Iran: Protesters Across The Country Target Supreme Leader In Outrage Over Plane Downing – OpEd
Targeting a Ukrainian passenger jet with a missile fired by IRGS Air Force anti-aircraft weapon that killed 176 passengers was a crime against humanity. This unprecedented development wounded all human hearts.
Following this heartbreaking incident, thousands of Iranians held a protest rally across the country last night and today, people were chanting slogans like ” death to the dictator” and ‘Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, resign, resign,’. The protesters openly blamed and challenged the IRGC, the regime’s power base for decades.
In Tehran, protesters tore down a poster of Qasem Soleimani, the regime’s chief terrorist killed in an airstrike last week. The regime had tried to frame Soleimani as a national symbol and hero. In Tehran- Azadi Square yesterday evening, Thousands chant, “Guns, tanks, mullahs should get lost”.
“Khamenei-IRGC dictator – You are Daesh (ISIS) to us.
“Our disgrace, our disgrace, our state Radio &TV”, “Basiji is the killer of our nation”-“We did not have casualty to praise the killer leader.
In Mashhad, a large crowd gathered in Park-e Mellat and shouted anti-regime slogans. The protesters were chanting, “The mullahs must get lost” and “They killed our geniuses and gave us mullahs instead.” The protesters also chanted, “Death to the dictator,” calling for regime change.
In Tabriz, protesters who had gathered in front of the Medical Sciences University were chanting, “So many years of crime, death to the mullahs’ regime!”
Meanwhile, in Shiraz, protesters marched into the night, chanting “Death to the dictator!” and calling for Khamenei, the commander in chief, to resign.
Protest by thousands of Iranians in Tehran & other cities for two days undercut regime’s propaganda on termination of Soleimani.
Students at Iranian universities held a protest rally in solidarity with the victims of the incident and directed their slogans at Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards chanted slogans such as; Khamenei is a killer-his government is void, Fear not, we are all together! Basiji be afraid we are all together.
Students at Sharif University in Tehran shouted boldly in their ranks Death to the lying leader (Khamenei)!
This marks vividly indicated a new phase of more defiance in Iran as the regime has become much weaker. In chanting against the monarchy and the current religious fascism, the protesters showed that they reject despotism in any shape and form and democracy is the only way forward.
Students of Amir Kabir University in Tehran chanted our shame our stupid leader.”
Regime authorities dispatching a large number of security units in fear of massive protests. Security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and eventually live ammunition to disperse demonstrators in Tehran. By late Sunday night, several people had been wounded in Tehran.
The regime has slowed down and cut off internet access as soon as news and clips were posted on social networks.
In the aftermath of the November anti-regime protests in 191 cities throughout Iran in which the regime killed more than 1,500 protesters, wounded 4,000 and arrested 12,000, the tide has turned against the regime.
The protest rally across the country has gained international support, Secretary Pompeo tweeted: The voice of the Iranian people is clear. They are fed up with the regime’s lies, corruption, ineptitude, and brutality of the IRGC under kleptocracy. We stand with the Iranian people who deserve a better future.
President Donald Trump tweeted: “America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom.”
