The Iranian Uprising: How the West is Trying to Steal the Protests

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02.01.2018

From the 28^th of December onwards, Iran is the scene of protests which are comparable in size to those of 2009 during the so-called ‘green revolution’. According to information from mass media sources, the demonstrations have already led to direct confrontations with the police, as a result of which no less than two people have died in Dorud (in the western part of Iran).

Those same mass media report, that the demonstrators are continuing to use slogans that demand a shift in the country’s highest leadership. In the city of Abkhar (in the north of the country), protestors set gigantic posters with the portrait of Iran’s supreme ayatollah Ali Khamenei on fire. It is also reported that in the central part of Iran in the city of Arak, the demonstrators have set the field headquarters of the pro-government military organisation ‘Basidg’ on fire; this organisation is part of the Corps of Guards of the Islamic Revolution.

At the same time, witnesses in Teheran speak of crowds on the Azadi square, and protestors have burned a police motorcycle in Meshekhed.

However, there are strong arguments that suggest that the people did not begin to march for a change of government independently. There are too many indicators of Soros’ structures actively and consequently transforming economic demands into political hysteria.

There is a real reason for demonstrations

Initially, the protests were directed against the heavy economic situation and corruption, but is seems that under external influence the subject is gradually changing to politics. As a result, several protestors (it is clear that everything began with agent-provocateurs) started to chant slogans that were directed not just against Rohani, but against Khamenei and the Islamic republic in general. It is this element of the protests that was picked up by the Western media.

There is a reason for unhappiness among the people in the economic sphere; we must take note of the fact, that, according to official data, 12% of the country is unemployed, there are negative GDP indicators (especially after the economic ‘boom’ of 2016), and inflation is on the rise.

In addition, it is important that the Iranian government has not called the protestors ‘Western agents’; on the contrary, president Rohani has acknowledged that he shares the people’s concerns. According to the Iranian media, the government initially supported the legitimacy of the social demands and declared that they are ready to deal with the problems.

“Several incidents in the country today are happening under the pretext of economic problems,” – commented first vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri, - “but it seems that someone else is also behind them. They think that they will harm the government through them, but there are others who will run the tide.”

The reformists’ fault

It is not very easy to up and reject the demands of the people in Iran by blaming everything exclusively on a pro-Western economic circle. Iran remains a class society with a large gap in earnings and inequality: on the one hand, there are rich billionaires, entrepreneurs, stockholders, and representatives of the clan of former president and ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. They are reformists and part of the Iranian elite that is interested in a rapprochement with the West.

The actions of the reformists have led to the enrichment of a small group of people at the expense of the masses. However, the values of social justice and the defence of the disadvantage have always been strong in Shiite Iran. The discrepancy between the declared goal of the continued existence of the state and the enrichment of the reformist elite is causing a strong sense of injustice. It is very easy to play on such feelings in order to accomplish political goals.

Many of the protestors would like a return to the policy of Ahmadinejad, under whom there was a very low level of unemployment and price control was retained despite Western sanctions.

The media and geopolitics

It is the ‘left’ reference points of the ‘Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran’ (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s party) that allowed him to become president, which he was from 2005 to 2013. Today, the de-facto main mass of demonstrators sympathises with Ahmadinejad’s critical views on the reformist economy. The main innings are unhappiness with the economy, corruption, and the healthcare situation.

However, the Western media are reproducing this difficult history in the way they need it to be. For example, they are making the discontent with the neoliberal politics within the country out to be a protest against Iranian policy in Syria and Iraq.

Rohani has become a continuator of Ahmadinejad’s course in foreign politics of projection of force and active involvement in the affairs of neighbouring countries and an alliance with Russia, but internally he has started to realise the program of his opponents.

As a result of this, it was the reformists and liberals that busied themselves with economic questions. In a certain sense, this resembles our liberal financial-economic bloc in the government, whose policy consists of upholding good relations with the West.

American and Israeli ears

Actually, Iran is the scene of the development of classical colour-revolution technology.

Several protests are layered on top of each other: demands for greater autonomy in Iranian Azerbaijan, economic protests against the neoliberal policy of the reformists, and protests of the most radical reformist wing against the rakhbar [leader] and president. We are speaking of activities of the radically reformist ‘Green Movement’ with former prime minister Mousavi at the helm. They are currently separated, and one of the branches is not concerned as much with social problems as with the organisation of small protests with American help. The other branch of the ‘Greens’ was successfully ‘tamed’ by Rohani, but it could potentially slip out of control.

In the current protests, old, but still relevant informational tricks are used. Pictures on social media are chosen exactly how the organisers of politically coloured protests need them. A handful of people, depicted in distributed tweets, can create a sense of mass disorder. For example, the confirmation of an alleged burning of a ‘government institution’ in the city of Akhvaz cannot hold up to criticism, because the fire is burning in a selected open area and several photographs date back to 2009.

You can read about the fakes and throw-ins in greater detail here.

All these measures are classical technologies. At the same time, the thousands of pro-government demonstrations just go unnoticed by the world media.

The Trump-‘swamp’ alliance

The events in Iran are an attempt to organise a colour revolution. On this question the Trump administration’s (especially its neoconservative wing) and the global liberal ‘swamp’ coincide. Real Iranian problems are used as an objective.

Solving the problems and keeping state sovereignty is only possible through a new conservative revolution, people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad coming to power, and a radical purge of the liberal and reformist wing of the Iranian establishment and corrupt elite.

Translated from the Russian by V.A.V.

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The Iranian Uprising: How the West is Trying to Steal the Protests

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