An outspoken cleric who supervises Iran’s Qods Force says the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is Washington's agent, assigned to culturally infiltrate the clergy-dominated country.

Meanwhile, the mid-ranking cleric, Ali Shirazi, who is Supreme Leader Ali khamenei's appointed man to watch the Qods (Quds) Force has called for defying UNICEF and countering its activities in Iran.

In a note published in the IRGC-run Tasnim news agency on April 11, Shirazi lambasted the Iranian authorities for permitting a reference to the UNICEF activities in a fourth-grade textbook.

"The enemies of Islam are pursuing their own aims through international and public educational institutions", Shirazi maintained.

UNICEF, established in 1946, is a United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.

The Islamic Republic has always looked upon the activities of international organizations in Iran with the utmost suspicion.

As a rule, Khamenei and his extremist supporters believe that all international bodies are, one way or another, agents of the West, specifically the U.S.A., and their only aim is to strike fatal blows at the Islamic establishment in Iran.

Without any elaboration, Shirazi has insisted that Washington vehemently wants to change "lifestyle" in Iran and uses UNICEF as an instrument to achieve its ends.

"Under the cover of topics such as human rights advocacy, promoting children's and women's rights, and supporting gender equality, America aims at turning the Islamic lifestyle into a western way of life" Shirazi has maintained, adding, "UNICEF seeks to achieve the same aims in Iran."

Shirazi's comments are not unprecedented. He is a staunch opponent of the West and Israel, who has always insisted that the Islamic Republic's campaign will go on until the annihilation of "global arrogance".

In a November 4, 2019 speech aired by the monopolized state-run TV network in Iran, Shirazi asserted, "The confrontation with America will continue until the oppressive foundations of the global arrogance are disrupted, and until the leaders of the White House and the Zionist regime are annihilated."