THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 11:00 PM CEST
Tensions Running High in Khuzestan Province- Local Reports
On Saturday night, May 7, protesting high prices, young people staged rallies in Susangerd, burned tires, and blocked the streets. Security forces fired tear gas and tried to disperse the people.
UPDATE: 8:30 PM CEST
Air Pollution is Costing Iran Treasure and Blood, Publication Says
“The damages and dangers of air pollution can not be considered less than the Covid-19 pandemic, because the coronavirus may go much sooner than we think, but polluted air will always harm us,” the state-run Entekhab website wrote today.
The website quoted an official at the Ministry of Health as saying: “According to the World Bank report in 2016, the value of losses from destructed welfare in Iran is equal to $13,940 million dollars, which is 2.44% of Iran’s GDP. In 2013, the total cost of welfare lost in Iran due to air pollution was equivalent to $30 billion, which is 2.48% of Iran’s GDP.”
UPDATE: 6:30 PM CEST
On Saturday, May 7, hard-working ranchers in various cities staged rallies in front of the Agriculture Jihad Office in their provinces to protest the growing economic problems and the regime’s officials’ refusal to care and solve the difficulties they are dealing with.
Livestock ranchers in Yazd, central Iran were chanting: “Broken ranchers can’t take it anymore!”
They held a placard with writings that addressed the Iranian regime’s president and the parliament’s speaker: “Qalibaf, Raisi, this is the last warning, broken ranchers are ready to rise up!”
Ranchers in Arak, Markazi Province
Ranchers in Khorasan Razavi province
Ranchers in Qom
Ranchers in Isfahan
UPDATE: 1:00 PM CEST
Reports of Unrest in Khuzestan Province
Today, Al-Arabiya reported demonstrations in the city of Izeh, protesting the soaring prices and high inflation.
“According to the footage released, the people of Izeh took to the streets after calling for a rally against the wave of unprecedented high prices, especially the prices of basic goods such as bread, oil, rice, and meat,” Al-Arabiya said. “People are chanting slogans against Ebrahim Raisi.”
Other sources have reported rallies in the cities of Susangard, Fallahieh, and Behbahan. At the same time, the regime’s authorities have cut off the Internet, detained activists conducted raids from house to house, and dispatched anti-riot police to several cities. In recent days, the Iranian regime has increased the price of flour by 300 percent, rice by 120 percent, and pasta by 120 percent while cutting subsidies for all basic goods.
Amid Rising Tensions Over Soaring Prices, Sources Report Internet Disruption
Some users on social media reported on Friday that the Internet has been slowed down or interrupted in some parts of Khuzestan province, including in cities like Ahvaz, Susangard, Shadegan, Izeh, and Behbahan.
According to these sources, the disruption of the Internet coincides with a public call for protests in some parts of the province against inflation and soaring prices of bread as well as other basic items. Some accounts reported that the state has put security forces in Khuzestan on high alert as unrest and uprising loom.
In July 2021, thousands of people in various cities of Khuzestan took to the streets to cry for water to still their thirst and save their crops and cattle. The protests turned violent and security forces who were mobilized from other provinces clashed with locals.
UPDATE: 9:00 AM CEST
Calls for Regime Change in Tehran, Iran’s Capital
Location: Khayyam Street, Park Shahr, District 12, Southern part of the city
May 6 – Tehran, #Iran
3:20 pm local time
Anti-regime slogans aired in public:
"Down with Khamenei! Hail to Rajavi!"
"We don't want a Shah nor the mullahs! Damned be both!"
"Shah, sultan, velayat, your end is near!"
Speeches by Iranian Resistance leaders'pic.twitter.com/68moGqEpfU— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 6, 2022
Calls for Regime Change in Tabriz, Northeast Iran
Location: Valiasr Blvd., Bazaar Square, Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province
On Friday, May 6, at 10:45 PM local time, loudspeakers on the square started to air slogans of regime change and in support of the Iranian Resistance as well as excerpts of famous speeches of the Resistance leaders.
Some of the slogans were as follows: “Death to Khamenei, viva to Rajavi”, “Neither the Shah nor the mullah, I’m with the people”, “Death to Khamenei and Raisi, damned be Khomeini”, “You, the supreme sultanic monarch, your time has come”, “Rajavi is an advocate for the hardworking people!”
The JCPOA Cannot Be Revived, State-run Newspaper Says
“Iran’s condition for the revival of the JCPOA is bound to Washington’s accordance to withdraw the name of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the list of terrorist groups,” the state-run Jahan-e-Sanat wrote today. “In this regard, Enrique Mora’s efforts might convince Tehran to play along without the delisting of the IRGC, but for those concerned and principalists (called ‘hardliners’ by Western media) in Tehran, this means crossing red lines and the negotiating team will be accused of compromise to the West. And so everything the Rouhani government’s negotiating team was suffering from will be repeated for the Raisi government’s negotiating team. Meanwhile, by the current negotiating team standards and ideas, the IRGC plays a key, pivotal and decisive role.”
The newspaper added: “In the eyes of extremist senators such as Ted Cruz, the IRGC is America’s most dangerous enemy and has always sought to overthrow Washington and its allies in the form of destabilizing behavior. Of course, the US Congress dispute is not limited to the issue of removing the IRGC from the list of terrorist groups. They have some ultra-destructive programs or the ‘JCPOA Plus’ in mind. They view Iran’s ‘malignant infiltration’, our accurate missile programs, and a destabilization scenario in the geopolitical geometry of West Asia, as a source to disrupt Iran and the JCPOA. Thus, one can argue that the unresolved issues are not only limited to IRGC sanctions, rather there are other remaining issues that the United States stubbornly refuses to resolve. This situation means that there is no hope for the revival of the JCPOA. Currently, the JCPOA has fallen into a coma with inflexible strategies that no breathing and impulse can bring back to life.”
In Stockholm and Across the Globe, Iranian Resistance Supporters Stand Firm
The trial of former Iranian official Hamid Noury in Stockholm came to an end on May 4. Following the closing arguments, the court announced that the verdict should be expected on July 14.
The Swedish prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Noury after 90 court sessions and according to testimonies delivered by witnesses and survivors of the summer 1988 massacre in Iran, and various plaintiffs seeking justice for the over 30,000 political prisoners who were executed in just a few months. Many experts and jurists believe the court’s verdict will be based on the prosecutors’ request following the witnesses’ accurate testimonies that lacked any inconsistencies.
Read more: Iran News in Brief – May 6, 2022