Protests have broke out in Iran, starting in a number of small cities and eventually ending up in the capital city of Tehran.
By the hundreds of thousands, citizens have come out to rally against President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the system of clerical rule as a whole in Iran. Demonstrators were reportedly heard yelling slogans like “The people are begging, the clerics act like God”. Protests have even been held in Qom, a holy city to powerful clerics. Other protesters spoke out against Iran’s foreign interventions abroad.
The protests seemed to cover all aspects of the repressive regime, from how women are treated to the missing economic boon that was supposed to come from former President Obama’s Iran deal (hey – we ain’t happy with the deal either!).
https://twitter.com/NiPy1970/status/946488231389999105
https://twitter.com/masihpooyan/status/947140456277618689
تهران حوالی میدان انقلاب, سرکوب مردم توسط نیروی انتظامی
Tehran's street is full of anti-riot police.This is how violently they have been attacking the people in the streets protesting against the unbearable level of inequality and injustice. #تظاهرات_سراسرى #Iranprotests pic.twitter.com/CkaTv316EW— My Stealthy Freedom (@mystealthyorg) December 30, 2017
The government has since warned against “illegal” protests, and arrested a number of non-violent protesters. Numerous members of the Trump Administration spoke out in support of the protestors, and told the Iranian government that the world is watching.
Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtests
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017
Reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights including their right to express themselves. The world is watching
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) December 30, 2017
Important that we support the nonviolent protesters in #Iran. This is the result of a regime more focused on propping up terrorist organizations than addressing the plight of its citizens.
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 29, 2017
U.S. strongly condemns arrest of peaceful protestors in #Iran, urges all nations to publicly support Iranian people. As @POTUS said, longest-suffering victims of Iran's leaders are Iran's own people. #Iranprotests pic.twitter.com/mUTObTeHft
— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) December 29, 2017
And the response of Iran? Not to address the concerns of their own citizens, but rather take an opportunity to attack the Trump Administration. According to Fox News,
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Congress in June that America is working toward “support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government” has been used by Iran’s government of a sign of foreign interference in its internal politics.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has dismissed the comments.
“The noble Iranian nation never pays heed to the opportunist and hypocritical mottos chanted by the U.S. officials and their interfering allegations on domestic developments in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the state-run IRNA news agency quoted ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying.
Meanwhile, over at CNN, they somehow came under the impression that it was pro-government protests that have broken out. Why government forces are attacking and arresting pro-government protesters remained an unanswered mystery.
https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/947112096298340352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redstate.com%2Fslee%2F2017%2F12%2F30%2Firan-may-experiencing-world-changing-legitimate-resistance-movement-american-media-yawns%2F
CNN is trying to avoid covering Iran except to state on their website that the protests are…. pro govt?!?
This is an apple.
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) December 30, 2017
Why is CNN being a propaganda mouthpiece for Iran’s tyrannical government?
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 30, 2017
Well, at least they finally did manage to cover it, albeit in a way that required some embarrassing corrections. While entirely ignoring the story on Friday (when the protests began), CNN finally decided to run a story on them Saturday after publishing stories about Obama’s popularity, Trump’s “47 most outrageous lines,” vending machines for the homeless, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and BeeGees co-founder Barry Hibb being knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and the popularity of avocados, among many others.
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