Iransko proleće

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Two protesters taking part in demonstrations roiling Iran were killed at a rally overnight, a semi-official news agency reported Sunday, the first deaths attributed to the ongoing protests.

The demonstrations, which began Thursday over the economic woes plaguing Iran, appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the protests that followed the country’s disputed 2009 presidential election.

In Doroud, a city some 325 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Tehran, in Iran’s western Lorestan province, protesters gathered for an unauthorized rally that lasted into the night Saturday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Mehr quoted Habibollah Khojastepour, the security deputy of Lorestan’s governor, as saying the illegal gathering ignited clashes. The two protesters were killed in the clashes, he said.

“The gathering was to be ended peacefully, but due to the presence of the (agitators), unfortunately, this happened,” Khojastepour was quoted as saying.

He did not offer a cause of death for the two protesters, but said “no bullets were shot from police and security forces at the people.”

Videos circulating on social media late Saturday appeared to show fallen protesters in Doroud as gunshots sounded in the background. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the footage.

Thousands have taken to the streets of cities across Iran, beginning on Thursday in Mashhad, the country’s second-largest city and a holy site for Shiite pilgrims.

The protests in the Iranian capital, as well as President Donald Trump tweeting about them, raised the stakes. It also apparently forced state television to break its silence on Saturday, acknowledging it hadn’t reported on the protests on orders from security officials.

At least 50 protesters have been arrested since Thursday, authorities said Saturday. State TV said some protesters chanted the name of the U.S.-backed shah, who fled into exile just before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and later died.

On Sunday, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported that authorities have arrested some 80 protesters in the city of Arak, some 280 kilometers (173 miles) south of Tehran.

Iran’s economy has improved since its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the end of some international sanctions. Tehran now sells its oil on the global market and has signed deals to purchase tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Western aircraft.

That improvement has not reached the average Iranian, however. Unemployment remains high, and official inflation has crept up to 10 percent again. A recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40 percent, which a government spokesman has blamed on a cull over avian flu fears, appears to have been the spark for the economic protests.

While the protests have sparked clashes, Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and its affiliates have not intervened as they have in other unauthorized demonstrations since the 2009 election.

Some analysts outside of Iran have suggested that may be because the economic protests initially just put pressure on the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the nuclear deal.

https://www.apnews.com/8db1619a2c6a4951b66263285aa0ace9/Report:-2-protesters-in-western-Iran-killed-at-night-rally

Власти Ирана подтвердили данные о гибели двух человек в ходе антиправительственных демонстраций в иранском городе Доруд. Информацию о жертвах столкновений подтвердил ливанской газете The Daily Star вице-губернатор иранской провинции Лурестан Хабибулла Ходжастепур.
По словам чиновника, накануне вечером в Доруде проходила незаконная акция протеста — на улицы "вышло некоторое число людей, послушавшихся призывов враждебно настроенных групп, что в итоге привело к столкновениям". Представители сил безопасности не стреляли по толпе, подчеркнул Ходжастепур.
Как заявили в Корпусе Стражей Исламской революции (КСИР), причиной гибели этих участников протестов была стрельба, открытая группой неизвестных, вооруженных боевым и охотничьим оружием. По заявлению КСИР, эти люди пришли на акцию протеста и принялись беспорядочно стрелять по протестующим и по резиденции местных властей. В результате вдобавок к двум погибшим шесть человек получили ранения.
По сообщениям западных СМИ, в четверг, 28 декабря, в Иране начались массовые антиправительственные акции протеста, вызванные, в частности, недовольством экономической ситуацией в стране. Сообщалось о демонстрациях протеста в Тегеране, Куме, Керманшахе, Мешхеде, Хамадане и Реште, а также о прошедших демонстрациях в поддержку властей страны. Сообщалось также, что протестующие атаковали муниципальные здания и банки.
По данным иностранных СМИ, часто трудно проверить достоверность поступающей с мест событий информации из-за недостаточного освещения протестов со стороны иранских масс-медиа и ограничений на перемещения, введенных иранскими властями.

Iran said protesters should pay a high price if they break the law
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin
3 MIN READ

LONDON (Reuters) - Protesters in Iran who have staged three days of demonstrations over economic hardship and alleged corruption should pay a high price if they break the law, the government said on Sunday.

The wave of anti-government demonstrations in several cities are the biggest challenge to Iran’s leaders since unrest in 2009 that followed the disputed re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on for months.

Protesters have attacked banks and government buildings and burned a police motorcycle. Two protesters were shot dead in the western town of Dorud on Saturday night. The deputy governor of Lorestan province blamed foreign agents for the deaths.

“No shots were fired by the police and security forces. We have found evidence of enemies of the revolution, Takfiri groups and foreign agents in this clash,” Habibollah Khojastehpour said in an interview on state television on Sunday. Takfiri is a term for Sunni militants especially the Islamic State.

State media also quoted Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli as saying: “Those who damage public property, violate law and order and create unrest are responsible for their actions and should pay the price.”

Ahmad Khatami, a hardline cleric who leads Friday prayers in the capital Tehran, said the protests were similar to those in 2009 over alleged electoral fraud.

He called for capital punishment for those chanting slogans against the values of the Islamic Republic.

The protests have included chants and slogans against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the clerical leadership in power since 1979 revolution.

Videos posted on social media showed people chanting: “Mullahs, have some shame, let go of the country.”

Protests defied the police and Revolutionary Guards who have used violence to crush previous unrest because they are motivated by economic grievances and have no clear leader.

They are also difficult for the government of President Hassan Rouhani because he was elected on a promise to guarantee rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

Rouhani’s main achievement, a 2015 deal with world powers that curbed Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of most international sanctions, is yet to bring the economic benefits the government promised.

Unemployment rose to 12.4 percent this fiscal year up 1.4 percentage points, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran. 3.2 Iranians are jobless.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-rallies/iran-said-protesters-should-pay-a-high-price-if-they-break-the-law-idUSKBN1EP064

ostap bender wrote:ovo su potpuno soc protesti.

Gargantua wrote:ima tema "srednji istok", plus je još uvek zima 

Veletin wrote:I, šta kažu?

Tehran police: No more arrests for flouting dress code

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Police in Iran’s capital said Thursday they will no longer arrest women for failing to observe the Islamic dress code in place since the 1979 revolution.

The announcement signaled an easing of punishments for violating the country’s conservative dress code, as called for by the young and reform-minded Iranians who helped re-elect President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, earlier this year.

But hard-liners opposed to easing such rules still dominate Iran’s security forces and judiciary, so it was unclear whether the change would be fully implemented.

“Those who do not observe the Islamic dress code will no longer be taken to detention centers, nor will judicial cases be filed against them.” Tehran police chief Gen. Hossein Rahimi was quoted as saying by the reformist daily Sharq.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency said violators will instead be made to attend classes given by police. It said repeat offenders could still be subject to legal action, and the dress code remains in place outside the capital.

For nearly 40 years, women in Iran have been forced to cover their hair and wear long, loose garments. Younger and more liberal-minded women have long pushed the boundaries of the official dress code, wearing loose headscarves that don’t fully cover their hair and painting their nails, drawing the ire of conservatives.

Iran’s morality police— similar to Saudi Arabia’s religious police— typically detain violators and escort them to a police van. Their families are then called to bring the detainee a change of clothes. The violator is then required to sign a form that they will not commit the offense again.

Men can also be stopped by the police if they are seen wearing shorts or going shirtless.

Last year, police in Tehran announced plans to deploy 7,000 male and female officers for a new plainclothes division — the largest such undercover assignment in memory - to monitor public morality and enforce the dress code.

https://apnews.com/6677791532f441e8a5bfadb0ef223229?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP

Farnaz Fassihi Verified account @farnazfassihi
19 hours ago

#Telegram CEO @durov quickly responds to demands of #Iran Minister of Communication, majority owned by Revolutionary Guards, and shuts down main channel used by #IranianProtestors.
@telegram #Amadnews
https://twitter.com/farnazfassihi/status/947200682867687425

Pavel Durov Verified account @durov
3 hours ago

Iranian authorities are blocking access to Telegram for the majority of Iranians after our public refusal to shut down https://t.me/sedaiemardom  and other peacefully protesting channels.
https://twitter.com/durov/status/947441456238735360

Gargantua wrote:Josh Caplan @joshdcaplan
https://twitter.com/joshdcaplan/status/946916527185580032
#IranProtests: Amazing sight of huge crowd in Qom chanting "We do not want an Islamic Republic!" https://t.co/TOhBlaLOit

Protests in Iran fanned by exiled journalist, messaging app





DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As protests over Iran’s faltering economy rapidly spread across the country, a channel on a mobile messaging app run by an exiled journalist helped fan the passions of some of those who took to the street.


The Telegram app closed a channel run by Roohallah Zam after Iranian authorities complained that it was inciting violence, just hours before the government shut down the app entirely on Sunday. Zam, who denies the allegations, meanwhile launched new channels to spread messages about upcoming protests and share videos from demonstrations.

What happens next could influence the future course of the largest protests Iran has seen since 2009.


It’s hard to overstate the power of Telegram in Iran. Of its 80 million people, an estimated 40 million use the free app created by Russian national Pavel Durov. Its clients share videos and photos, subscribing to groups where everyone from politicians to poets broadcast to fellow users.

While authorities ban social media websites like Facebook and Twitter and censor others, Telegram users can say nearly anything. In the last presidential election, the app played a big role in motivating turnout and spreading political screeds.

Telegram touts itself as being highly encrypted and allows users to set their messages to “self-destruct” after a certain period, making it a favorite among activists and others concerned about their privacy. That too has made it a worry of Iranian authorities.

Zam has used the app to share news and information published by his AmadNews website. Posts included times and locations for protests, as well as videos of demonstrators shouting inflammatory chants, including those targeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate in Iran’s clerically overseen government.

Thousands have taken to the streets of several cities over the past three days to vent anger at high unemployment and rising prices, in the largest demonstrations since those that followed a disputed election nine years ago.


Officials have meanwhile targeted Telegram in recent remarks, with prosecutors going as far as filing criminal charges against Durov.

On Saturday, Iran’s Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi wrote to Durov on Twitter, complaining AmadNews was “encouraging hateful conduct, use (of) Molotov cocktails, armed uprising and social unrest.”

Durov responded by saying Telegram suspended the account.

“A Telegram channel (Amadnews) started to instruct their subscribers to use Molotov cocktails against police and got suspended due to our ‘no calls for violence’ rule. Be careful — there are lines one shouldn’t cross.” Durov tweeted.

Zam, who has said he fled Iran after being falsely accused of working with foreign intelligence services, denied inciting violence on Telegram.

Telegram’s decision drew criticism from free internet advocates and Iranians. Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed U.S. government surveillance programs in 2013, said Telegram should instead be working on how to make the service accessible after a potential government ban.

“Telegram will face increasing pressure over time to collaborate with the Iranian government’s demands for this or that,” Snowden wrote on Twitter. He added: “You can’t keep an independent, destabilizing service from being blocked in authoritarian regimes, you can only delay it.”

Those words proved prophetic Sunday, as Durov himself wrote on Twitter that Iran blocked the app “for the majority of Iranians after our public refusal to shut down ... peacefully protesting channels.” Iranian state television later quoted an anonymous official as saying the app would be temporarily limited as a safety measure.

It also marks a setback for Zam, the son of Shiite cleric Mohammad Ali Zam, a reformist who once served in a government policy position in the early 1980s. The cleric wrote a letter published by Iranian media in July in which he said he wouldn’t support his son over AmadNews’ reporting and messages on its Telegram channel.


“I found that you crossed the red line,” the cleric wrote, referring to comments the channel circulated about Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Our red line is the supreme leader, but you passed the red line.”

Zam did not respond to a request for comment Sunday from The Associated Press, though he published a video late Saturday on the channel being blocked.

“Unfortunately the Amadnews was blocked,” Zam said in a message to his followers. A new channel “will continue its work as hard as before and with the help of God, we will become millions again.”

At least 1.7 million people have viewed the first message on the new channel, according to Telegram. It called for protests Sunday at sites across Iran before the government ordered the app shut down.

https://www.apnews.com/78a46cea167e4f94ada0a690b7f2f3db/Protests-in-Iran-fanned-by-exiled-journalist,-messaging-app