The Iranian government yesterday warned people against further protests after two days of demonstrations sparked by anger over an array of economic problems.
“We urge all those who receive these calls to protest not to participate in these illegal gatherings, as they will create problems for themselves and other citizens,” Iranian Minister of the Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said.
State broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran News Network said it had been banned from covering the protests that on Thursday spread from Iran’s second city, Mashhad, to other areas.
Photo: AP
The protests initially targeted economic problems, but quickly turned against the Muslim regime as a whole.
US President Donald Trump said “the world is watching” after dozens of demonstrators were arrested.
Media coverage inside Iran focused almost exclusively on pro-regime rallies held yesterday to mark the defeat of the last major protest movement in 2009.
The timing was coincidental, as the rallies are held every year on Dec. 30, but offered a handy show of strength to the regime as huge crowds of black-clad supporters gathered across the country.
“The enemy wants once again to create a new plot and use social media and economic issues to foment a new sedition,” Ayatollah Mohsen Araki told a crowd in Tehran, the conservative Fars news agency reported.
Video footage on social media showed hundreds marching through the holy city of Qom on Friday evening, with people chanting “Death to the dictator” and “Free political prisoners.”
There were even chants in favor of the monarchy toppled by the 1979 Islamic revolution, while others criticized the regime over its support of the Palestinians and other regional movements rather than focusing on problems at home.
Footage showed thousands gathered in cities including Rasht, Hamadan, Kermanshah and Qazvin, with police responding with water cannons.
Officials were quick to blame outside forces for the unrest.
“Although people have a right to protest, protesters must know how they are being directed,” Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar said on Twitter.
Since the 2009 protests were ruthlessly put down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, many middle-class Iranians have abandoned hope of pressing for change from the streets.
However, low-level strikes and demonstrations have continued, often on a sector-by-sector basis, as bus drivers, teachers or workers from specific factories protest against unpaid wages or poor conditions.
Some of this week’s protests were directed against financial scandals linked to unauthorized lending institutions that collapsed with the loss of hundreds of thousands of accounts.
Payam Parhiz, editor-in-chief of reformist Nazar media network that broke the news of the Mashhad protests, said they were more focused on the economy than those in 2009, which were sparked by allegations of election-rigging.
“Then, they were middle-class and their slogans went beyond economic matters to things like cultural liberties,” he told reporters. “Today, the concerns are economic. There are people who have lost their life savings. They will protest until their problems are resolved.”
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique