Thread: Rouhani acknowledges Iranian discontent as protests continue

What this article doesn't say is that the mullahs are responsible for encouraging the Shi'a to breed like rats and now it's coming back to bite them in the arse. More than half of the population is under 35, and there is a large swathe of disgruntled, unemployed (and probably unemployable) youths.

After an earthquake destroyed Majid Ahadi’s home in November, he waited for aid promised by the Iranian government to help his young family and others who had lost everything. But it never came. Far from the capital Tehran, Mr Ahadi and some 30,000 residents in the northern city of Kermanshah left homeless in the disaster felt abandoned by their leaders.


A few weeks later, President Hassan Rouhani announced he would be cutting the cash handout scheme the 25-year-old part-time mechanic had been depending on. The government neglect in Kermanshah had left him angry, Mr Rouhani’s budget proposal made him furious. The huge hike in food prices that followed was the final straw.


On Friday, December 29, Mr Ahadi took to the streets with several friends in protest at what he saw as endemic corruption and mismanagement.


“You hear about one thing or another sparking the demonstrations, but it wasn’t a single thing - it was a perfect storm,” he told the Telegraph from a cousin’s house, where he is now staying with his wife and two daughters. “There was so much pressure on the people, it just exploded.”


The first protests sprung up spontaneously in Kermanshah and Mashhad in the north of the country. Unlike in the 2009 Green Movement revolution, most of those out on the street were working-class, a demographic whose interests have largely been ignored and have suffered most under the sluggish economy.


“Eggs used to be 100,000 rials (£2), now they are 210,000,” said Mr Ahadi, using a pseudonym. “But it’s not just about eggs, it would be ok if people had good jobs to pay for the extra, but they don’t. We were promised them by Rouhani but they never materialised.”


Inflation is at 12 per cent and 40 per cent of young people are unemployed, leaving an increasingly consumer-driven population restless and frustrated.


Many of the demonstrators are angry at what they see as the failure so far of President Rouhani’s government to deliver on promises of more jobs and investment as a payoff from the 2015 nuclear accord, which saw Iran halt its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.


“Iran is not a poor country, but its national wealth is going to Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces) in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. Where is our money?,” Mr Ahadi asked, echoing a sentiment expressed by protesters earlier in the week.


In its desire to take on Sunni power and archfoe Saudi Arabia, Iran has invested billions in propping up its Shia proxies in the region.


Iran’s military forces also saw their funding increase by nearly 20 per cent in the budget to $11 billion (£8bn). The same budget proposed ending cash subsidies for millions of citizens and increasing fuel prices.


Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, his mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard, only seem to be getting richer, one trade unionist complained.


“Even conservatives have become increasingly concerned about the... ruling mafia of the Islamic Republic, which has systematically trampled on the rights of Iranian citizens,” said the activist, using the pseudonym Kiumars Pirouz.


A few years ago a photo was widely shared on social media of a smashed-up car belonging to a high-ranking mullah following a crash in Tehran. The cost of the Porsche Boxster GTS he had been driving was equal to a decade’s salary for most, users balked as they remarked on the hypocrisy.


Greater access to technology in recent years has helped expose the growing chasm between the wealthy elite and the impoverished majority, as well as provide a window into the relative religious and democratic freedoms enjoyed in the West.


Realising the mobilising power of social media, the government shut down Telegram, an encrypted messaging service, a few days after the protests began, adding to the list of platforms now blocked in the country.


However, activists and many ordinary citizens have been able to circumvent the ban using virtual private networks (VPNs), helping them get news of the demonstrations out of Iran.

“These current protests are big - not in terms of people, but in terms of geography,” Holly Dagres, an Iranian-American Middle East analyst and curator of The Iranist newsletter, told the Telegraph. “The number of smartphone users have doubled since 2009 to about 50 million, which allows them to share videos and information very quickly.


“Protesters are taking to the streets in cities and provincial towns that we haven't heard from since the 1979 revolution,” she said. “They are also leaderless, which makes pointing fingers especially hard to do, unlike 2009 when the Green Movement leaders were blamed and later put under house arrest.


“It makes it harder to stamp them out.”


Exiled opposition groups, such as the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), which has limited but growing support inside Iran, and monarchists, have seized upon the moment and welcomed the protests.


The PMOI, a formerly listed terrorist group which now operates largely out of France, has played a key role in organising major demonstrations in Iran since its inception in the 1960s.


One of the PMOI’s activists in Tehran told the Telegraph that it was its aim to seize on the protests to call for the fall of the regime.


“Calls were given on our Telegram channels a few days before the demonstrations,” said the activist, a 29-year-old engineering student who gave only the name Mohammed for fear of reprisal. “This is the group’s slogan: protest at any time, at any place.


“We have helped come up with times and meeting places for people to gather,” Mohammed said in voice messages sent via Telegram. “Don’t think this will go away, that people will give up. It will have ups and downs but it is certainly not the end as the Revolutionary Guard claims.”


While it is unclear to what extent the demonstrations have been centrally organised, groups like the PMOI have looked to exploit the discontent.


A banner bearing the picture of Maryam Rajavi, the group’s president-elect, appeared over a major overpass in the capital last week. “Brave young people, join the uprising against high prices,” it read. “Overthrow the criminal Khamenei. Death to Khamenei. Hail to Rajavi."


Iran observers believe many of the videos and pictures coming out of the protests are being published and shared by the PMOI networks.


Mr Rouhani blamed the PMOI for the unrest, while Ayatollah Khamenei blamed “foreign agitators and adversaries”, just as Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak looked to do after his country erupted in protest in 2011, and Bashar al-Assad in Syria after him.


Iranian leaders have seized on comments made by President Donald Trump that he stands with the “great people of Iran who are hungry for food and freedom” as proof the US is inciting demonstrators.


EU states, which have mostly stayed quiet this last week, are concerned that Mr Trump is trying to use the protests as a vehicle to place further pressure on the bloc to abandon its support for the nuclear deal signed by his predecessor Barack Obama.


Mr Trump has until mid-January to decide whether to continue waiving US sanctions on Iran's oil exports under the terms of the nuclear deal that he vehemently opposed.


But, given that the unrest began over high unemployment and prices, if he reimposes the sanctions it could increase the economic pain for Iran's people and perhaps give them cause to take to the streets once again.


“If these protests have indeed fizzled out as Iran’s leaders claim, it's worth noting that the grievances have not,” analyst Ms Dagres said. “As long as the government doesn't address the concerns of its citizens, their anger will continue to bubble beneath the surface.”

The 'perfect storm' of woes that led to the Iran protests

Good old torygraph - always banging the WAR DRUMS

Fear not harrytwat - we will be dropping PEACE BOMBS shortly to sate you blood lust.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Good old torygraph - always banging the WAR DRUMS

Fear not harrytwat - we will be dropping PEACE BOMBS shortly to sate you blood lust.

No-one's talking about war you silly little boy.

You haven't got a fucking clue have you?

Clueless harry strikes again. It's ALL about war. It's all about US driven regime change. All of these fake uprisings, lead by the west, it's all about war.

Next step? Terrorists starting an internal conflict like in Syria and the saud qatari funded and armed ISIS (straight from the pen of your beloved Hitlery).

War - regime change. Always starts the same way..... with DISCONTENT. WE must save the people. BOMB THEM.

You're nothing but a clueless dickhead. You're head is stuffed so far up your own arse you can probably smell the jizz of the last arab you serviced.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The cost of the Porsche Boxster GTS he had been driving was equal to a decade’s salary for most, users balked as they remarked on the hypocrisy.

In what country such "horrible" events happen?
It reminds me the news about Saddam's many swimming pools with golden appliances...

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Clueless harry strikes again. It's ALL about war. It's all about US driven regime change. All of these fake uprisings, lead by the west, it's all about war.

Next step? Terrorists starting an internal conflict like in Syria and the saud qatari funded and armed ISIS (straight from the pen of your beloved Hitlery).

War - regime change. Always starts the same way..... with DISCONTENT. WE must save the people. BOMB THEM.

You're nothing but a clueless dickhead. You're head is stuffed so far up your own arse you can probably smell the jizz of the last arab you serviced.

You're like a hysterical harridan, bleating the same old nonsense day in day out.

Read the fucking article, you utter moron.

It as much as says that this little revolution is as much as over.

All of your conspiratorial squealing is as usual a load of bollocks.

I'd suggest you head back to Buttplug for a mouthful of cum and some new material.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

Western computer and electronic gadgets

Good one!

You can't argue with this, it's from their Qatari brothers

Almost a year on after sanctions were lifted from Iran, the Middle East's second-largest economy remains a hard place to find a job. This is one of the economic factors contributing to the current unrest being felt across the country.


With an economy second only to Saudi Arabia, a population exceeding all in the region, barring Egypt - standing at 80 million people who call Iran home - and over 50 percent of that figure is currently under the age of 30, the world has taken notice of the demonstrations in the country.


Since the New Year, thousands have taken to the streets over rising prices and economic mismanagement; the biggest show of public dissent in the country since pro-reform rallies took place in 2009. Since then, the importance of social media to spread awareness and organise has been acknowledged and embraced by Iranians. This realisation prompted the Iranian government to temporarily shut down powerful online platforms like Instagram and messaging service Telegram, blaming outside interference for the disorder.


Dr Bijan Khajehpour, an economist and managing partner at Atieh International, a Vienna-based strategic consulting firm, says there are a number of economic phenomena in Iran contributing to public dissatisfaction.


"High prices ... unemployment is a key factor ... Iran has a very educated young population and a lot of these educated citizens are unemployed ... 25-26 percent of that is youth unemployment ... there is a direct correlation between the level of unemployment and the protests," he says.


Khajehpour also highlights the basis behind claims of corruption as a driving factor of the protests saying, "There is a feeling, or what I would call a 'heading' for all of these issues, I would say that the Iranians feel there is injustice in the country. There is corruption, there is mismanagement."


As post-sanctions Iran continues to struggle and foreign investors continue to be wary of putting their money into the country, the question remains: How important is foreign investment to Iran, especially in light of current conditions?


"Foreign investment is very, very significant. Not just because capital will flow into the economy, but also because new technologies and also new management concepts will flow into the country. Mismanagement and inefficiency are part of these issues and can be addressed through efficient foreign investment and through different concepts and knowledge that can be transferred into the country," says Khajehpour.


http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2018/01/iran-economic-reasons-contributing-unrest-180107051828426.html

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

You can't argue with this, it's from their Qatari brothers

"their Qatari brothers"???

Originally Posted by pseudolus

1 Infiltrate, fund, arm, organise protesters.
2 Say "It is an internal issue, but people should be allowed to protest".
3 Ratchet up the protests until the government clamps down
4 World Press "THEY ARE KILLING CIVILICIANS>>>>> WE MUST DO SOMETHING"
5 We will bomb them for Freedom. Come on folks, get the invoices ready, lets go.


And stupid fuckers wave their flags chanting USA USA USA as more people die for the ubers richs kicks.

Something for those types to consider...from this past November:

Lies We Tell Ourselves
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/li...ell-ourselves/

Iran has a very educated young population

And they represent the future. As I've said before, underestimate Iran at your own peril- and do not believe the avalanche of bullshit you are being spoonfed.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

"their Qatari brothers"???

Oh FFS you really don't have a fucking clue, do you?

Originally Posted by sabang

And they represent the future. As I've said before, underestimate Iran at your own peril- and do not believe the avalanche of bullshit you are being spoonfed.

It's all well and good having a young, educated population but it's no fucking use if the senile old fuckers that run the country won't give them a chance to shine.

senile old fuckers that run the country

Kinda have this habit of dieing. Let time run it's course.

I very much doubt Iran will remain a theocracy in 50 years- much to the chagrin of Israel. Why do you think they are incessantly beating the war drums now, and trying to manipulate their retarded untermenschen in America to go and do the dirty work? They wish to arrest this progress.

Originally Posted by sabang

Kinda have this habit of dieing. Let time run it's course.

I very much doubt Iran will remain a theocracy in 50 years- much to the chagrin of Israel. Why do you think they are incessantly beating the war drums now, and trying to manipulate their retarded untermenschen in America to go and do the dirty work? They wish to arrest this progress.

Take away the theocracy and they'll just be another corrupt Asian country, albeit with a load of oil and gas.

Originally Posted by sabang

Yawwwn- like snatching candy from a baby's mouth.
Standards of health care are considered to be generally high in the United Arab Emirates

... The World bank ranked Dubai and Abu Dhabi as being the 2nd and 3rd, respectively, most popular medical tourism destinations in the region, behind Jordan.In first half of 2015, Dubai attracted 260,000 medical tourists

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health..._Arab_Emirates
Yes herman- the truth hurts, doesn't it?

The inbound tourism usually is from African countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda etc. The outbound can be categorised into two segments - The local population (citizens of UAE) and the expats. The locals prefer to go to European destinations like the U.K., Germany etc. The expats prefer to go back to their home countries for treatment.

Reminds me of a gentleman sitting next to me on a flight from Muscat-Frankfurt last year. He told me he is going to a clinic in Germany. Low qualified Doctors and not enough nurses was the reason for not getting cut up in UAE. They can buy all the medicine, diplomas and high tech equipment (Made in ? ) in the world, but Petro Dollars can't buy everything.
Ohh, Costa Rica and Ecuador are also on that most popular medical tourism destination. Now that explains a lot...don't it.
The real sick rich muslims go to...Bingo....Israel. If not Israel, a jewish Doctor in New York.

Happy Expats living in UEA ? As far as I know they are all going home sooner or later.

Germans living in Turkei ? Mostly Germans married to Turks. Why not! "Every Hardship Comes With Allah's Love"

Originally Posted by sabang

And they represent the future. As I've said before, underestimate Iran at your own peril- and do not believe the avalanche of bullshit you are being spoonfed.

Guess its going to take another century or so

Iran bans English in primary schools after leader's warning
by REUTERS 01/07/2018

DUBAI - Iran has banned the teaching of English in primary schools, a senior education official said, after the country's Supreme Leader said early learning of the language opened the way to a Western "cultural invasion."

"Teaching English in government and non-government primary schools in the official curriculum is against laws and regulations," Mehdi Navid-Adham, head of the state-run High Education Council, told state television late on Saturday.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

The real sick rich muslims go to...Bingo....Israel. If not Israel, a jewish Doctor in New York.

Horseshit.

They either go to the Wellington or a top notch hospital like the Cleveland Clinic.

They don't even have to do that now since they opened a Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi and just rotate the doctors there as needed.

You should stop making shit up Herman, you sound ridiculous.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Horseshit.

They either go to the Wellington or a top notch hospital like the Cleveland Clinic.

They don't even have to do that now since they opened a Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi and just rotate the doctors there as needed.

You should stop making shit up Herman, you sound ridiculous.

Just fill it out if you need a good clinic Harry.
http://www.uae.diplo.de/contentblob/..._Long_Stay.pdf

I'm sure Pseudolus can find one from Israel or the U.S. I recommend you go for the REAL Cleveland. At least I would . Not the one with 145 doctors from all arround the world.

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/

Israel’s Medical Tourism Flourishing Thanks to Persian Gulf Arabs

May 30, 2017 - 20:27
Israel?s Medical Tourism Flourishing Thanks to Persian Gulf Arabs



Harry, are you honestly saying that wealthy Arabs are going to Mc Donald's types Clinics ?
The top notch does not work their my Dear.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

Harry, are you honestly saying that wealthy Arabs are going to Mc Donald's types Clinics ?
The top notch does not work their my Dear.

English not being your first language I'll just assume you have to read this again slowly:

They don't even have to do that now since they opened a Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi and just rotate the doctors there as needed.

I know one GCC leader who flies a doctor in from the Wellington for a weekend to do his colonoscopy.

And another one who flew in to check on the old ruler of Abu Dhabi and got given a farm in the West Country for his trouble.

They 're not like you Herman, they don't go to some local quack and come out with a plastic bag of whatever drugs he's trying to shift.

Oh, and Israel are their enemy, you fucking moron. You don't actually believe that Iranian horseshit you posted, do you?



P.S. No princess from the Bahrain ruling family went to Israel. They all use the Wellington and have for two generations.

Just fill out the papers Harry
http://www.uae.diplo.de/contentblob/..._Long_Stay.pdf

Thailand has supposedly also 2 of the best clinics and a booming medical tourism industry. Now where was the prince/king going to for medical treatment my little Harry ? You Sir are truly a Moron if you think YOU know where the rich and famous, Kings and Queens go to for medical treatment. The ones going to Israel are certainly not going to tell you and it won't be posted on Al Jazeera. Smuck !

O.K. maybe we can settle on a few muslim countries being shitholes with a toilette seat cover made out of gold.

Without Petro Dollars and support from the outside...just unnoticed shitholes. FACT !

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

Just fill out the papers Harry
http://www.uae.diplo.de/contentblob/..._Long_Stay.pdf

Thailand has supposedly also 2 of the best clinics and a booming medical tourism industry. Now where was the prince/king going to for medical treatment my little Harry ? You Sir are truly a Moron if you think YOU know where the rich and famous, Kings and Queens go to for medical treatment. The ones going to Israel are certainly not going to tell you and it won't be posted on Al Jazeera. Smuck !

You are correct that they don't tell me about it, but their pilots do.

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

Thailand has supposedly also 2 of the best clinics and a booming medical tourism industry.

I hope you can name them, because about the only thing I think Thailand is renowned for is cheap sex change operations, and possibly cheap Dental care.

German politician files criminal complaint against Iranian Ayatollah for mass murder

By Benjamin Weinthal
January 8, 2018 18:16


BERLIN – Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, considered to be a successor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, faces protests and possible criminal prosecutions in Germany for his widespread executions of Iranians, which took place while he was the country’s justice minister.

German Green Party politician Volker Beck filed a criminal complaint on Sunday against Shahroudi, who is residing in a neurological treatment center in Hanover, where 200 demonstrators showed up Saturday to protest his presence. Beck said that Shahroudi’s mass murder activity could be prosecuted under German law covering crimes against humanity.
“I filed a criminal complaint,” Beck told The Jerusalem Post. “Germany should not be a sanctuary for such people, who in their country persecute people for political or religious reasons and threaten them with death. The Iranian regime persecutes women who were raped, homosexuals, Baha’is, Kurds and atheists.”

He added, “It would be a big mistake if the federal government provides diplomatic immunity here to the organizer of mass murders through Iran’s justice system. We should not be a health resort for human-rights violators, rather they should be held accountable.”

During his 1999 to 2009 tenure, Shahroudi implemented more than 2,000 executions, including for adolescents, despite Iran having signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits such killings. He also allowed the arbitrary arrests of political and human-rights activists, the torture of prisoners and the closure of reformist newspapers.

He is a strict disciple of the anti-Western Khamenei and a former student of Khamenei’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In addition to Beck’s criminal complaint, Shahroudi is having his presence in Hanover investigated by the Lower Saxony state prosecutor, while the Kargah cultural center in Hanover has filed a second criminal complaint against him.

Saba Farzan, the German-Iranian executive director of the Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin, told the Post on Monday, “Now that this regime official is here in Germany, legal action against the crimes he’s committed is the absolutely right path to go. Justice must be served in light of all the grave human-rights violations this person is responsible for. It should be highlighted once again as well that this representative of the Islamic dictatorship shouldn’t be on European territory at all. Europe and Germany in particular should put, once and for all, an end to that open-door policy for all kinds of dictatorial figures. These human-rights violators must learn that they can’t deprive their own citizens of their inalienable rights and then receive luxurious treatment – medical as well as political – at the same time.”

German politician files criminal complaint against Iranian Ayatollah - International - Jerusalem Post

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

Volker Beck

Blimey - only takes a second googling this fucks name to see who owns him. Is his salary paid in shekels directly? Or in Euros stuffed in envelops on each visit to a certain building on Auguste-Viktoria-Straße.