IRAN UPRISING: WILL IT CONTINUE? HOW DEEP THE MEK / PMOI ARE EXTENDED IN THE COUNTY?

IRAN UPRISING: WILL IT CONTINUE? HOW DEEP THE MEK / PMOI ARE EXTENDED IN THE COUNTY?

By INU Staff

INU - Could the current regime of Iran annihilate the MEK / PMOI? Or the MEK / PMOI together with protesters will be victories?

The recent uprising in Iran which began on December 28 late last year, has sent shockwaves around the world, including the current debates among Iran policy circles in the United States.

Many policy experts, analysts, and commentators now view and describe the uprising as “watershed”, or “landmark event” or a “tuning point” in the period since 1979.

The below article is trying to provide a summary of these conceivable options and views mainly focus on the question of “will this uprising continue.”

There has been speculation that the uprising will die out or be crushed by the regime. However, a key barrier has been broken: Iranians are no longer contained by the wall of fear created by the Islamic Republic regime.

Not only has Iran’s theocracy lost its legitimacy, but also it has lost its ability to control the public who are well organized and peaceful through the instruments of violence. MEK / PMOI supporters shown outstanding supremacy in the uprising.

Their vision and advice has been well followed by young protesters. None of the shop or people properties has been attacked. MEK / PMOI supporters thoughtfully organised not to target none government position but to be focus on authorities belonging such as Bank, Clerical institution, suppressive forces bases etc., Unlike in past protests, countless Iranians have demonstrated that they will no longer participate in the political game of “reformist vs. conservative” (better known as “moderates vs. conservatives” in the West).

For them, no one from the establishment, including the so-called reformists, can make their lives better. For them, the entire system has to fall for a new Iran to be reborn. This clear vision is what for over 3 decade MEK / PMOI have been declaring and educating generation after generations.

The current revolt may not lead to the immediate collapse of the regime, but it is clear the death throes of the Islamic Republic. Said one supporter of the MEK / PMOI In a demonstration in solidarity with the uprising in Paris.

Another MEK / PMOI supporter added: Khamenei and Rouhani may blame foreign enemies for the uprising, but their enemies are the hungry and oppressed people of Iran. They are awake. And they are legion.

So two points are very clear. First, this is not the first time Iranians have come out on the streets to protest and challenge authoritarian rule, nor will it be the last; the Iranian people have a long history of seeking a democratize political order. Second, the Iranian regime will not significantly modify either its domestic or foreign policies, portending ongoing unrest. Thus as there is an organized alternative NCRI where MEK / PMOI are one of the main member of it with wide spread network inside Iran one can assume the fatal effort of the regime for any strategic success. No doubt as regime use more force and start more killing it only provide a magnificent tool for the protester to become more and more organized and follow objectives MEK / PMOI have been looking for over 39 years. This is the beginning of the end of a rotten corrupt religious dictatorship fully rejected by million protesters in 142 cities said a young Iranian student MEK / PMOI supporter who had left Iran only one year ago and joined the protesters in Paris.

As the current unrest demonstrates, Iranian aspirations for a free and democratic state remain very strong and the clerics will not be able to thwart the will of the people any more.

• NEXT:Regime Change Assured in Iran

 

#Iran #News:WARNING -#Tehran, The mother of this young man, arrested during #IranProtests & lashed by state authorities, took these images and placed them on the internet. #IranUprising will continue to bring about #RegimeChange& end these atrocities. @nikkihaley @Asma_Jahangir

#Iran #News:WARNING -#Tehran, The mother of this young man, arrested during #IranProtests & lashed by state authorities, took these images and placed them on the internet. #IranUprising will continue to bring about #RegimeChange& end these atrocities. @nikkihaley @Asma_Jahangir

IRANIAN ACTIVISTS STRIVE TO BUILD AWARENESS OF PROTESTERS’ DEMANDS AND TEHRAN’S RESPONSE

IRANIAN ACTIVISTS STRIVE TO BUILD AWARENESS OF PROTESTERS’ DEMANDS AND TEHRAN’S RESPONSE

By INU Staff

INU - On Thursday, World Watch Monitor featured an interview with the Iranian-born human rights activist Mansour Borji, now the advocacy director of the UK-based charity called article 18. The article added Borji’s voice to the ongoing assessments of the situation faced by the Iranian nation in the wake of mass protests that began on December 28.

According to Borji, those protests demonstrated public opposition not only to Iran’s clerical regime as it exists today but also to the entire concept of political Islam. This account of popular sentiment is in keeping with the slogans that organizations like the National Council of Resistance of Iran have reported as coming out of those protests. These include calls for the resignation of both the “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Protesters have also been heard to identify by name the reformist and conservative political factions that these two men lead, only to declare “the game is over” and suggest that there is little difference in what each has to offer the future of the Iranian nation.

Borji echoed this interpretation of public sentiment, stating that Iranians see little chance for reform from within the existing regime. “They see just survival tactics,” he said of the people’s response to Iranian activities such as the wasteful expenditure of public funds on interventions in the broader region, as well as the regime’s violent reaction to the latest round of protests.

Many observers of Iranian affairs have concluded that such violence is likely to only inflame the types of sentiments that Borji highlighted. For instance, an editorial published at Iranian.comdeclared that while the protests had largely subsided after two weeks, “the fallout from the government’s harsh response has just begun.” The article points out that the disappearance of protesters and politically active university students has brought people out by the thousands to protest in front of Iranian prisons and demand information or the release of their loved ones.

The article even goes so far as to say that “unrest in Iran will continue until religious rule ends.” This same conclusion is being presented to the world at large by activist groups like the NCRI, many of which are also working to keep international attention focused on the human rights abuses that have been witnessed in the midst of the regime’s response to the popular uprising.

NCRI President Maryam Rajavi visited the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council on Wednesday and decried the “silence and inaction” that has been typical of European leaders’ responses to the unfolding situation. She urged those leaders to instead begin pushing for a United Nations inquiry into the regime’s response to protests, and to take appropriate measures such as the imposition of new sanctions to prevent that response from worsening.

“Iran is a powder keg and the protests continue to occur throughout the country,” Rajavi said. “The regime is doomed to fall and the Iranian people are determined to continue their struggle to end the rule of religious dictatorship and establish freedom.”

Such remarks reflect the conviction that regime change in Iran will be driven by the domestic population. But the NCRI has also called for foreign support in that endeavor, without limiting that support to human rights advocacy. Previously, the resistance organization called upon Western governments and the international community to help keep lines of communication open for the Iranian people on the internet and social media. This goal may prove more important than ever in the near future, as Tehran weighs its options for increasing restrictions on media and communication in hopes of slowing the spread of information about human rights abuses and ongoing protests.

Radio Free Europe reported on Friday that Supreme Leader Khamenei had recently met with cyberspace experts to explore this issue. The article also included some of the comments that had been offered by other clerical authorities. For instance, Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, acknowledged that it would be impossible to “fully block” the internet but also insisted, “We have to reduce it.”

Additionally, Tehran’s Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami attributed the recent protests to “cyberspace seditionists” and said, “Cyberspace as a platform for foreigners is a mad dog. If left alone, it will bite again.”

The Iran Project added that General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military aid to Khamenei, had said, “The enemies are seeking to undermine national unity through using cyberspace” and creating “a gap between the nation and the authorities.” While it is true that the United States State Department communicated with protesters and urged them to evade the regime’s new restrictions on social media platforms like Telegram and Instagram, the regime’s critics insist that the gap between “the nation and the authorities” already existed. On this view, the White House and other foreign supporters of the protest movement have only been trying to give the Iranian people the means to express the dissent they already hold dear.

Nonetheless, Khamenei has made every effort to portray the recent protests as being ginned up by foreign powers. He has described them as products of a “tripartite alliance” between the United States, its Arab allies, and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the pro-democracy resistance group that comprises the major part of the NCRI. “The MEK had prepared for this months ago and its media outlets had called for it,” he said. This was certainly a reference to NCRI-linked satellite television networks but perhaps also to social media communications, which were widely credited with organizing and informing people about protests.

In various NCRI communications including Mrs. Rajavi’s visit to the European Parliament, the resistance organization has pointed out that information is still spreading among domestic channels so as to reveal an increasingly clear picture of the regime’s violent response to the protests. While most international media continue to report that there have been only about two dozen deaths, the NCRI is adamant that the real figure is at least twice that. The group’s coalitions include people who were shot dead in protests and also people who have evidently been tortured to death, some of whom the regime attempted to publicly write off as suicides.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran reported on Wednesday that people were still coming forward to dispute the government’s official story in such cases. Specifically, it highlighted commentary from Kurdish human rights activist Mokhtar Zarei regarding the deaths of two other Iranian Kurds, Saro Ghahremani and Kianoosh Zandi, whom the regime says were killed in an armed confrontation with security forces.

Zarei provided a detailed eye-witness account of the incident, in which police opened fire on unarmed men, and he highlighted the parallels between that case and the case of Ramin Hossein Panahi, yet another Kurdish activist who was detained after a shooting incident last year in which three of his friends were killed in a vehicle. Kurdistan 24 now reports that Panahi has been sentenced to death on false charges of membership in a terrorist group, following 200 days of solitary confinement during which his family was deprived of all information about his situation.

These parallels, together with the poorly-justified death sentence, suggest that the Iranian regime is using the recent protests as an opportunity to continue its established patterns of human rights abuses, including unlawful executions and enforced disappearances. Of Panahi’s case, Amnesty International said in a statement, “Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law and places individuals at serious risk of extrajudicial execution, torture, and other gross human rights violations.”

Amnesty has also put out more general statements about the environment that has developed in the wake of the protests. These reiterate the positions of other groups like the NCRI regarding the danger faced by large number of demonstrators. After initially acknowledging only a few hundred arrests, government officials more recently admitted that 3,700 arrests had been made. But relying on the networks of the MEK, the NCRI has determined that upwards of 8,000 people have been detained and that many have been kept behind a familiar veil of secrecy, effectively making them victims of enforced disappearance.

• NEXT:Iran Authorities Arrest Lawyer For Protester Who Died In Jail

 

Liberate Iran: Demand Release Of Detained Protesters

On November 9, 1978, the US Ambassador to Tehran, William Sullivan sent shock waves through the foreign policy establishment with a diplomatic cable to the White House titled, “Thinking the unthinkable. Iran without the Shah.” The Iranian monarchy had been a US ally for decades but in less than three months, the Shah and the monarchy were history. 

Pundits were surprised by that change, and they were surprised again when Iran erupted at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018. As the principal opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) played an important role in organizing the protests and breaking the mullahs’ censorship with news about them. Among this news were reports that protests had emerged in more than 140 localities.

In an era of social media, it was the protesters who sent the “cables”. The message was plain and simple. With chants like “down with Rouhani”, “down with Khamenei”, and “no to reformers, no to hardliners; this game is over”, the Iranian people clearly communicated that they want regime change and they want it now.

Some 50 protesters were shot dead by security forces and the Revolutionary Guards. And according to the MEK at least 8,000 defenseless protesters were arrested. (Regime officials have acknowledged 3,700.) Reliable reports indicate that at least ten protesters have been killed under torture in prison. Some were then placed in front of their parents’ houses. A number of protesters are missing and there is no news of their condition.

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For years the mullahs and their advocates convinced foreign policymakers that the opposition was limited to a number of exiles abroad and that inside Iran there are only the regime’s two factions. The protests completely debunked this narrative. 

On January 9, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei blamed the US for plotting the protests with the MEK. “The MEK had prepared for this months ago,” he said, adding, “The MEK’s media outlets had called for it.”  

It is a conventional gambit of despots who are rejected by their own people, to blame foreign powers. The uprising was not a conspiracy by foreign powers; rather it discredited the Obama administration and the Europeans’ appeasement of the ruling theocracy.

Very much to their credit, President Trump and Vice President Pence quickly and repeatedly expressed political support for the brave Iranians and their just demands. US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley made commendable efforts to take the issue to the UN Security Council.             

The uprising showed that the multi-billion dollar windfall from the nuclear deal did not benefit the people. Rather, the mullahs used the political and economic benefits of the deal for further human rights abuses and to intensify their war efforts in the region. But these interventions have only made the regime more fragile.

The uprising was a revolt for freedom, popular sovereignty, social justice, and prosperity. It showed that Iranian society is in an explosive state, simmering with discontent. It showed that the regime is much weaker than perceived.

The mullahs have been able to contain the protests for the time being but the forces that brought millions to the streets are still working and more eruptions loom on the horizon.                         

As Maryam Rajavi, the president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran put it, “The mullahs cannot prevent the resurgence of the uprisings because they only depend on their deeply-hated repressive organs. They have lost the most important component of their power to enchain the society…The Iranian society will not return to the conditions preceding the uprising, nor is the religious dictatorship capable of regaining its previous balance.”

Scores of brave protesters who have broken the ayatollahs censorship have told the world that they are more determined than ever and that none of these brutal measures will break their convictions. They vowed that they will not relent until they reach their goal: To bring down the theocracy and establish democracy in Iran.

It is a moral imperative for the US and the whole of the West to stand on their side. Specifically, we should demand the immediate release of protesters who were detained. 

As Mrs. Rajavi told major political groups in the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on January 24, “All governments should adopt effective measures and binding decisions to compel the religious dictatorship ruling Iran to release the prisoners of the uprising, uphold freedom of expression and association, end repression and lift the compulsory veil.”

The US should keep the moral high ground, lead the way internationally, and hold Tehran accountable for its treatment of protesters. The regime must understand that it has to pay a high price for opening fire on demonstrators and killing them under torture. It is sad that Europe has chosen to ignore these issues in favor of economic considerations, but when the US moves to the correct side of history, Europe has no choice but to follow.

Ambassador Haley rightly suggested that the US demand a hearing at the UN. She should urge the High Commissioner for Human Rights to form a committee to investigate arbitrary arrests and the deaths of detainees. But whatever the means, we must keep focused on this issue. Remaining silent is the worst thing we can do for Iran’s protesters.

As Martin Luther King said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” But surely the Iranian people’s friends in the free world will not be silent.

After all, this is a moment the world has long been waiting for, a crossroads where we can achieve what seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago: Iran freed from the clutches of ayatollahs.

Iran has fired 23 ballistic missiles since start of 2015 nuclear deal, explosive report shows

By Rich Edson | Fox News

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Exclusive report details Iran missile tests

WASHINGTON –  Iran has aggressively pursued its ballistic missile program since agreeing to the 2015 nuclear deal, regularly launching nuclear-capable missiles in what critics consider a violation of the spirit of the deal, according to a report obtained by Fox News.

The report shows Iran has fired some 23 missiles since signing the deal, as many as 16 of them nuclear-capable. The controversial deal reached with the Obama administration did not include a ban on missiles, and Iran and European signatories to the agreement stress international inspectors have certified Iran in compliance.

But critics say the robust missile program shows the Islamic republic is bent on intimidating its enemies and preparing for the day when it can do so with the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.

“Out of all the ballistic missiles Iran fired in 2017, only four or five missiles can be considered nuclear-capable. In 2016, Iran fired 10 to 11 missiles than can be considered nuclear-capable,” according to a report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “It is highly likely that the administration’s threat intimidated Tehran, altering its flight-testing calculus.”

The report also cites an Iranian outlet quoting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as it complained of testing delays over concerns of a potential response by the United States.

Iran nuclear deal’s opponents, like the Trump Administration, argue the nuclear agreement emboldened Iran’s non-nuclear activity such as its support of extremism, ballistic missile development and cyber attacks.

The report, though, has “identified as many as 23 ballistic missile launches by Iran since the conclusion of the July 2015 nuclear deal,” wrote its author, Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst at the foundation.

The nuclear agreement’s supporters point out that the deal was designed only to address Iran’s nuclear program. They -- notably the European governments that are also signatories to the agreement -- stress that international inspectors have certified Iran as being in compliance.

The deal’s opponents, including the Trump administration, argue that the nuclear agreement has emboldened Iran’s non-nuclear activity -- its support of extremism, ballistic missile development and cyberattacks.

President Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Iran deal by May if European nations refuse to agree to changes.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is traveling this week in Europe, meeting with counterparts. State Department officials said staffers are already beginning Iran talks in Europe.

“I’d say there was a pretty wide measure of agreement on the European side about the need to look at what Iran is doing on the ballistic missile front and to work out what we can do collectively to constrain that activity and to make a big difference there,” United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said after meeting with Tillerson.

European governments largely want to stay in the nuclear agreement, and their support of further measures against Iran’s missile program could potentially keep it together, if it satisfied the president.

Rich Edson is a Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel. Prior to that, he served as Fox Business Network's Washington correspondent.

Iran spends billions on weapons programs, terrorism while ignoring Iranians' basic needs, report finds

By Ben Evansky | Fox News

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Report details Iran missile activity since the nuclear deal

Iran is spending billions of dollars on its weapons programs and supporting terrorism around the globe while it ignores the basic needs of its people, a new report asserts.

The report, issued by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), states that this month’s uprising against the regime was due to what it states are the “grueling high prices and economic strains on an array of social sectors.”

It claims that this is a result of the regime putting its resources, “toward domestic suppression, warmongering and expansion of terrorism abroad,” which the report points out has led to poverty and deprivation among Iranians.

The report is titled “Primary Causes of Poverty and Popular Uprisings in Iran.” It says the report is based on a “high-level assessment” which revealed that the annual minimum cost to Iranians of keeping the “clerical regime in power” is about $55 billion.

The national council says on its website it is a “broad coalition of democratic Iranian organizations, groups, and personalities” that “was founded in 1981 in Tehran, Iran, on the initiative of Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian Resistance.”

The report claims that half of those funds came from “money channeled to military and security-related activities and export of terrorism, funded by revenues obtained from institutions controlled by the supreme leader’s office and the IRGC.” The report indicates that the other half of the funds is from the official state budget and is earmarked for military- and security-related affairs and the export of terrorism.

The report also describes how during the height of this month’s anti-regime protests, shouted comments were made against  Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The report states that over the years Khamenei has taken over the “bulk of Iran’s economy.” It claims the organizations and institutions, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), show that Khamenei-controlled-companies make up over 50 percent of Iran’s gross domestic product, or GDP.

The report compares what it calls funding for “warmongering and suppression” against other state expenditures.

It claims Iran’s total health care budget for 2018 is $16.3 billion, which is a third of its total war budget.

The report also reveals that for the last six years the total spent on its Syrian activities is around $15-20 billion a year. It describes how protesters shouted during the January protests, “Leave Syria, think about us,” and “Neither Gaza or Lebanon, I dedicate my life to Iran.”

The report compares paltry welfare payments made to those living under absolute poverty with the larger sums of money paid to Afghan mercenaries bankrolled by Iran to fight in Syria.

According to statements made by Afghan mercenaries during interviews with state-run media, each mercenary is paid between $600-700 a month. Doing the math, nearly 20,000 Afghan mercenaries cost the regime between $12-$14 million a month. Compare that to the nearly $70 monthly stipend Iranians living under the absolute poverty line receive, according to the report.

“This report has the merit of explaining the hidden dimension of the ongoing Iranian opposition to the regime,” Fox News national security and foreign affairs analyst Walid Phares said. He added that he has long argued since talks unfolded between the Obama administration and parties involved in the Iran nuclear deal that the Iranian regime would not use the billions of dollars it got from the deal for the needs of the people.

Phares said, “This policy has been practiced by the regime since its inception: They put the ideological war doctrine ahead of their people's daily life's interest.”

He argued that one cause of the 2009 uprising was middle-class anger against the regime's support of Hezbollah and Hamas. Phares said history repeated itself again when “Tehran's ruling elite gave priority to funding external interventions in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, over the well being of Iranian civil society. This led to the protests of this year.”

The report concludes that any future deals with Iran will strengthen the clerical regime and its armed entity, the IRGC. The report ends by recommending that to, “order to eliminate the dictatorship's machinery of war and suppression, all of the regime's officials, the IRGC and the array of economic organizations and institutions in their orbit of influence must be placed under international sanctions.”

Ben Evansky reports for Fox News on the United Nations and international affairs.

He can be followed @BenEvansky

 

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