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By C.J. Atkins
The Iranian people are back in the streets protesting the theocratic regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following the government’s stunning about-face on the downing of a Ukrainian airliner in the midst of war tensions with the United States last week. Tear gas and live ammunition were fired at demonstrators in Tehran and several cities over the weekend, with video circulating online showing pools of blood left behind as protesters carried away the wounded.
Thousands marched demanding democratic elections to replace the Islamic Republic’s government and called for Khamenei to resign his position as Supreme Leader. They condemned the regime after its admission that Revolutionary Guard forces had in fact shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 on Jan. 8, reversing earlier denials. The government first said the plane suffered technical problems and refuted accusations it had brought down the aircraft as the propaganda of Western powers.
On Friday, it admitted that its own troops had fired the surface-to-air missile that destroyed the plane, blaming human error for what it called a “disastrous mistake.” Regime authorities now say the Revolutionary Guard air defense forces mistook the airliner for a U.S. cruise missile, believing it to be a further development in the escalating conflict.
Following the Trump-ordered assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3 in Baghdad, the danger of war between the U.S. and Iran escalated rapidly. Ballistic missiles were fired at U.S.-occupied military bases in Iraq by Iranian forces five days later in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani. Flight 752, taking off from Tehran and bound for Kiev, was shot down following its departure from the airport four hours after the firing of missiles toward Iraq. All 176 passengers and crew aboard were killed; many of them were Iranian researchers and graduate students bound for Canada.
Iran’s Tudeh Party, the country’s communist party, is upping the pressure on the reactionary regime...
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