Domestic policy
Political thought
International
Government expenditures
Power
Legal and Judicial
Infrastructure and technology
National security
Culture
Healthcare
Poverty and well-being
The economy
Widespread protests continue to erupt in Iran after the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was beaten to death by Iranian morality police after being arrested for dressing in clothing that violated a strict Islamic dress code.
The protests, which temporarily spread from Amini to more than 80 cities, now constitute the biggest challenge to the mullahs’ regime’s harsh crackdown since the 2009 wave of protests sparked by the rigged re-election of Iran’s then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The ongoing protests have become an open challenge to the Islamist regime, with crowds chanting “Death to the dictator!”Other people killed, according to state television.
Iran’s main union on Sunday called for a nationwide strike of students and students. If such movements spread to other sectors of Iranian society, the government will face cascading chaos.
Iranian women staged the protests, publicly and burning their veils, despised as a symbol of the regime’s oppression, and cutting their hair, symbol of mourning. The crowds chanted “zan, zendegi, azadi” or “woman, life,” freedom. “
Amini’s death broke the crust of long-standing popular grievances against Iran’s repressive regime and sparked the largest mass protests since 2019, when at least 1500 others were killed by internal security forces amid nationwide protests opposed to the regime’s wonderful announcement of relief in subsidies for gas and other goods.
Protests first erupted after Amini’s funeral in Saqqez, in Iran’s northwestern province of Kurdistan, and then spread. The fact that she is a member of Iran’s repressed Kurdish minority has sparked unrest in the turbulent Kurdish areas.
Such ethnic tensions pose a major long-term challenge to the Iranian regime. Like Russians at the end of the Soviet era, ethnic Persians are likely a minority in Iran due to the expansion of ethnic minority teams on the outer edge of Persia’s heartland: Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Afghans, Baluchis, Arabs and Turkmen.
Raisi intensifies repression
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, an ultra-hardliner, warned that his government will have to “decisively treat those who oppose the security and tranquility of the country. “
Given his history of acting as one of the regime’s brutal enforcers as he emerged at the helm of Iran’s Islamic justice system, there is no doubt that Raisi will redouble his repression rather than try to defuse tensions.
Raissi’s government has denounced the protesters as equipment of Iran’s foreign enemies and introduced artillery and drone movements opposed to Iranian Kurdish opposition teams across the border from Iraq.
If civil unrest escalates and continues indefinitely, the regime’s control of force will be threatened. However, it has survived even greater waves of protests in the past.
The existing revolt is unlikely to be a successful revolution as long as the main internal security forces, the Revolutionary Guards and its branch of the Basij defense force, remain united and willing to fire on the protesters, who lack organizational unity and national leadership.
But the outbreak of protests in recent years against severe political and social restrictions, economic hardship, corruption, repression, water shortages and labor disputes are damaging signs that the regime’s narrow aid base continues to erode.
The Raisi regime has no effective reaction to these deepening grievances, for greater repression. If your regime survives this wave of protests, it will inevitably face additional rebellions.
By blocking reforms and rigging elections, the regime is pushing long-suffering other Iranians into the streets to call for a revolution.
Will Biden repeat Obama’s mistakes?
Iran’s brutal dictatorship is counting on Biden’s management to turn a blind eye to the plight of other Iranians in a misguided effort to negotiate a nuclear deal with Tehran, just as Obama’s management did after large Iranian protests in 2009.
President Joe Biden’s Iran policy remains an incoherent disaster. His management granted Raisi a visa to the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week, where he denounced and defamed the United States just as Iranians were being gunned down in the streets of Iran.
The Biden administration has taken largely symbolic steps by enforcing sanctions on Iran’s moral police and allowing tech companies to supply equipment and generation facilities to allow Iranians to defeat government censorship and talk freely to each other despite internet disruptions.
However, the White House has made clear that it remains committed to striking a seamless deal with Iran’s ruthless rulers over the bloodied heads of the Iranian people.
This makes a mockery of Biden’s promise to make democratic values the centerpiece of his politics. In a speech to the State Department on February 4, 2021, the president said:
We will have to start with international relations rooted in America’s most beloved democratic values: protecting freedom, protecting opportunity, protecting universal rights, upholding the rule of law, and treating each and every user with dignity.
Just last week, at the United Nations, Biden proclaimed, “And today, we stand with the brave citizens and women of Iran who are demonstrating right now to protect their human rights. “
What Biden Should Do
To deliver on those promises, Biden would have to strongly condemn Iran’s leaders for the murder of Mahsa Amini and the violent crackdown on nonviolent protests. But action is more vital than rhetoric.
Biden deserves to end without delay the failure of nuclear negotiations with Iran and adopt a “Plan B” strategy to defeat threats from Iran, America’s allies in the Middle East and deter Tehran’s nuclear escape.
Hold Iran’s oppressive regime accountable and punished for its systematic crimes against its own and terrorist attacks against others, and not be rewarded with billions of dollars in sanctions relief for signing an illusory nuclear deal that would only stop, but not prevent, Iran. march to a nuclear weapon.
Another flawed nuclear deal would not only enrich Iran’s dictators and magnify the security threats they pose to the United States and its allies, but also increase their ability to suppress domestic opposition.
The winners of such an agreement would be Iran, Russia, China and Tehran’s terrorist proxies. Iranians in misery would be among the big losers.
This coin gave the impression on The Daily Signal