm
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi (left) attends a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein, in Tehran, Iran, on January 18, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP); President Isaac Herzog speaks during a ceremony marking the lighting of the first Hanukkah candle at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, on December 14, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
PARIS, France — Iran’s foreign minister hit out at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos late Monday for canceling his appearance over a brutal crackdown on recent protests and said the decision was based on “lies and political pressure from Israel,” earning a sharp rebuke from President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday.
Protests in Iran sparked by economic strain in late December exploded into the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years, with the full scale of the violent crackdown yet to emerge due to an internet blackout.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had been slated to speak on Tuesday at the annual gathering of global elites in Switzerland, but was disinvited after the WEF said it would not be “right” due to the “loss of lives of civilians in Iran over the past few weeks.”
Araghchi said on X that his appearance was canceled “on the basis of lies and political pressure from Israel and its US-based proxies and apologists.”
He called it a “blatant double standard” to disinvite him while inviting Israel after its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, saying it “conveys moral depravity and intellectual bankruptcy.”
Iranian officials have said the recent demonstrations were peaceful before descending into “riots” fueled by the United States and Israel in an effort to destabilize the nation.
Araghchi’s post on X was accompanied by a video saying the demonstrations were a “terror operation” spurred by Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
In a statement released by his office, President Isaac Herzog hit back at Araghchi, stating: “The same murderous Iranian regime massacring its own people day after day, executing innocent women and men for daring to call for their freedom, and spreading terror and death across the Middle East is in no position to lecture others on ‘morality.’”
“International condemnation of the Iranian regime is not the result of political pressure, but of a simple and undeniable truth: the Iranian regime is the head of the snake that arms, funds, and directs Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist proxies committing crimes against humanity,” the statement read.
“While President Herzog represents a democracy that defends its citizens and the free world against murderous terrorism, Iran’s foreign minister represents a brutal and tyrannical regime that attempts to mask its heinous crimes with hollow rhetoric,” it added.
Rights groups say they have verified at least several thousand protesters killed by Iranian security forces, with some estimates putting the true figure as high as 20,000 dead.
The Norway-based nonprofit Iran Human Rights, which has verified the deaths of at least 3,428 protesters, said on Monday that “all indications are that this massacre was planned and carried out with full coordination” by the Islamic Republic.
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