{"id":238487,"date":"2021-04-24T03:09:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T08:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=238487"},"modified":"2023-02-01T04:57:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T03:57:57","slug":"recent-trends-in-iran-point-to-more-widespread-unrest-ouster-of-the-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-protests\/recent-trends-in-iran-point-to-more-widespread-unrest-ouster-of-the-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Trends in Iran Point to More Widespread Unrest, Ouster of the Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"saravan-uprising-23022021-7\"<\/p>\n

In Iran\u2019s southeastern-most province of Sistan and Baluchistan, the regime\u2019s authorities have systematically obstructed the pathways used by fuel porters, known as ‘soukhtbar’, to carry quantities of the substance across the border with Pakistan. The porters, almost exclusively members of the local Baluch ethnic minority, often rely on this trade as their only source of income, while entities like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a> (IRGC) view it as a threat to their control over vast segments of the Iranian economy, including black markets.<\/p>\n

In February, a group of ‘soukhtbars’ staged protests against the IRGC\u2019s role in obstructing their livelihood and increasing the danger of an already perilous profession. The IRGC responded by opening fire and killing at least two of the protesters. This in turn led to much larger protests centered on the town of Saravan<\/a>, with local residents actively defending the fuel porters, lashing out at repressive authorities, and setting fire to building belonging to security forces and the government.<\/p>\n

The unrest gradually subsided over the following weeks, but the prospect of uprisings extended far beyond the borders of Sistan and Baluchistan. In March, as part of an event marking the Iranian New Year holiday, Nowruz, the Iranian opposition president-elect, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi<\/a> identified the unrest in Saravan as a sign that \u201cthe fire of the uprisings is rising from under the ashes of the coronavirus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Rajavi was referring to the fact that the global pandemic had a dampening effect, due to the regime\u2019s intentional inaction and cover-up, upon a movement for political change that was highly active just before outbreaks of Covid-19<\/a> began in Iran. In this way, it did what the regime\u2019s repressive institutions could not, and the Iranian people\u2019s resistance to that repression strongly suggested that the effects of the pandemic would only be temporary.<\/p>\n

In late December 2017, a protest over economic conditions was staged in Iran\u2019s \u201csecond city\u201d of Mashhad, and residents of surrounding localities quickly organized their own demonstrations to coincide with it. As 2018 began<\/a>, the protest movement spread to well over 100 cities and towns while also taking on stark, anti-regime slogans and explicitly rejected both the \u201chardline\u201d and \u201creformist\u201d factions of mainstream Iranian politics. The clear implication of this shift was that popular support for regime change was much more widespread in Iran than many had assumed.<\/p>\n

In the face of that revelation, leading regime officials struggled to shape a propaganda narrative that would allow them to save face, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei eventually acknowledged that the demonstrations had largely been organized and facilitated by the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran<\/a> \u2013Iran\u2019s leading voice for democracy and the most effective challenge to the mullahs\u2019 theocratic dictatorship.<\/p>\n

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Angry locals storm Governor\u2019s Office after IRGC kill residents in SE Iran<\/div><\/div>
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