Iran: Protests Continue As Canadian MPs Renew Support – OpEd

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Cities in different parts of Iran are witnessing a constant flow of protests as people from all walks of life are voicing their opposition to the regime. This is becoming a serious dilemma at this time of the year when the mullahs seek to claim legitimacy during the days leading to the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 anti-monarchial revolution which they hijacked.

Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 647 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.

As the Iranian people continue their rallies against the mullahs’ regime and specifical target the dictatorship of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Canadian MPs joined by a number of former U.S. officials and former Canadian Government Officials attended a conference in Toronto on Saturday to voice their support for the ongoing Iran revolution protests.

The event, organized by the large community of Iranian Canadian supporters of the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK, saw these dignitaries call on Canadian Prime Justin Trudeau to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization and implement more sanctions on the mullahs, especially under the Magnitsky Act for the regime’s gross human rights violations.

The Canadian MPs and former officials, along with the American experts, voiced their support for the Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi and her ten-point plan for the future of Iran. They also voiced aspirations regarding the continued protests by the Iranian people and especially the role played by the MEK’s network of Resistance Units across the country that help continue and further enhance the movement against the mullahs’ regime.

Mrs. Rajavi, as the keynote speaker at the conference, reiterated the Iranian people’s determination to continue the revolution until the mullahs’ regime is toppled in order to establish a true democracy and popular sovereignty. The NCRI President-elect also outlined what is necessary for the coming weeks and months and how the international community should play its role:

– Symbolic or ineffective sanctions are no longer sufficient.
– Khamenei, regime President Ebrahim Raisi, former president Hassan Rouhani, former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and all those involved in the horrific crimes against the Iranian people must be prosecuted by the international community.

– Not only should the IRGC and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) be designated as terrorist entities, but they should also be dissolved. The designation is indispensable to international peace and security and must be adopted by the world community, international bodies, parliaments, and governments committed to human rights.

– The regime’s embassies must be closed. These nests of espionage and export of terrorism and fundamentalism are logistical centers that support the mullahs’ suppression of the uprising.

– The passports of all regime operatives should be revoked as the Belgian court adopted such measures for Tehran’s terrorists who plotted to bomb the NCRI gathering in 2018. Furthermore, MOIS and IRGC Quds Force agents and operatives should be expelled.

– The international community must recognize the Iranian people’s right to self-defense, and the right to resist and overthrow the ruling religious fascism.

On Sunday night locals in of Tehran’s Narmak district began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to Khamenei!”

In the city of Abdanan in Ilam Province of western Iran people took to the streets today, especially the families of recently detained protesters, demanding the release of their loved ones. At least 17 locals have been arrested during nightly raids conducted by the regime security forces. A number of today’s protesters, even the elderly, were attacked by the regime’s security forces at the scene.

Students of Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran held a gathering in support of Farhad Meysami, a prisoner on hunger strike, and protesting prison/execution sentences issued by the regime’s so-called judiciary.

In Isfahan, farmers are continuing their protests over the drying of the local Zayandehrud River that has left their lands and crops devastated. This major river has been drying due to the regime’s corrupt policies that have allowed IRGC-related companies to divert the river’s waters to their own projects, some associated to the regime’s missile production sites. Reports indicate the protesting farmers are heading to Tehran to hold their gatherings in the country’s capital.

On Sunday morning, contract workers of green areas of East Azerbaijan Province are rallying in Tabriz and protesting constant power outages due to the regime’s incompetence and corrupt policies.

In Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran, workers of the Kavian Steel Company went on strike on Sunday demanding official working contracts and better pay. Company officials have been neglecting their requests for at least 18 months now.

Early Saturday morning protesters in different cities have been busy burning the regime’s propaganda posters, banners, and billboards in their show of protests to the mullahs’ dictatorship. Such reports are coming from Tehran, KermanshahQomDezfulEslamabad-e-Gharb, and Qaemshahr, to name a few.

People in the Iranian capital of Tehran and throughout the country are also participating in night campaigns targeting the entire regime apparatus, from Khamenei to the IRGC and paramilitary Basij units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.

Protesters in Sanandaj also launched an attack on Saturday night using Molotov cocktails targeting the city’s Islamic Development Organization branch.

On Saturday night locals in different districts of Tehran, Bandar Abbas, and Sanandaj began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Death to the IRGC!”
“We swear on the blood of our compatriots that we will fight to the end!”
“Death to the child-killing regime!”
“So many years of crimes! Death to the mullahs’ regime!”

The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.

She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.

Mahmoud Hakamian writes forPMOI/MEK, where this article was published.

Mahmoud Hakamian

Mahmoud Hakamian writes for The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mujahedin-e-Khalgh (MEK)

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