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Iran Official: Anti-Regime Protests Spread to 160 Cities

Iran Official: Anti-Regime Protests Spread to 160 Cities

By Amir Taghati

A senior Iranian regime’s official said that people protested in 160 cities across the country during the anti-regime uprising of December 2017, something that contradicts the official Regime position that the protests were small, localised, and easily suppressed.

These figures by Ali Rabie, a Deputy Intelligence Minister of the Iranian regime, even exceed the estimations of the Iranian Resistance who reported that 142 cities across all Iranian provinces took part in the uprising. The Regime dismissed this as an exaggeration at the time, despite the fact that members of the Resistance and reporters from Iran National Television (INTV) were present in all 142 cities watching the protests unfold.

Rabie, who was impeached by the Iranian parliament in August 2018, also admitted that some protesters were killed in the streets, something the Regime has always tried to hide.

During his interview with the state-run ISNA news agency, Rabie, a former labour minister, also warned that Iranian society was like a powder keg now, so these protests may well be repeated.

Rabie said this uprising was unprecedented in the 40 years of the Iranian Regime, comparing it to “a leak in the dam” of a “butterfly effect” that encouraged more Iranians to take to the streets.

He said: “The silence was broken. A crowd, with a protesting potential, ended its silence and sparked unrest in other cities. What is added to today’s unrests is that there is a feeling there is no positive future possible and there is little hope to solve our existing issues.”

This shows that even the Regime officials can see that there is little chance for the mullahs to regain control and rule as they once did. Instead, the Regime will soon fall thanks to the work of the Iranian people and their organised resistance.

Rabie said that these protest served as an “alarm siren” for the Regime, but that they would be repeated.

He said: “These events can be repeated because the reason why they sparked in the first place is alive and well… The nature of unrests in the Dec/Jan 2019 period was a revolt limited to certain regions, and all the while very dangerous that sounded many alarm bells and has the potential to expand.”

Rabie served in the Regime for 40 years and has seen many crises in the country, but none may be more pressing than this uprising that may well end the Regime.