Iran – the Final Countdown

By Struan Stevenson

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report highlights the huge significance of the uprising in Iran, which began on 28 December 2017. It shows how millions of ordinary Iranians bravely risked their lives to join mass public protests against the repressive theocratic regime that has held power in Iran for the past 39 years. The widespread nature of these demonstrations is without precedent. People have taken to the streets in some 140 cities across Iran.

Demonstrators chanting: “Death to Khamenei”, “Death to Rouhani”, “Reformists, hardliners, it is game over now,” “Death to the Islamic Republic” and “Shame on you, mullahs,” have shown that this is an uprising against the regime itself. Their chants of: “No Gaza, No Lebanon, My Life for Iran ‘Death to Hezbollah” and “Leave Syria alone, think about us instead” have shown that they are sick of their wealth being looted to fund proxy wars and terrorists throughout the Middle East.

As always, much of the western media has either failed to report the uprising at all, or initially reported that the mass demonstrations were simply based on Iran’s dire economic situation. The western media for, the large part, has adhered to the Obama/EU appeasement policy that has insisted on viewing the theocratic regime in Iran as an ally, making it difficult for them to comprehend why the 80 million beleaguered citizens of that country could possibly rise up and demand regime change.

The Obama/EU axis and its supporters in the media have consistently denied Iran’s role as the world’s principal sponsor of terror and its steady and lethal march towards regional hegemony in the Middle East, a phenomenon now openly recognised by the new US administration. The western media who cheered Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal as a great breakthrough, ignored the fact that the terms of the deal will still enable the Islamic Republic to become a fully armed nuclear power in 12 to 15 years’ time, able to carry out its oftrepeated threat to wipe out Israel.

The Obama/EU axis even ignored the windfall release of $150 billion under the terms of the nuclear deal, that has enabled the theocratic regime to re-double its financing of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal civil war in Syria, the genocidal campaign to wipe out the Sunnis in Iraq, the murderous Houthi rebels in Yemen and terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon. But worst of all, the Obama/EU axis and its supporters have deserted and betrayed the long-suffering Iranian people, who have been subjected to decades of medieval cruelty.

This report unravels the extent of the mass demonstrations and reveals the deadly crackdown imposed by the regime, the torture and death of prisoners arrested during the protests and the role of social media and cyber-warfare during the uprising. The report shows how admissions by leading members of the regime have exposed its fear and vulnerability to regime change and their acknowledgement of the role and growing support for the main democratic opposition movement - the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The report concludes with the clear view that the clerical regime is now on its last legs and that its demise is inevitable, charting the next necessary steps to restore peace, democracy, human rights and women’s rights to Iran, while bringing the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and international terror to face justice in the international courts.

Iran: The arrest of Ahvaz steelworkers, a desperate attempt to end strikes and labor protests

The Iranian Resistance condemns the arrest of the Ahvaz steel striking workers and calls on the general public, especially the youth and workers of Khuzestan, to express solidarity with the strikers and to support families of the detainees, and calls on all international human rights and labor rights organizations to condemn suppressive and anti-labor policies of the clerical regime and to take action for the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees.
Thursday night, March 1, suppressive forces arrested at least 10 striking workers of Ahvaz steel during a raid on the homes of a number of them. This repressive action took place on the tenth day of the strike of more than 300 Ahvaz steelworkers and their daily gatherings in front of the governorate.
Following the upsurge in labor strikes, Khamenei on February 26, blamed these protests to the enemies and said: "One of the basic tasks of our enemies is that they may be able to create a recession, lag in labor complexes, especially large complexes, to force workers to do this ".
On Friday, March 2, Ahvaz steel striking workers were planning to enter Ahvaz Friday prayer show to protest the detention of their colleagues, but policemen prevented them. The workers inevitably gathered in front of the Mosalla. The motorized units of the police force went immediately to disperse the workers. The workers chanted "Friday Imam, listen, we are workers, not mobs".
Abdolreza Mousavi, the owner of Ahvaz Steel, is a large-scale government plunderer and owner of the Zagros Airlines Company, Esteghlal Sports Club of Khuzestan and Great Dariush Hotel in Kish Island. He refuses to pay workers’ wages while he recently ordered the purchase of 28 Airbus planes (IRNA-June 22, 2017).
The anti-labor ruling clerical regime thinks foolishly that with these arrests, it can break the will of the workers who have resolved to take back four decades of their lost rights from this oppressive regime, and prevent its overthrow. The corrupt and bankrupt regime of the mullahs is the first and most important factor in the economic and livelihood problems of the people, and the situation worsens as long as it is in power. Abbas Akhundi, Rouhani's Minister of Road and Urban Planning, in a shocking confession, said on February 25,: "The problem is lack of justice. There is no way to cure fundamental problems ... We can not solve social problems ... A gathering quickly becomes a chaos, a snow immediately disturbs the whole society. This shows that social resilience from a sustainable and durable concept is difficult.”
He said that 30% of the budget should be distributed and 70% dedicated to the civil development, but now our budget is 100% distributed. That means the value-added power tends toward zero.

Conference on Regime Change and 1000 Centre of Rebellions Through Iran

Iran Focus

London, 20 Jan - Paris Friday, January 19, 2018: A conference was held, entitled, “Change in Iran with 1000 Ashrafs (1000 centre of rebellions through Iran)”, featuring the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, Mr. Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and Senator Robert Torricelli, also a group of representatives of Iranian communities in Europe spoke of their personal experience while in Iran.

Below is the excerpt of the statement issued by NCRI secretariat on Friday 19, January 2018:

Mrs. Rajavi lauded the Iranian people’s glorious uprising which spread at remarkable speed to 142 cities, and the courage and sacrifice of young protesters to achieve freedom and democracy. Hailing the uprising’s martyrs and thousands imprisoned, she said, “Without any doubt, all of us will march on together, until we overthrow this corrupt and criminal regime. Victory belongs to the people of Iran.”

She urged everyone to assist the people of Iran in their uprising to get rid of the religious fascism ruling the country and establish democracy and popular sovereignty. She pointed out, “The people of Iran urge the UN and the world to recognize the Iranian people’s struggle to overthrow the mullahs’ religious dictatorship. This is the right of a brave people who are at the forefront of the struggle against a regime which is a threat to global peace and security. They urge the United Nations and all governments to pressure the clerical regime to free those arrested in recent protests and hold them accountable regarding those who have disappeared. They must form a commission of inquiry to investigate the arbitrary arrests of thousands of people and the killing of prisoners under torture. The people of Iran expect that all governments severe their political and economic relations with the clerical regime, particularly with the IRGC which is torturing and killing the protesters.”

Noting that the recent uprising has been inspired by the public’s rage over the mullahs’ plundering of their wealth, poverty, unemployment, and class differences as well as the regime’s 38 years of suppression and slaughters, Mrs. Rajavi reiterated, “This is a revolt for freedom and popular sovereignty to establish social justice and prosperity. It is not a byproduct of a power struggle among the regime’s internal factions, but another nail in the coffin of the masquerade about moderation. It showed that the billions of dollars of windfall from the nuclear deal did nothing to cure the regime’s instability. The uprising showed that the people of Iran detest both regime factions and want it overthrown in its entirety and that the Iranian society has a force within itself capable of overthrowing the theocratic regime.

Mr. Newt Gingrich in his speech said: Moderation in the Iranian regime is an illusion. There is a bad wing and a very bad wing in the dictatorship. There is no innocent wing of the dictatorship…The MEK is a real force. The level of fear of the MEK and Mrs Rajavi is growing among the regime. You have survived, you have endured, and you have continued with your mission, and the regime have been unable to stop you. ….You, the MEK, are making a difference. You are on the side of history, because you are on the side of freedom. Thank you Mrs. Rajavi for your dedicated leadership to this cause.

In his remarks to the conference, Senator Torricelli said: This is the beginning of a revolution. A regime that stays in power by killing its people has a numbered life. When Rouhani called French President Macron and asked him to clamp down on the MEK it made one thing clear: This is not a revolution without a leader. The leader is sitting here....The only group who has never compromised with the mullahs is the MEK. I agree with Khamenei on nothing except one thing: he is putting responsibility on the MEK and the PMOI and blaming Mrs. Rajavi. He is right about it. This has been organized for years, network has been created, by never compromising with the regime, never being part of it. The MEK and Mrs. Rajavi have kept credibility… So in identifying the MEK and Mrs. Rajavi, he is right because the MEK and the entire international community that supports it, we are all coming for Khamenei to end this nightmare.

A number of former political prisoners and survivors of the victims of the 1988 massacre also addressed the conference, testifying on the anti-human crimes of the clerical regime in prisons as well as the extensive repression in Iran, the volatile state of the society and the Iranian people’s resentment of the religious fascism ruling the country.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran With Its MEK Members, Goes on Offensive at Weekend Events

By Jubin Katiraie

This weekend in a cavernous convention hall outside of Paris, over 100,000 flag waving, foot-stomping, cheering supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( consisted of MEK/PMOI and other groups and personalities) gathered for their annual meeting.

Part pep rally and part television programming for a global audience, the annual event has for years been focused on galvanizing support for the MEK and drawing attention to the plight of dissident refugees sheltering in squalid camps inside Iraq and subject to frequent attacks from Iranian-backed forces resulting in score of deaths.

What was different this year was that all of MEK members —nearly 3,000 of them—were safely evacuated to a welcoming Albania as part of long-delayed resettlement program and escaped the clutches of an Iranian regime that seemed hell-bent on eradicating any sign of an indigenous Iranian resistance movement.

In a dramatic cinematic touch, a satellite feed from Tirana, Albania of the 3,000 resettled MEK members was beamed into the main Paris rally to the delight of the participants and vice-versa in what could be considered the world’s largest video conference call.

HELP THE IRANIAN PEOPLE TO OUST THEIR OPPRESSIVE REGIME

http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/

HELP THE IRANIAN PEOPLE TO OUST THEIR OPPRESSIVE REGIME

by Hassan Mahmoudi

The Trump administration needs to be prepared and leaning forward and ready to do everything it can to help freedom win and dictatorship lose in the great struggle that is underway in Iran." — Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The new Trump administration in Washington is still grappling with the extent to which it is obligated to uphold the illegitimate Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- the nuclear deal that the five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany signed with each other in July 2015, and apparently never signed by Iran.

While the Trump administration is saying that military action is not off the table, grassroots efforts by Iranian expatriates to help their brethren inside the Iran to topple their repressive regime have been underway.

These efforts were on full display recently on July 1 in Paris, France, where an estimated 100,000 Iranian dissidents and hundreds of politicians and other world dignitaries attended an annual "Free Iran" rally. The event, titled "Onward with the Iranian Resistance, Regime Change within Reach," expressed the feelings of courageous young people in dozens of Iranian cities, where they braved the menacing presence of members of the regime's intelligence services to show support for the rally in Paris.

Across Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Shiraz, Karaj, Tabriz, Ahwaz and other areas, Iranians expressed their discontent on the walls of buildings. The Iranian people denounced Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and hailed a 10-point plan devised in 2006 by Maryam Rajavi -- co-head of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI) and president-elect of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) -- for the future of their country. They also distributed leaflets in support of the Paris gathering, and shared hundreds of photos and videos on social media. The rally itself was streamed live on the internet and watched by thousands of viewers.

Speaking at the event, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich said:

"The next time there's popular dissent, it will be across the whole country; it will be organized. The Trump administration needs to be prepared and leaning forward and ready to do everything it can to help freedom win and dictatorship lose in the great struggle that is underway in Iran."

Turki al-Faisal: Iran is the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world

Staff writer, Al Arabiya EnglishSaturday, 1 July 2017

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Prince Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies, said in his speech Saturday at the Iranian opposition conference in Paris that “the Iranian government is the greatest sponsor of terrorism” in the world.

Al-Faisal said, “Khomeini sought to export revolutions and coups to the region.”

Al-Faisal stressed that the Iranian elections are undemocratic and illegitimate because Khamenei appoints the candidates, saying, “the behavior of the Iranian regime does not qualify it to be a democratic system.”

Prince Al-Faisal said, “Officials of the Iranian regime should be presented to the International Criminal Court.”

Several figures who participated in the Iranian opposition conference in Paris called for supporting the struggle of the Iranian people calling for change by overthrowing Tehran’s regime.

Among the attendees of the conference were parliamentary delegations from Britain, Italy, Albania, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia and Algeria – as well as various other European countries.

Last Update: Saturday, 1 July 2017 KSA 19:13 - GMT 16:13