Cracking down Dec. 1 on peaceful protesters in Iran, 80-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave the order to mow down street demonstrators, killing at least 208, wounding hundreds more and jailing up to 7,000. Demonstrators protested rising gas prices while basic commodities, like food and clothing, have skyrocketed for ordinary Iranians. Iran finds itself feeling the economy heat from 73-year-pld President Donald Trump’s new sanctions, levied after he pulled the U.S. out of former President Barack Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal May 8, 2018. Since then, Trump has applied “maximum pressure” on Tehran, preventing the Persian Nation from selling Iranian oil in world markets. Trump wanted Iran to come back to the bargaining table, only to watch his peace overtures rebuked by Khamenei and 71-year-old Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Khamenei learned in the past what to do in Iran when street protests threaten his brutal clerical rule. Khameni repeated the same crackdowns witnessed after national elections in 2009, then again in 2017-2018, when Iranian youth realized Khamenei’s mullah rule betrayed Ayatollah’s Ruhollah Khomenei’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Back then, Khomenei returned to Iran to topple Iran’s monarchy led by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. While Khamenei succeeded in ousting the Shah, ordinary Iranians now realize that Iran is far worse off today then it was during the Shah’s rule. Khamenei used Dec. 1 Iran’s Basij militia with backing from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps [IRGC] to massacre peaceful protesters, the exact thing done in 2009 and 2017. Like other totalitarian or authoritarian regimes, Khamenei controls Iran’s weapons and means of using them.
Khamenei said Dec. 1 that Iran would show “Islamic mercy” to the protesters, despite giving the Basij militia the green light to open fire on peaceful demonstrators. Protesters complained about rising gas and commodity prices, making it difficult for ordinary Iranians to make ends meet. Trump continues to ratchet up the economic pressure, making it difficult for Iran to sell oil on world markets. Iran’s Rial currency has plummeted to its lowest level since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It’s a sad testament that Iranians pay only 90 cents a gallon, even with a 50-cent increase, attesting to how the plummeting Rial has left working-class Iranians cash strapped. Khamenei blamed nationwide protests on America, Israel and Saudi Arabia, his go-to scapegoats when the government takes no responsibility for creating Iran’s economic misery. Khamenei takes zero responsibility for today’s crisis.
Blaming unrest on the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia is consistent with the ongoing propaganda campaign, diverting state media away from the government. “The faster these cases are considered, the better and those who are suspected of being close to any group should dealt with in a way that is closer to “Islamic mercy,” Khamenei was quoted by IRNA, Iran’s state-run news agency. Offering to pay reparations to citizens regarded as martyrs, providing they weren’t connected with what Khamenei calls “rabble rousing,” or subversive outside groups. Khamenei can’t fathom that the protesters were ordinary Iranians seeing no economic future, watching the government squander one opportunity after another. Trump has made clear to the Ayatollah that he’s willing to sit at the table to discus a wide range of activities. Khamenei rejected any dialogue with Washington unless Trump ends all sanctions.
Khamenei thinks that the violent protests, including setting banks ablaze, were instigated by the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia. It wasn’t that long ago Sept. 14 that Iran was accused hitting Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq-Khurais largest oil refinery, blaming it on Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Pentagon officials have said with 100% certainty that Iran was the only Mideast nation capable of hitting the oil facility. “Setting a bank on fire is not an act done by the people. This what thugs do,” Khamenei said, showing his total denial that ordinary Iranians are disgusted with clerical rule. Khamenei’s latest crackdown is no different from the 2009 Green Movement when a disputed presidential election caused widespread street protests. Watching the Rial currency go from 32,000 to 127,000 per U.S. dollar has left working class Iranians desperate, taking to the streets to vent their frustrations.
Khameni’s clerical regime continues to crack down on ordinary Iranians, expressing their frustrations with mullah rule. With a government hell-bent on building ballistic missiles—possibly A-bombs—and enriching uranium, it’s no wonder Iran’s citizens feel left out. Khamenei’s regime spends its time demonizing the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia, while all three countries enjoy relative prosperity. Trump has tried, but failed, to get Khamenei and Rouhani to come back to the bargaining table to stop Iran’s malign activities in the Mideast and North Africa. Khaemeni’s proxy wars, supplying arms-and-cash to Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Hamas militants in Gaza and Hezbollah’s militia in Lebanon, makes Iran the biggest state sponsor of terror in the Mideast and North Africa. Iranians have wised up to see that Khamenei puts ordinary citizens on the backburner, too busy sponsoring terrorism.
