With the combination of the tightening noose of sanctions around the neck of the clerical regime ruling Iran, and the end of Western appeasement, the mullahs have to face the real threat from within.
This Regime faces several crises, all of which have the potential to trigger major protests, and that was before the announcement of new sanctions by the United States targeting the regime’s oil and metal sectors.
A major uproar was triggered by the development of a spike in fuel prices. This led to extraordinary queues and protests at gas stations. Fearing large-scale demonstrations, the regime was forced to reverse course and stop fuel prices from increasing.
In another major incident, a large protest by workers, teachers, and pensioners took place outside the regime’s Majlis (Parliament) and its House of Workers. Chants included “Imprisoned teachers must be freed” and “Workers, teachers, unite.” While on previous occasions the regime tried to contain the protests, this time the mullahs feared the situation could get out of hand and dispatched suppressive forces to beat and arrest participants.
Chants at a similar protest by teachers and academics in Mashhad on early May laid blame on the mullahs for the nation’s woes. Chants included: “Our enemy is in the homeland. They’re lying when then says its abroad,” “Our enemy is right here. They’re lying when they say its America,” “Our problem could be solved if there was just one less case of corruption,” and “Leave Syria alone; think of us instead”.
On their own, each of these incidents may not seem consequential, but since Iranian society is at a melting point and ready for change, any one of them could trigger a huge uprising.
The latest U.S. sanctions targeting the regime are making matters even worse for the mullahs.
This month the Trump administration ended sanctions waivers for countries buying oil from the regime and imposed new sanctions on steel, iron, aluminum, and copper sectors of the regime accordingly.
In April, the U.S. State Department added the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to its list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTO), highlighting the fact that the mullahs run an outlaw a regime using terrorism as a key tool of statecraft, and that the IRGC has engaged in terrorism since its inception. The U.S. warned of further sanctions to come after the regime announced this week that it would be curbing its commitments to 2015 nuclear deal.
By every definition of the word, the regime is at its weakest state in four decades of rule. Public resentment of the mullahs is at its highest level, factional feuding is tearing the regime apart from within, acts by the MEK’s network are shattering people’s fear of the regime, and the regime is increasingly running out of lifelines from abroad. A member of Iran’s parliament implied that widespread unemployment and the gap between the rich and poor would lead to the regime’s downfall. “Our internal enemy is not America,” Hossein Maghsoudi said speaking at Majlis on Saturday, May 25, 2019. “Our internal enemy that is a bigger enemy than the US is youth unemployment, marginalization, the gap between the rich and poor, inflation, despair, depression among young people and ethnic and religious differences in the country,” he added.
In a new event, Emad Afrough, a former member of Iran’s Majlis, acknowledged the Iranian people’s hatred towards the mullahs’ regime.
“What do you expect when they’re hungry? When someone is hungry, they start insulting and cursing. Prior to the Dec 2017/Jan 2018 uprising, whenever I boarded a bus, a minibus, everywhere I would hear people insulting and cursing. They insult everyone and they don’t care, and I mean everyone. I told myself this is not the end of the story. It will lead to specific actions,” Afrough said in a state TV interview on Sunday, May 26, 2019.
Internet censorship and crackdown measures have been useless in confronting the Iranian society powder keg. “You cannot prevent this phenomenon. When people are denied of their rights and paychecks, when they feel discriminated, when they literally feel the inequality, they start breaking barriers. They no longer recognize any borders,” he added.
Iranian regime authorities are growing deeply concerned that any and all protests rallies can result in a security threat for the mullahs. “Any protest rally quickly evolves into a major issue. It immediately transforms into a political and security matter. This is the bitter truth. The people are looking for ways to retaliate,” the former Iranian MP concluded.
Resistance Units, People’s Symbols of Hope: Members of “Resistance Units,” help the people to organize their activities opposing the brutal regime in Iran. Resistance unit members are also expressing readiness to continue their struggle to bring about democratic regime change and freedom/democracy for the entire Iranian nation.
In the Capital City of Tehran, Members of “Resistance Units,” set fire to a bus belongs to regime forces. This is one of the buses being used to dispatch forces to different points against demonstrators.
In Isfahan, central Iran, a Resistance Unit set fire to a sign of a Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Basij base to voice the Iranian people’s hatred of this entity.
2 comments
You know change in Iran is all well and good, but, the void any change will make in Iran may not be easily filled by US interests, as it might be by China. China is currently one of Iran’s warmest bed fellows, and I can see China sitting in the wings waiting for Iran to implode, and then being Johnny-on-the-spot to assume control of not only the government, but also of it’s wondrous natural resource, namely oil, which China has a penchant for.
You know change in Iran is all well and good, but, the void any change will make in Iran may not be easily filled by US interests, as it might be by China. China is currently one of Iran’s warmest bed fellows, and I can see China sitting in the wings waiting for Iran to implode, and then being Johnny-on-the-spot to assume control of not only the government, but also of its wondrous natural resource, namely oil, which China has a penchant for.