Iranians have been protesting for several days, following the
regime's admission that its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane last week, killing
all 176 people on board. The Iranian government had denied culpability
for the downed airliner for days.
Iranians are risking their lives, calling for the end of the
mullahs' regime. President Donald Trump cautioned
Iranian officials not to kill the protesters, and he praised the
courage of the Iranian people on Twitter. CNN reports:
"To the leaders of Iran - DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS.
Thousands have already been killed or imprisoned by you, and the World
is watching," Trump wrote. "More importantly, the USA is watching.
Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free! Stop the
killing of your great Iranian people!"
The tweet comes hours after the President voiced his
administration's support for the protesters, writing on Twitter that
he has "stood" with them since he took office nearly three years ago.
Trump's tweet
of support for protesters, in Farsi and English, said:
Shoshana Bryen points
out that President Trump has figured out how to talk to people
without their government (in Iran) or the media (here at home)
intervening. The idea that the mainstream media - or anyone else -
should filter the news that reaches people, is dead.
The President's respect for the people of Iran seems to be
reciprocated: protesters purposely walking around rather than stepping
on flags
of the US and Israel painted on the ground at the entrance of
Beheshti University in Tehran.
Writing at Asia Times, David Goldman
notes the Iranian public's dissatisfaction with the regime due to
economic stress. He writes:
Iranians face desperate conditions, if not actual hunger, due
to the effect of economic sanctions. Add to this the long-term effects
of mismanagement of the country’s scarce water resources… Few
countries have endured this level of deprivation outside of full war
mobilization, and few have seen such a drastic decline in the number
of births. The only modern comparison is Venezuela. Governments with a
monopoly of economic resources and the willingness to kill significant
numbers of their own citizens can stay in power for quite some time,
but there seems no question that Iran’s regime is fragile and prone to
destabilization.
Christian Oliver, writing at
Politico, takes a slightly broader view, asserting that Iranians
are furious over the regime's lies and overall mismanagement of the
country:
There was a common refrain to many of the chants from crowds
of students and other critics of the regime: that Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his high-brass in the
Revolutionary Guards should now resign because of their incompetence.
This is dangerous territory for Iran's rulers. Accusations that
the leader is mismanaging the country (and fomenting corruption) plays
to a fury that unites the reformist camp with many more conservative
Iranians. At both ends of the political spectrum, there’s intense
frustration that the Islamic Republic never delivered, and that
neighbors like Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put
themselves on the map in a way that Iranians always aspired to, either
politically or economically.
...The shooting down of the plane epitomizes both the
incompetence of the regime, and the fact that the nation’s brightest
and best look to emigrate. The list of fatalities from the flight
manifest was a harrowing litany of not only children and newly married
couples, but doctors, engineers and scientists.
Finally, two
excellent articles on Iran that merit your attention:
