![](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/images\/stories\/2013\/news\/4-shanbeh-suri-200.gif\")
NCRI – Iranian security forces have begun arresting lorry drivers delivering firecrackers for the nation’s fire festival – because they view the popular annual event as a threat to the ruling dictatorship.<\/p>\nNCRI – Iranian security forces have begun arresting lorry drivers delivering firecrackers for the nation’s fire festival – because they view the popular annual event as a threat to the ruling dictatorship.<\/p>\n
Iranians have traditionally used the festival on the last Wednesday of the Iranian year to air their grievances against the mullahs regime.<\/p>\n
But senior clerics now fear the festivities could escalate into nationwide protests ahead of the June presidential elections.<\/p>\n
Colonel Nader Khorsand – the head of the State Security Forces in northern city of Astara\u00a0 – told the state-run Mehr news agency that the driver of a truck loaded with 52,000 firecrackers had been arrested at a checkpoint on the road from Ardebil to Astara.<\/p>\n
The man had been charged and he would be appearing in court, Khorsand said.
\u00a0
State security forces had also confiscated more than 96,000 firecrackers and a large amount of materials used to make firecrackers in Alborz Province, central Iran, and another man had been arrested, Mehr news agency reported.<\/p>\n
In Tehran, police and SSF agents had also confiscated more than 29 tons of firecracker-making equipment, the agency said.<\/p>\n
Damavand City governor Saeid Afshar Naderi said last week: “Despite our country\u2019s Islamic values, the fire festival ceremony on the last Wednesday of the year has changed into a negative cultural behavior.<\/p>\n
“The fire festival has no philosophical existence, scientific base and logical explanation.”<\/p>\n
Senior regime cleric Mahdavi Kermani has also called on parliament to uproot the Chaharshanbe-suri (Fire Festival) celebrations.<\/p>\n
He told MPs in January: “The issue of fire festival and its negative consequences continues to exist in the country. You can act to uproot this issue.”<\/p>\n
During the festival – which dates back to the 7th Century – Iranians traditionally celebrate by lighting bonfires and jumping through the flames.<\/p>\n
In recent years, security forces have been cracking down on celebration up to two months before it begins by banning firecrackers, sparklers, rockets and even home-made grenades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NCRI – Iranian security forces have begun arresting lorry drivers delivering firecrackers for the nation’s fire festival – because they view the popular annual event as a threat to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[175],"class_list":{"0":"post-12968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-society","7":"tag-updated"},"yoast_head":"\n