While most mainstream media outlets are calling the mass uprisings in Iran mere ‘protests’, Alireza Nader, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) told Foreign Policy that Tehran is acting to censor their brutal suppression of the protestors from reaching the cloud saying: ” “The regime wants an internet blackout so they can massacre their way out of this.” However, the Iran expert is pessimistic about the Islamic Republic’s ambitions adding: “But there is no way out. Even if this round is crushed, there will be more of this. There is no more oil and increasing isolation. So I don’t see any way for the regime to get out of this.”
Nader added that the reform to hike gas prices was carried out as the regime had no other option saying: “They did the reform because they are broke.” Explaining Iran’s catch 22, the FDD fellow explained that “People can’t afford a 300 percent increase in gas prices, but the regime didn’t have any other choice.”
“Since 3 days ago, #Iran‘s Islamic Regime has used #IRGC‘s #Basij militias to brutally suppress #IranProtests. These terrorists are dangerous as much as #ISIS. They are brainwashed and radicalized to kill innocent people for #Khamenei.”
Via @BabakTaghvaee pic.twitter.com/Yw771DuUha
— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) November 21, 2019
Meanwhile, Amnesty International has reported that at least 106 people have died as a result of the government’s brutal crackdown on the anti-regime protestors reports Bloomberg. The organization also said in a statement that: “the real death toll may be much higher, with some reports suggesting as many as 200 have been killed.”
Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Quds forces in Iraq are all dealing with the same type of mass uprisings in those countries. The protests in Lebanon started after Beirut decided to tax texting on the popular Whatsapp app.
