Reuters – May 15, 2022
—
Spreading protests across Iran over a cut in state subsidies on food have turned political with slogans calling for top leaders to step down, according to posts on social media, and unconfirmed reports said at least four protesters were killed.
Protests began in some cities last week sparked by the government’s subsidy cut decision that caused price hikes in Iran by as much as 300% for a variety of flour-based staples.
The government also raised prices of some basic goods such as cooking oil and dairy products in Iran, where almost half of its 85 million population is under poverty line, according to official figures.
Now protesters have expanded their demands, calling for more political freedom, an end to the Islamic Republic and the downfall of its leaders, according to witnesses and social media posts.
Videos posted online showed demonstrators burned images of Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and called for the return of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the toppled Shah of Iran.
Footage on Twitter showed protests in dozens of provinces such as Ardabil, Khuzestan, Lorestan and Razavi Khorasan. Some state-affiliated media, meanwhile, said calm had been restored in the country.
However, Protests continued on early Sunday in at least 40 cities and towns across Iran, including in the town of Quchan near the Turkmen border, the northern city of Rasht and the western city of Hamedan, according to videos posted on social media.
Reuters could not independently confirm authenticity of social media posts and videos. Iran’s state news agency IRNA said on Friday that some shops were “set on fire in some cities”, prompting police to arrest scores of “provocateurs”.
The semi-official ILNA news agency on Saturday, citing a lawmaker, said one protester was killed in Dezful, a city in the oil producing southwestern province of Khuzestan. But videos on Twitter showed at least four demonstrators were killed by security forces. read more
Residents of the capital, contacted by Reuters on Sunday, reported a heavy presence of security forces across Tehran.
Global internet monitor NetBlocks on Saturday reported a disruption lasting hours in Iran amid protests, a potential move by the authorities to prevent protesters from communicating with each other and sharing video on social media.
The latest unrest adds to mounting pressure on Iran’s rulers, who are struggling to keep the crippled economy afloat under U.S. sanctions, reimposed since 2018 when Washington ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers. Talks to revive the pact have stalled since March. read more
Fearing a revival of protests in recent years that seemed to shed light on the establishment’s vulnerability to popular anger over the economy, the government has described its decision as “fair redistribution” of subsidies to lower-income people.
In 2019, what began as scattered protests over a surprise increase in fuel prices, quickly spread into one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s rulers, sparking the bloodiest crackdown in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic.
The reported death toll in 2019 has varied between a Reuters account of 1,500 dead and an Amnesty International figure of more than 300. Both have been dismissed by Iranian authorities.
Writing by Parisa Hafezi Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky
Who cares? Not me.
they have a vaste of land to seed its
own wheat . it only needs irrigation .
less atomscience + worship of alla –
more drilling water wells !
This is coming to each and everyone of us the scum that run it all behind the scenes hate all of us
Seems like we have to seek truth from the vomit of Reuters… that video looked very widespread and crowded! Look, you can fill Azadi Football Stadium in Tehran (100K people) with people of every possible political view and taste each day of the week and have them chant whatever they want… that does not represent the entire country of 85 Million people. I shouldn’t really bother with the Reuters piece and their authors, suffice to say that it is commonly accepted that Iran’s opposition and enemies have a habit of stating their wishes as facts.
Allow me to explain the core of this particular matter:
Throughout most of Iran’s governments, an economic policy have been to distribute dollar in a fixed lower rate (7 times cheaper than in open market) for manufacturers and importers to import necessary goods/material for the factories to remain active, a move to protect production under sanctions. It has been the plan to change this into “targeted support”, however most governments didn’t want to risk this economic surgery. Under the liberal government of president Rohani due to many cascading wrong economic decisions things got very bad… these cheaper dollars which we shall call J$ (Short for دلار جهانگیری!) from now on… ended up in the hands of opportunists, resulted in import of goods that were absolutely unnecessary for Iran, things like Cat/Dog food, certain materials that are supposed to be used in medicine profuction, paper related materials, etc… even worst to win popular support of a secion of the population, Rohani used these J$s to make cheap flights for Iranian tourists! Nobody reads magazines or newspapers in Iran nowadays because everything is online, but still they print in massive quantities; these wasted papers were created using J$s then end up being recycled, then they print huge quantities of books in English language and export them to other countries, this results in massive gains. Essentially Iran is paying for cheaper books in Europe for example! J$ has caused massive export and now smuggling of main goods from Iran to neighboring countries as well, Iran’s pasta and vegetable oil going to Iraq and Turkey to sell higher! Similar thing happened with petrol and the subsequent move by Rohani’s government that removed the Petrol Card to reintroduce again, back then certainly protests happened and people died too because the idiot Rohani did it all suddenly and then shamelessly came on TV and said “I was told just now this Friday morning” his own ministers refuted him!
under this government Raisi (butcher of Tehran Hahahha!) however in their 9 month in the executive seat they removed this J$ all together and before doing so they informed people for days of how they are going to do it to mitigate the damage, they even transferred unprecedented amounts of cash to people accounts based on their economic status in multiple rounds to help with the increased prices. J$ was removed so they can use these funds in a Targeted Way, and to be honest this is going to hurt but not as bad as enemies want to project. The long term benefits though are great!
Another issue is that under Rohani’s government banks were flourishing like mushrooms (their shadows fell on Mosques!), they printed money out of thin air in an unprecedented way… All Shia مراجع have taken anti-usury stances. DESPITE THIS knowing that this is clearly حرام, many government officials, think-tanks, scholars, scientists, economists, etc… have said that there is no alternative yet! There is a website for this “reba.ir” (only in Farsi). In this sense Iranians just like yellow vests of France are seeking the same anti-bank move. Even the main leadership is in favor of this, but this is a field of its own, there are research centers in Iran working on the totality of a substitute economic system based on Islam. The issue is complicated and has many dimensions, we can’t simply go back to gold and silver when cryptocurrencies are on the rise, the complexities of life today is such that a huge work is required and things are certainty not simple. Being an insider though, I can tell you amazing revolutionary work is done and being done.
Iran already have its own military doctrines, however 40 years of war and sanctions meant that Iran still has to upgrade many of its sub-systems. Now that Iran’s security and survival is guaranteed and ensured. And now that liberals= in Iran are not in power, major economic surgeries are possible. this is Phase 2 of Iran’s revolution.
With the current world situation and an expected global famine, we can be certain that only countries with proper leadership can survive. Today world super-powers are struggling themselves, victors of the WW2 are reporting empty coffers, vaults and silos. Iran is resilient and still the 17th largest economy of the world… we can not say the same thing for pampered western countries.
The leadership in US and EU are apparently following Globalists, famine, war and pestilence could be averted and avoided… but this is not going to happen under the current leadership.
Hope that helps
my two rials
“return of pahlavi” HAHAHAHA
only jew or some western liberal degenerate would want to return of the zog puppet…Iran is one of the very few really independent countries and it seems now that some soros’ “sleeping” cells were activated there right now…And i know what is the only effective solution to all soros’ agents, its called firing squads…God Bless Islamic Republic of Iran
@ مقداد وفائی
Now please explain why your countrymen don’t go back to iran? You say it’s better than the west (and I believe you — it can’t be worse). So why do they continue to infest my country?
مقداد وفائی: thank you for your comment, it obviously is how i was guessing with Iran. You know, i have very big respect and admiration for Iran since the revolution taken place and i personally agree with most of the aspects of Khomeinism, the ones relating to both geo and local politics. The country like Iran, very powerful and rich in culture and history (one of the main craddles of indoeuropean civilization) needs strong leadership, leaders with high morals and principles so they can be good examples for people and i can see it is the case in todays Iran. Something similar like Russia and Syria, however Russia and Syria need some improvements yet, same as Pakistan (getting rid of oligarchs, liberals, globalists zog agents and foreign spying intel agencies first and foremost). It would be great to form Eurasian Pact with main centres in Tehran, Damascus, Moscow, Islamabad, Delhi and eventually Beijing and maybe, maybe, Ankara or Istanbul (Erdogan seems quite antiNATO nowadays which is a good sign but he tends to play on both sides). Anyway we are on a halfway and i hope one day we will see it fully working. God Bless Iran and all its allies.
@anton
Thank you for spending the time and reading my lengthy and not so well written comment.
I would disagree with you on Erdogan though. Turkey under current leadership is in the camp of Zionists and NATO. They have a fake Mahdi in the making there too for the occasion! There is also Jordan that can become the last obstacle in favor of Israel. I also explained my views on “organic” and “artificial” countries and the types of empires (Active, Dead, in Stasis), and that they act like a vehicle, the ideology of a leader that embarks and takes control of such vehicle is secondary. Interesting topic…
@my own fake duplicate! (you may be Nixo or lewis jones) Why not use your own name!?
Quote: “Now please explain why your countrymen don’t go back to iran? You say it’s better than the west (and I believe you — it can’t be worse). So why do they continue to infest my country?”
There is no simple answer and a broad spectrum of issues have to be clarified. Just like everywhere else, Iranians are not a monolithic people. Many are Liberals and Westernized, “most” of the Iranians that live in the west are “assimilated”. They were attracted to the Freedom magnet. They think sky is more blue there or trees are greener! Anyone thinking there is more sunshine than in Iran must be blind though! : )
There are different flavors of religious Iranians too. For example: as you might have noticed, I am an Iranian Shia Muslim that does not believe in Freedom and Freewill… I believe in Power and Willpower. There is no such thing as freedom of speech, there is only power of speech and the concept of “Sacrifice of power”, I have also very peculiar views on Slavery too! : ) This does not mean all Shia Muslims are like this.
In fact Queen of UK still funds and supports the Shirazi Shia sect in UK, they are openly anti-Iran and hate Iran’s Supreme Leader and they are good for saying things to incite hatred with Sunni Muslims. Why should BBC have a Persian channel and still keep its funding? Ask them to show some truth in their channels to help with the immigrant situation.
Did you know Zionists and Western MSM and propaganda machines did all they could to convince Iranians that Iran was wasting its money in the region? Some chanted “No Gaza, No Lebanon, my life only for Iran.” This was misleading and wrong… because Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, Syria are part of Iran and should be; but that’s another topic… now most Iranians understand why Iran has to be present in the region. Guess what, Americans are now chanting “No to Ukraine, my Life for America.”… yes, why should US help Ukraine with 40 billions and they have Baby Formula problems at home, or have so many homeless? Didn’t Trump say that US wasted ~6 Trillions just for CENTCOM? Because US has lost its soft-power and have failed to nurture the American-Dream, they can’t have public support for such adventures, in contrast Iran has the soft-power today for “extra regional adventures”. Iran’s way of doing it is to empower its allies and act as a caring father for the region.
Many Iranians are waking up. Today there are Iranians that hate Islam yet they consider Iran’s Supreme Leader as THE KING. Because they understand how shallow Liberalism and Liberal Human-Rights are… they’ve seen the double standards and hate democracy and more importantly they’ve seen the wasteland around, there are no alternatives. In contrast there are Muslims who love democracy and hate Kings or Patriarchs! Not that Khamenai himself thinks like that but some of the concepts overlap. They never show you such Iranians in your news, do they?
So things are complicated, very complicated… but to answer your main question: Many Iranians are actually returning from EU countries or US. The rich ones go to better places such as Canary Islands! Please keep the liberals!! If you hate your freedoms too, you can come to Iran and enjoy your stay as slaves! Hahahaha!
So don’t worry too much… in the coming years, this is going to happen:
1- The western liberal magnet (in all of its flavors) will die out completely
2- Israel will be wiped off the map
3- Middle East particularly around the Silk road will be rebuilt and start flourishing
4- Revolutions and/or secession could happen in US and EU countries, you should do all you can to avoid violent transitions.
This will lead to people going back to their own lands sooner or later!
You know that Zionists love to keep the region in a “Wrecked State”, fucked up economies, war torn countries and poor people… so you get migrants in the west. We get lots of Afghan refugees too, some Iranians are racist and don’t like them, some others see them as less fortunate brothers and part of the greater Iranian Civilization Domain…. but nowadays almost everyone agrees that US and NATO had 20 years to fix Afghanistan and they didn’t do anything. If it was not for Iran then Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan would have been divided into multiple smaller lilliputian countries already in favor of the Israeli Gulliver.
You can explain these things to Liberal Zombie Iranians or in fact to all Zombie immigrants, there are many more Chinese, Pakistanis and others. Liberalism is finished just like Communism; in my opinion there are no active ideologies in the world today other than Zionism and Shia Revolution of Iran and the clash will happen soon. I don’t consider capitalism in the same league. Only ideologies than can command hearts and minds matter. There is an ideological vacuum in the world. There are forms of nationalism here and there, some racism, some mixed ones… Christians, Jews and Muslims are either in the Zionist camp or leaning towards Iran’s resistance block. I don’t want to brand this resistance block as all Iranian, you can tell by Iranian allies that they are of all walks of life, even anti-Zionist Jews… a large group of them wanted to escape to Iran but Zionists caught them. The truth however is that many are learning Farsi willingly not as slaves, in Yemen and Lebanon, while daughters of the son of late Shah of Iran can’t even speak basic Farsi and he himself watches American football all the time! His deepest idea of governance is Liberal-Market-Democracy and weakening of Persian Language, only a few Iranian idiots still believe in him. Zionist Jews in Israel are also learning Farsi, their reasons are different though… has to do with some biblical verses!!! They want to learn Farsi so that those passages become void!
You should worry about the famine ahead and a potential for a nuclear world war. I still believe we’re in an extended cold-war and none of the countries have the stomach for a full world war. The immigrant problem that you have in the west has no quick solution but the world is naturally moving towards a direction that will solve most of it.
my two rials