Iranian protesters shouted and marched through the streets into yesterday morning after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for demonstrations, despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the Internet and international telephone calls.
Short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in Tehran and other areas.
Iranian state media broke its silence over the protests, alleging “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel set fires and sparked violence.
Photo: AP
It also said there were “casualties,” without elaborating.
The full scope of the demonstrations could not be immediately determined due to the communications blackout, although it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy and that has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years.
The protests have intensified steadily since Dec. 28 and represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past, but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 42 people while more than 2,270 have been detained, Human Rights Activists News Agency said.
Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations yesterday.
“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8pm on Thursday and Friday,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy senior fellow Holly Dagres said. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”
“This is exactly why the Internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters,” Dagres added.
When the clock struck 8pm on Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said.
The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!”
Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!”
Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,” Pahlavi said. “It has shut down the Internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.”
He went on to call for European leaders to join US President Donald Trump in promising to “hold the regime to account.”
“I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,” he added. “Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it is not clear whether that is support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline as well.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS