Iranian President Ahmadinejad sparked protests after stealing last election. What now? Photo Courtesy of UN Photo/Marco Castro
The BBC is reporting that a sizable anti-government protest broke out in Iran on Sunday during the funeral of a cleric that opposed the Iranian leadership. Tens of thousands attended the funeral, in which chants were heard calling Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a dictator.
Iran sponsors global terrorism and is suspected of pursuing nuclear weapons, while at home is led by a brutal authoritarian government. The last major protests that erupted in Iran were crushed by that Iranian leadership.
This time, however, Kasra Naji of BBC Persian says the police did not crack down on the protest. BBC cited observers that said the police restraint was an effort not to increase tensions ahead of upcoming elections in Iran.
The major protest movement in Iran—known as the Green Movement—emerged after the last presidential elections in the country, in which current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was accused of rigging the election. In Sunday’s protest, demonstrators called for the release of the Green Movement leaders, who are currently political prisoners.
The protest comes as sizable nationwide protests have broken out in Turkey and raises hopes of possible change in Iran. A new revolution in Iran would be very good for you, as Iran’s current regime is one of the greatest threats to world peace. Iran’s terrorist activities have been highlighted recently, including plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to the US and sponsoring the Hezbollah terrorist group in attacks around the world.
What’s more, the United Nations nuclear watchdog—the International Atomic Energy Agency—suspects that Iran has been working on nuclear weapons. The Iranians have also provided support to the vicious Bashar Assad regime in Syria and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In other words, replacing the Iranian regime would mean greater security for the Middle East, the world in general, and you and your country. It would be better for Iranians as well.
At home, Iran has a reputation of brutality following its crackdown on the Green Movement over the last four years. In fact, Iranian analyst Meir Javedanfar tweeted this week that had the Turkish protests occurred in Iran, “far more would have been killed, even more jailed & many brutally tortured.”
Now the big question is whether or not such protests might actually occur in Iran, and what the Iranian regime will do about it.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 5, 2013)