Iran: How the regime miscalculated the November uprising

Following the December 2017/January 2018 uprising in Iran, the issue of another nationwide protest being in the making has been a constant talking point of senior Iranian officials. Faces from across the regime spectrum have been warning and calling for preparatory measures for some time. And yet the November uprising caught their entire apparatus off guard, signaling the Iranian people’s desire to overthrow the mullahs.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself had time and again warned about a new uprising in 2019, describing the new “sedition” as far more significant. The plot aiming to overthrow the mullahs’ regime in the 2019 uprising was very deep, broad and dangerous in comparison to the Dec 2017/Jan 2018 episode, according to Khamenei.

He was right. The people of Iran, fed up with the mullahs, took to the streets following the November 15 gasoline price hike, challenging the mullahs’ rule in a new round of nationwide protests rocking the very pillars of Khamenei’s regime.

The November uprising reflected the Iranian people’s utter hatred of the mullahs’ rule, using the opportunity to voice their wrath, targeting Khamenei, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the mullahs’ foreign policy and the very foundations that has made life a living hell for tens of millions of Iranians for 40 years and counting.

#Iran

Brave woman tears down a "Death to America" poster.

The crowd is heard chanting, "Death to the dictator," in a reference to @Khamenei_ir.

Iranians have no enmity against the U.S. or the American people.

This is a 40-year lie promoted by the mullahs only.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/HlaAL31O9S

— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) November 18, 2019

The November uprising came to life despite the fact that Khamenei had been warning of an outburst in 2019 and the Rouhani cabinet had been paving the path for the gasoline price hike for months. A number of state media outlets were announcing – and thus denying – plans for the price increase a number of times to test public opinion/outrage, and to downgrade the shock imposed on the society through this plan.

Uprising overcomes massive preparations

Following the warnings issued by Khamenei himself and various analyses carried out by the regime’s security apparatus weighing public response, the entire domestic crackdown machine was on high alert prior to the official gasoline price hike announcement. According to senior national security officials, the IRGC, state police, Basij, the intelligence apparatus and other security institutions all believed they could control the population’s outburst.

“It has been two years that we have been discussing the issue of increasing the price of gasoline. We had four scenarios. Several working groups were launched, one being the security-police working group established in the Supreme National Security Council. Another working group was the psychological operations and response committee,” said Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli in a state TV interview on November 26.

“All discussions and analysis were carried out under the supervision of the Intelligence Ministry, considering their experience in overt and covert monitoring. Officials from the IRGC, police and the judiciary were also present… the police across the country were on high alert, and specifically protecting gas stations due to security reasons… the country’s circumstances and the people’s economic conditions were analyzed… stock market officials were missioned to control the entire market. The Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade was ordered to control the prices of goods and services, and especially prevent price increases. The Central Bank was ordered to monitor currency and gold prices,” he added. These remarks by the Interior Minister sheds light on the regime’s grave concerns regarding the overall crisis engulfing their entire apparatus.

Despite all this readiness and the fact that there was no element of surprise for the regime, the Iranian people still delivered a striking blow to the mullahs, with protests reported in 189 cities, dozens of military/security bases attacked, and hundreds of banks torched. The Iranian people consider these banks as symbols of a regime that is constantly plundering their money and resulting in over 80 percent of the population living in utter poverty.

Nov 16 – Ghale Hasan Khan, near Tehran, #Iran
Protesters torching a branch of the regime's Tejarat (Trade) Bank.#IranProtests

My take:
WOW! pic.twitter.com/rJakLF0VnQ

— Heshmat Alavi (@HeshmatAlavi) November 16, 2019

Scale of regime’s violence reflects vulnerability

Khamenei and his regime completely miscalculated the powder keg potential of the Iranian society and the Iranian people’s will to pay the ultimate price on their quest to topple the mullahs. The November uprising literally left the security forces helpless, leaving Khamenei with no choice but ordering a full and complete crackdown by his forces opening direct fire on unarmed protesters.

IRGC chief Hossein Salami compared the uprising scope to the Second World War. “We are engaged in a major global war. This war has begun in our streets,” he said on November 25. It’s quite interesting that his remarks indicate the regime is involved in an ongoing war and does not consider this a matter of the past.

IRGC deputy chief Ali Fadavi also voiced concerns on this dire subject. “During these few days we witnessed a major conspiracy. We are informed about the various aspects of this plot. Not through analysis or news reports. We have precise intelligence that a major conspiracy was in the making,” he said on the same day.

Fadavi’s boasting aside, his remarks do indicate how senior Iranian officials are concerned over the very survival of their regime. The mullahs’ political, economic and social crises are only escalating. With at least 1,029 protesters killed, over 4,000 injured and at least 12,000 behind bars, public rage can be described as a fire burning in the ashes, with enormous potential to flare once again very soon.

The uprising of the impoverished

The first uprising shook the regime in 1999, 20 years after the 1979 revolution. Ten years later, millions took to the streets again in 2009. Eight years later, the Iranian lower class, supposedly being the regime’s base, rushed to the streets and shook the mullahs’ very pillars. Less than two years later, we have witnessed the November uprising with unprecedented proportions, once again by the impoverished. Senior regime officials sounding alarm bells across the board about the nature of the latest protesters, with people rushing to the streets who literally have nothing to lose.

Rest assured the “world war” mentioned by the IRGC chief is not over and Iran will witness an uprising soon. This time, bringing an end to the mullahs’ regime.

ANALYSIS: What Iran fears even more than sanctions

Al Arabiya

Tensions in Iran’s society are running high due to increasing poverty, skyrocketing prices and unemployment, alongside escalating oppression. Public anger is on the rise due to drastic economic/social pressures and we are reaching the tipping point. This is far more alarming for those sitting on the throne in Tehran.

Schoolteachers, truck drivers, storeowners, farmers, sugar mill and steel workers are among the various branches of Iran’s restive society continuing to protest, launch long-term strikes and raise their demands in significant fashion.

Considering the fact that more than 80 percent of Iranians are living in poverty, there is no doubt these movements will evolve into a new uprising of unprecedented proportions.

Senior Iranian regime officials are fully aware of this developing reality on the ground. Not being in sync with the 21st century or the Iranian society, the only “solution” they deem possible is to increase their crackdown.

This will only fuel the fire already simmering deep within the Iranian populace.

Growing tension

The latest round of nationwide strikes, including launched by Iran’s hardworking truck drivers, have expanded to over 75 cities in at least 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces. Further concerning for officials and authorities is the support truckers enjoy among people from all walks of life.

Adding to the regime’s troubles are protests heard from the international community in response to its oppressive measures. Amnesty International has raised concern over the mass arrest campaign and secret executions launched by authorities in Khuzestan Province of southwest Iran.

Since 24 September, up to 600 Ahwazi Arabs have been detained incommunicado in a wave of arrests following a deadly armed attack that took place in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, two days earlier.

“If confirmed, the secret executions of these men would be not only a crime under international law but also an abhorrent violation of their right to life and a complete mockery of justice, even by the shocking standards of Iran’s judicial system,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The situation across the country is reaching a certain dangerous climax, a conglomerate of:

– Human rights violations and continuing crackdown,

– Poor economic management and institutionalized plundering of people’s wealth by state-linked institutions,

– A significant decrease in production due to skyrocketing imports,

– Officials neglecting vast poverty and the people’s needs, parallel to increasing unemployment,

– Adopting temporary remedies for the currency market while those linked to the regime are taking advantage of the mayhem and making huge profits.

Sounds of alarm

In Iran, members of parliament should not be considered the people’s representatives. Considering the fact that the Guardian Council (with strong links to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei) vets electoral candidates, these so-called MPs are merely seeking their own interests.

“Mr. President, what is your agenda for the teachers’ living conditions? And what have you done?” asked Shadmehr Kazemzadeh, a parliament member in a recent session.

Another member shouted in response, “Nothing! Nothing!”

The main concerns lies in the fact that the regime lacks any answers in response to escalating popular protests.

“Mr. Speaker, we were with the people for a few days and we had no answers for them in regards to economic issues, regarding skyrocketing prices… the truth is people are having problems in their lives,” said Haji Doleigani, another parliament member.

Push comes to shove

It is common knowledge in Iran that Khamenei enjoys a certain influence over the parliament, aka the Majlis. If there is even an iota of support in the Majlis for Rouhani’s government, this is not equivalent to a white check.

The factional disputes are the result of each current pointing fingers at others for the country’s dilemmas, all in fear of an escalation in public upheaval. Yet when push comes to shove, all government, provincial, city, town and village officials are in one front in the face of any security development threatening the regime.

Currently the media is mainly focusing on how US sanctions will influence the future of Iran. While doing so, it is necessary to remind ourselves the main reason for the Iranian people’s ongoing sufferings – being the regime – and the subject senior regime officials fear most, being protests by the people.

Mojtaba Zolnour, Majlis member from the city of Qom in central Iran, made interesting remarks in a recent TV interview.

“Today, in a period of sanctions, if we ask ourselves have we made progress or failed to do so, it would be a lie to claim we are making advancements. Why are we cloaking our incompetence behind the wall of sanctions?”

Protests in Iran have reached a point of no return. While the ruling may seek to wait out US sanctions in the hope of US President Donald Trump failing reelection in November 2020, it has no answers for Iran’s powder keg society.

Iran Resorts To Crackdown, Fearing Mass Rallies Marking National Day

October 29^th marks “Cyrus Day” in Iran, commemorating Cyrus the Great, probably the most renowned ruler of ancient Persia.

Last year on this day a large gathering of thousands Iranians sent shockwaves to Tehran, proving to the world Iran’s society remains restive and fiercely opposes the ruling regime.

For the past 48 hours social media activists across Iran have used the hashtag #CyrusDay to post their views and inviting people to the gathering.

Fearing similar rallies this year, the Iranian regime resorted to dispatching a large number of security forces and “military maneuvers and widespread repressive measures in various cities of Fars province (southcentral Iran),” according to a statement issued by the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Units of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and state police have imposed a de facto martial law, closing all roads leading to Pasargad, the site where Cyrus the Great’s tombstone is located.

Cyrus the Great is most renowned for being the father the Cyrus Cylinder, known to be the oldest declaration of human rights. The Iranian regime and IRGC remain under heavy criticism for ongoing human rights violations.

Security forces have been seen taking pictures of license plates, reports indicate, and instructing people driving from Shiraz to Tehran or Isfahan to use old routes to distance them from the rally site.

IRGC members have been issuing papers to all vehicles and even pedestrians heading towards Pasargad on foot. These leaflets read:

“An illegal rally in Pasargad on the fake October 29^th day was organized by dissident groups. Participation in this pre-planned gathering is in breach of Article 610 of the Islamic Criminal Code and violators will face legal and judicial actions.”

Enter a captionLeaflet issued by Iranian state police banning any gathering on October 29th, 2017.

Despite all the restrictive measures people were seen in large groups, in vehicles and on foot, heading towards Pasargad using various routes and heavy traffic was evident throughout the area.

Various districts in the city of Shiraz were also scenes of large crowds headed to Pasargad. State police went the limits to also prevent gatherings by any group of people, reports show.

The drastic measures resorted to by the Iranian regime is a sign of Tehran’s utter intolerance of any possible repeat of rallies mirroring the 2009 episode that rocked the very pillars of this state. Such repressive measures is tantamount to a U.S. administration supposedly banning any marches commemorating, for example, Veteran’s Day.

Different now, however, is the fact that eight years ago Tehran enjoyed the assurance of former U.S. president Barack Obama’s appeasement policy, allowing the regime to resort to a heavy and brutal crackdown against the masses.

Thousands of people gathering at the Cyprus tombstone in 2016.

The new administration in Washington is a completely different story.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has on three different occasions spoken of the Iranian people craving freedom.

“There are strong feelings and values inside of Iran that we want to promote in terms of one day the Iranian people being able to retake control of their government,” he said during his recent trip to India.

President Donald Trump has twice expressed his solidarity with the Iranian people, describing them as the first victim of the ruling regime’s wrath.

“… we stand in total solidarity with the Iranian regime’s longest-suffering victims: its own people. The citizens of Iran have paid a heavy price for the violence and extremism of their leaders. The Iranian people long to — and they just are longing, to reclaim their country’s proud history, its culture, its civilization, its cooperation with its neighbors,” Trump said in his landmark October 13^th Iran policy speech.

Iran: The story of proxy militias

By Shahriar Kia

Iran’s destructive role across the Middle East has become common knowledge and crystal clear for all. During the past two decades, especially, the presence of this regime’s proxy militias and affiliated Shiite groups has been considered an overt secret. Yet the question is how has Iran been able to dispatch so many fighters, and on a constant basis, to various flashpoint scenes in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran has trained, equipped, financed and dispatched thousands of fighters to various battlegrounds across the region. However, with its own economy literally in peril, how has Tehran afforded such an expensive campaign?

Iran allocates a large portion of its annual budget to finance a massive domestic crackdown machine, parallel to exporting terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism. This goes part in parcel to Tehran’s continuous effort to obtain weapons of mass destruction, including its clandestine nuclear drive and ballistic missiles program. A percentage of the capital necessary for such endeavors, and the repressive forces inside the country, have ironically been provided by the highly boasted Iran nuclear deal.

The mullahs’ regime is also known to plunder billions from the Iranian people’s pockets, leaving millions across the country living in poverty. Whereas it is worth noting Iran is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources, registered as enjoying the second largest gas reserves and fourth largest crude oil reserves.

Not long ago Iranian and western media showed how many Tehran locals were resorting to sleeping in graves in the winter cold. The number of homeless people in Iran is skyrocketing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, many Iranians have been forced to sell body parts, such as kidneys, to help make ends meet, making this a huge market in Iran.

Rallies and demonstrations are also on the rise in Iran as more and more people are protesting very poor living conditions rendered through the disastrous policies implemented by the mullahs’ regime. Just recently residents of Ahwaz in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan in southwest Iran staged a week-long rally demanding Tehran bring an end to its disastrous desertification campaign that has devastated the local economy. Thousands of people also took to the streets in Tehran in late February demanding secure employment and delayed paychecks.

As the Iranian people suffer, the money needed to provide for their needs is used by the mullahs’ regime to pursue their own domestic and foreign agendas. As a voice focusing on unveiling such efforts, the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) relies on a vast social base inside the country to gather such intelligence to unveil some of the regime’s most sensitive projects.

Senior U.S. officials have in the past acknowledged how the Iranian opposition, People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has warned the globe over the most important aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, such as the Natanz uranium enrichment plant and the Arak heavy water plant back in 2002 that sent shockwaves across the globe.

The Iranian opposition has through the years delivered significant blows to the mullahs through over 100 different revelations shedding light on most specifically Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. Without such an important campaign the mullahs’ will most definitely have obtained nuclear weapons by now, placing them in a dangerously powerful position in a tumultuous Middle East.

The MEK has also provided valuable information on Iran’s terrorism and Islamic extremism, such as unveiling the names of 32,000 hired agents in Iraq back in 2007; training and financing Iranian and non-Iranian forces in Syria in the summer of 2016 along with details and maps; and the Revolutionary Guards’ role in massacring Aleppo residents in December 2016.

To train its foreign fighters Iran has launched a network of bases across the country, 14 of which were identified and made public by the NCRI in a February press conference held in Washington. Other such militias are being trained in Syria and Iraq near the very warfronts they are then sent off to.

Iran trains Iraqi Shiite militias in bases across Iraq, dispatching such individuals to pursue Iran’s objectives in Iraq. Iran also used this asset to target Iranian opposition members formerly in Iraq in 8 different attacksthat targeted their camps, Ashraf and Liberty, leaving over 175 MEK members killed and more than 1,000 injured. These attacks were mainly carried out by Iraqi militias under IRGC orders.

To end Iran’s ability to use proxy militias to wreak havoc across the Middle East the new U.S. administration should target the main entity behind this campaign, being none other than the mullahs’ cherished IRGC. The designation of this lethal entity as a foreign terrorist organization is long overdue, and such a measure will most definitely send a signal to Iran that both America, and the international community, mean business.

Tehran has to understand that such undertakings will no longer be tolerated, and continuing with such actions and further missile tests will bear a heavy price tag. This approach will place America as a shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people’s plight to establish freedom and democracy.

Shahriar Kia is a political analyst and member of Iranian opposition (PMOI/MEK). He graduated from North Texas University. He tweets at @shahriarkia.

Originally posted in The Hill

Analysis: The Iranian regime and evolution of ISIS

By Heshmat Alavi

Special to Al Arabiya English

Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Support for international terrorism received a major boost the moment the mullahs hijacked Iran’s 1979 revolution. After a very short-lived period of a so-called open political atmosphere, their thugs organized in the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij militia, launched a campaign of oppression, arrests, torture and executions targeting not only dissidents, but anyone daring to raise a voice.

Born was “the first ISIS” and through the past 38 years this entity has proven to be more ruthless than anything resembled today in ISIS. Iranian regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, sitting on the throne in Tehran, was determined to focus all power under his grip, unleashing his wrath against all Iranians.

As he established his crackdown apparatus, Khomeini began setting his sights abroad, imposing his hegemonic desires through a doctrine of suicide attacks. The IRGC began training numerous proxy groups to help spread the Khomeini’s terror under the pretext of Islam.

Khomeini’s “ISIS” in Iran, more than three decades before ISIS’s charge from Syria into northern Iraq, became the nesting ground for many fledgling groups now wreaking havoc across the Middle East, Europe and as far away as Argentina.

This is Khomeini’s ideology of “Islamic Revolution,” spreading his foul interpretation of a divine religion. He dreamed of a Shiite empire and to this end started targeting all potential countries beginning with Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen and so forth.

Lethal campaign

Iran’s lethal campaign has resulted in death and destruction across the Middle East. Over a million killed and hundreds of billions lost in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Countless others killed and injured in the aftermath of the 2003 war in Iraq, which Iran used to covertly occupy this land and destroy the lives of so many. Not to mention half a million killed and over 11 million displaced from their homes in the Iran-backed inferno engulfing Syria.

All this has been parallel to Tehran’s spree of assassinations against dissidents exiled across Europe. Iranian intelligence service, using embassies across the Green Continent as safe houses to dispatch their killers, began eliminating exiled dissidents in a campaign dubbed as the “chain murders.”

While pursuing this onslaught, Khomeini’s successor, now Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has continuously maintained executions up at an atrocious rate. Understanding the threat of any day passing without at least one execution somewhere in Iran, even the so-called “moderate” President Hassan Rowhani has a report card of nearly 3,000 executions during his four year tenure.

Yet probably the most atrocious carnage of all launched was aimed at cleansing an entire generation by massacring over 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988. Most of these victims were members and supporters of main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Iran also has no tolerance for freedom of speech as academics, bloggers and journalists are targeted and quelled by the regime’s crackdown apparatus. The West must come to realize this true nature of Iran’s regime.

The international community’s failure to adopt serious measures against the mullahs has encouraged Tehran to continue hangings and lethal meddling across the Middle East. This is Iran’s campaign of establishing a “Shiite Crescent,” again launched decades before any notion of Daesh and its onslaught in the Levant and Mesopotamia.

Thanks to the Obama administration, Iran received Iraq in a silver plate and enjoys significant influence over Assad with troops in Syria. This has also encouraged Tehran to look further. “The victory in Aleppo will pave the way for liberating Bahrain,” said IRGC General Hossein Salami.

Rest assured one day the world will come to realize how ISIS considered Khomeini, the founder of the first ever “ISIS,” as its mentor on how to spread their reign of terror. No wonder the Iranian people consider the current mullahs ruling Iran, all minions of Khomeini, the Godfathers of ISIS.

Is there a solution?

“The regime in Tehran is the source of crisis in the region and killings in Syria; it has played the greatest role in the expansion and continuation of ISIS. Peace and tranquility in the region can only be achieved by evicting this regime from the region,” said Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group consisting of a long slate of various Iranian dissident groups, including the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The administration of Donald Trump, as advised in a hand-delivered letter written by 23 senior former American government officials, enjoys the opportunity to adopt a policy supporting the Iranian people’s call for regime change. This goes in line with President Trump’s first position against “radical Islamic terrorism,” terrifying the Iranian regime from top to bottom.

“We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth,” President Trump said.

Iran: Why “moderate” Rouhani can’t tolerate 2 motorcycling women

By Heshmat Alavi

Two young women were arrested last week in Dezful, southwest Iran, for riding a motorcycle, according to a report wired by state-run IRNA news agency. As images went viral a social-media backlash was sparked against the ultra-conservative establishment ruling the country. But nothing heard from the so-called “moderate” camp, now symbolled only in Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, orphaned following the sudden death of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and senior figure in Iranian politics.

The tale of the two young women, when read, resembled a crime report or breaking news about a major security or political development.

“This manifested the utmost denunciation of religious norms by the two girls and caused serious torment and anxiety among city officials,” said local police commander Colonel Ali Elhami. “The state security forces carried out an extensive investigation and finally managed to find, arrest, and deliver them to judiciary officials.”

The charges raised for this arrest has been violating “religious norms” as their adventure was filmed and posted online. Religious extremists in Iran responded by demanding the women be arrested for their dress, appearance and interaction with men seen in the online video images.

This is a regime with an amazingly low tolerance for any social freedoms. Iranian authorities have described this act as “exploiting the opportunity” due to the lack of police in a national park to take part in an “obscene act.” Yet it seems the regime is more concerned about the footage spreading online so quickly, and more individuals seeking to challenge the establishment through such practices.

A woman would not be officially breaking the law in Iran for riding a motorcycle, yet the very extreme interpretation of modesty laws can provide grounds for authorities to punish such acts.

We are talking about a country of strict attire regulations, especially targeting women, whom are obligated to wear headscarves and abide by so-called “modest” clothing. The regime is also known for dispatching undercover agents in the thousands, parallel to so-called “morality police” patrolling the streets hunting for cases of violations.

In the 21^st century when hundreds of millions of social media users are communicating like never before, Iran is known for its frequent social media crackdowns. In 2016 a number of women were apprehended for posting images on Instagram and one was humiliated as authorities forced her to publicly apologize on state television.

Iranian women endure discrimination in marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and even freedom of movement, according to the 2017 Human Rights Watch world report.

Women and girls are also banned from entering sports stadiums to attend certain events, such as men’s soccer and volleyball matches

Knowing the potential of Iran’s powder keg society, and women capable of spearheading protests across the country, the mullahs have for the past 38 years continuously kept women under harsh crackdown measures.

This goes against any and all arguments of Iran possessing a faction of so-called “moderates” or “reformists,” especially since four years of Rouhani’s tenure rendered no significant improvement in freedoms.

Despite his smiles aimed at fueling the West’s pro-appeasement policy camp, Rouhani’s grim report card shows a horrendous surge to nearly 3,000 executions, unrivaled even by his predecessor, firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The case of these two innocent motorcycling girls further proves the growing intolerance of a regime on the brink of collapse. With Rafsanjani gone, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has lost his balancing factor, and any opening divide in the senior hierarchy will pave the path for 2009-like uprisings that shook the regime’s very foundations.

Interestingly, women lead the main Iranian opposition movement threatening the mullahs’ rule. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an umbrella group including the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Women play a very significant role in this entity, acting as a role model for women inside Iran.

This is exactly why the mullahs’ regime has no tolerance for the Iranian population to sense any increase in freedoms. With crucial presidential elections only a few months away, Khamenei and his apparatus seek to maintain a tight grip on the un-resting society. Even such simple cases of two young women riding a motorcycle.

The Secrets of Saberin, Iran’s Elite Commando Unit Operating in Syria and Iraq

Iran’s IRGC Quds Force Saberin Unit

In 2001, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) established a special unit consisting of handpicked members of the IRGC’s land, sea, and air forces. Dubbed the Saberin Unit, its members were described as volunteers “seeking martyrdom,” tasked to carry out special missions and/or widespread cross-border attacks for the IRGC.

Trump and Iran’s Achilles Heel(s)

Donald Trump & Hassan Rouhani

Any entity in this world has its strong points, and its weaknesses. And there is a certain weakness, known as the Achilles Heel, which leads to a disastrous outcome.

The regime in Iran, after nearly 38 years in power, has based its entire existence and survival on two pillars of domestic crackdown and exporting a conglomerate of terrorism, extremism, and Islamic fundamentalism, under the mantra of “Islamic Revolution.”

News from inside Iran & reports on Syria

Numerous protest rallies in Tehran, Ilam

Retired workers of the Baharestan Steel Co. rallying outside Iran’s parliament

People from all walks of life and different ethnicities staged numerous protest and rallies on Sunday in Tehran and Ilam, western Iran, making their voices heard for their demands.

In Tehran retired workers of the Tehran Baharestan Steel Company rallied outside the regime’s parliament. The protesters demand the privatization of this steel company, their paychecks to be delivered according to schedule and retirement medical care expenses be provided as pledged.

In yet another rally in Tehran more than 250 individuals who have lost money as a result of stock fraud by the regime’s Ministry of Agriculture rallied outside the regime’s parliament.

“We have purchased our land 30 years ago, paid the entire fees and received various pledges in this regard. However, no one is providing us any answers in this regard,” they said in relation to the confiscation of their lands.

Furthermore, another group of individuals who lost money in stocks related to the Padide Company, rallied outside the regime’s judiciary ministry in Tehran demanding their money being returned.

In Ilam a group of people who also suffered losses in stocks due to the negligence reported in the Arman Institute rallied outside the office building making their demands heard.

 

 

Mass execution of 10 inmates in prison west of Tehran

Mass executions in Iran

The inhumane mullahs’ regime sent 10 inmates to the gallows early Sunday morning in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran.

State prison authorities had transferred these inmates to solitary confinement on Saturday in preparation for their executions. One of these victims was Abdullah Ghafari.

 

 

Female street vendor in Ahvaz remains under medical care

State agents attacked an old woman with an electric shocker

The son of a female street vendor in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, who was attacked by state agents using electric shockers on Tuesday, December 6^th, says he continues to take his mother to a hospital twice a day.

“On December 6^th a group of 10 municipality agents, all armed with electric shockers, entered the Khansari Avenue and amongst the street vendors they attacked my 70-year-old mother who was selling her goods outside my store. They used electric shockers and she fell to the ground. She is still alive but is very ill. She was hospitalized for a few hours after that incident and I am still taking her to a hospital twice a day,” Samir, the woman’s son, said.

Despite the publication of scenes of this incident and attack on social media, and a huge wave of anger against the regime’s officials, the Ahvaz municipality continues to deny the incident.

“No attack on woman has been reported in the municipality. As head of the city council I do not confirm this issue,” the city council chief said.

 

 

Factional disputes amongst regime factions over currency shifts

Iran changing official currency from rial to toman

The economic changes in Iran, with plans to change the official currency from the rial to toman proposed by the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, has faced major opposition from members of the faction loyal to Iranian regime leader Ali Khamenei.

Media outlets linked to this faction have said the bill proposed in the parliament for this measure, at a time when the country’s economy is facing serious problems, is considered one of those unnatural decisions.

“This plan proposed by the government have shocked even the government’s own economic experts. Such a change would be proper for countries that are certain of having below 5% inflation for a long period. Otherwise, 10 years down the road we will have to backtrack these currently proposed changes,” a Khamenei-loyal outlet wrote.

“Even a government organization has issued a warning report in this regard saying changing the rial to the toman, without taking the necessary conditions into consideration, would only render worse economic conditions,” the report added.

 

 

Interior minister: we have 11 million living in city outskirts

Iranian interior minister Rahmani Fazli

Iranian interior minister Rahmani Fazli expressed the regime’s concern of social damages inflicted to the Iranian population.

“Finally, five priorities have been specified by the leader. Drug addiction, people living in city outskirts, divorces, social corruption and crisis-launching regions, he said in remarks posted by the state-run E’temad daily on Saturday, December 10^th.

“For the leader there is nothing more important than social damages,” he added.

“We have 11 million people living in city outskirts and the leader has issued a special order in this regard,” the Iranian interior minister added.

 

 

Two IRGC engineers injured in southeastern Iran

Explosion rocked a town in southwestern Iran

As reported by the Tasnim news agency, known to be affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, at around 6 am on Sunday morning an improvised explosive device detonated in the town Saravan in southeastern Iran, leaving two IRGC engineers wounded.

These individuals were immediately transferred to the Razi Hospital in Saravan. One is reported to be in dire conditions and the Iranian regime had sent a helicopter for his transfer.

 

 

Syria: 40 Iran IRGC members, militias killed in Aleppo

IRGC armored personnel carrier burning in flames

Members of the Free Syrian Army defeated a horrendous attack launched Sunday morning by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Shiite militias and Russian troops in eastern Aleppo, Orient TV reported.
On Saturday FSA members were able to defend their positions and kill 25 other Shiite militias were killed in the Marje neighborhood, along with 15 others in the Ezae neighborhood. FSA rebels were also able to destroy two advanced Russian T90 main battle tanks in Ezae and Sanae.
Iran’s IRGC and Assad’s militia forces had attempted for the fourth consecutive day to make advances in Ezae and Sanae, all while enjoying heavy Russian air support. However, to this day they have faced a major defensive counterattack by the FSA rebels.

 

 

Iran MP: Above one million youths in line for Syria dispatching

Hossein Biki, deputy chair of the Security Commission in Iran’s parliament

Hossein Biki, deputy chair of the Security Commission in Iran’s parliament, made startling and expansionist remarks recently.

“In the status quo we are in youths and even teenagers are more than eager to take part in the fronts of Syria and Iraq,” he said.

“At least more than one million youths are in line to be dispatched,” he said on Saturday, December 10^th, in an interview with the state-run Mizan news agency, known to be linked to the regime’s judiciary branch.

“There are a significant number of youths and even teenagers amongst the massive wave of volunteers for Syria and Iraq,” this Iranian MP added.

“The Islamic republic has two missions in Syria and Iraq: advisory activities and training,” he added in contradictory remarks.

 

Iran: imminent executions, harsh prisons & increasing protests

10 inmates face imminent execution in prison west of Tehran

Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran

10 death row inmates in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran, were transferred to solitary confinement on the morning of Saturday, December 10^th, in preparation for their executions.

One of these inmates is Abdullah Ghaffari from ward 2 of this jail. These ten inmates are scheduled to be executed soon.

 

 

Female political prisoner severely attacked in Kerman Prison, south-central Iran

Political prisoner Afsane Baizadi in Kerman Prison

Political prisoner Afsane Baizadi was severely attacked by authorities in Kerman Prison, south-central Iran, after protesting the facility’s inhumane conditions.

“It has been around two weeks since the ward’s heating has been turned off and we have been deprived of any hot water and showers. We are serving our time under very harsh and isolated conditions. Political prisoner began protesting such conditions to the prison authorities and Ms. Baizadi began chanting ‘Death to Dictator’ and ‘Death to the Islamic republic.’ The authorities attacked and began severely beating her,” a prisoner in Baizadi’s ward reported.

Baizadi is a Kurdish Iranian college student who was condemned on June 20^th of this year to four years behind bars and exiled to Kerman Prison. The charges raised against her include propaganda against the establishment, insulting Iranian regime leader Ali Khamenei and cooperating with a Kurdish party.

“I am the same Afsane who was tortured and placed under suffering for 90 days. During this period I was tortured in every possible way. During my first days in detention the torture reached a point that I couldn’t even walk. My legs and back were completely swollen black,” she had written in a previous letter shedding light on the medieval tortures imposed on her during her arrest.

She was summoned and interrogated time and again by the Iranian regime’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence. It is worth noting that the women’s ward in Kerman Prison has 92 inmates detained for different crimes, including 11 political prisoners who are kept in a completely isolated environment.

 

 

College students in northern Iran demand release of political prisoners

Mazandaran University, northern Iran

A session was held to discuss the nuclear agreement between the international community and Iran, known as the JCPOA, on Saturday, December 10^th, in Mazandaran University, in northern Iran.

Iranian MP Mohammad Ali Najafi took part in this session where the students taking part chanted slogans demanding the release of all political prisoners. The university is alive, they also said in their slogans.

 

 

500 miners protest in Shahrood, east of Tehran

Tarze workers holding protest gathering

More than 500 miners of the Tarze coal mine rallied on Saturday, December 10^th outside the administrative office of this mine in the city of Shahrood, east of the capital, Tehran, demanding their delayed wages. These workers have not received their paychecks for the past 4 months.

The mine managers pledged last week in a similar rally held by the workers to respond to their demands and send them their paychecks. However, no such measure has been taken.

The miners are saying they are concerned that considering the fact that they are reaching the last months of the Iranian calendar the managers will also refrain from paying them their New Year bonuses.

 

 

Glass/gas workers stage rally outside regime parliament

Gas & Glass Factory in Shoga

At 8 am on Saturday morning workers of the Shoga Gas and Glass Factory rallied in Tehran outside the Iranian regime’s parliament demanding to return to work, reports from inside the country indicate.

The protesters raised placards written, “We are a group of fired workers of the Gas and Glass Factory despite having 20 years of experience in this work. We demand to be able to return to work.”

 

 

IRGC members kill a Kurdish load-carrier, injuring another

Systematic killing of load-carriers in the mullahs’ dictatorship

Members of the Iranian regime’s notorious Revolutionary Guards opened fire and killed Kurdish load-carrier in a village near the city of Maku, northwestern Iran. This incident took place on Thursday, December 8^th, reports indicate.

Majid Dadkhah, the victim, was taken by IRGC members to their outpost station.

On this same day other IRGC members opened fire on another such load-carrier in the village of Ezgele near Babajani, northwestern Iran, leaving him injured as a result.

These crimes against the deprived load-carriers are taking place under the pretext of confronting smuggling of goods. However, according to the remarks made by the regime’s own officials, billions of dollars of goods are being smuggled into the country through the IRGC’s exclusive transits and ports, without any hurdles throughout the entire process.