Iran needs some democracy

[CITIZEN_2015]

Donald Trump wins Iran's election!!!!

https://nypost.com/2020/02/21/the-winner-of-irans-latest-election-donald-j-trump/

 

Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declared it the “religious and patriotic duty” of people to vote in Friday’s elections, demanding a high turnout to strike a victory over “US propaganda” that seeks “to create a division between the Islamic establishment and the people.”

Oops: Looks like this is another election President Trump won.

The regime may report otherwise, but all independent accounts show that Khamenei’s call — and others, like a top presidential adviser’s warning that low turnout would “please Iran’s enemies” — went over like a lead balloon.

Citizen journalists tweeted pictures and videos of empty polling booths Friday; London-based news site Middle East Eye reported that government data showed only “a fifth of registered voters” showing up to cast their ballots.

A correspondent for the UK paper The Independent saw “only relatively small crowds,” commenting on a “subdued and somber” mood among Iranians.

It surely didn’t help that the Khamenei-controlled Council of Guardians kicked 9,000 moderate and reformist candidates off the ballot. That was apparently the only way to ensure the new Parliament didn’t back negotiations to end US sanctions over the regime’s push to build nuclear weapons.

Of course, no election can change the Islamic dictatorship’s power structure — Khamenei, the unelected religious leader, ultimately pulls the strings no matter what. But this public show of no confidence may bring Iran closer to the day when the regime finally falls.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

In a sham undemocratic election for which the lowest turnout in the history of hated islamic republic reported even by the lying deceitful regime hardliners took control of a sinking regime.

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1632021

 

Iran is experiencing a tumultuous plunge in living standards, combined with soaring prices for basic goods. During 2019 alone, the economy contracted by 9.5 percent, while inflation was estimated at 40 percent. This regime prefers to see citizens starve before even considering meaningful cuts to its bankrolling of overseas terrorism and paramilitary operations, which amount to several billion dollars every year. Indeed, financial data quoted in the currently circulating draft budget is widely assessed to be wholly disconnected from the unremittingly dire state of the regime’s finances.

Widespread public disillusionment with the corrupt, incompetent leadership was recently compounded by the regime’s botched attempt to cover up the shooting down of a civilian plane packed with its own citizens. The regime has also clumsily sought to cover up a major outbreak of coronavirus, which is already causing multiple deaths, with Iran rapidly becoming the most critical vector for the epidemic outside of China.  The ruthless suppression of continuous bouts of uprisings has already cost hundreds of lives.

For Iranians themselves, this farcical vote abandoned all pretenses of democracy and accountability. With domestic disenchantment worsening by the day, perhaps the radicalizing consequences of these elections represent a moment of divorce between the regime and its citizenry, which are moving in fundamentally different directions.

Islamic Republic is a sinking ship. Those collaborating with this murderous regime or supporting it in any way will be sinking with it and drawn in the sea of anger by Iran nation.

Edited February 24, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

Torture of political prisoners in Iran while the first vice president expressed unawareness.

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-first-vice-president-says-unaware-of-environmentalist-s-torture-allegations/30444079.html

The environmentalist scientist was sentenced to 10 years in jail on bogus accusations and now subjected to torture and threatened with rape in islamic republic. 

Edited February 24, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

So you thought that the Iran islamic regime is only killing its own people and only a threat to the region but not you and you are safe? or the world just because they don't have space technology to deliver their nuclear weapons they are trying to develop? WRONG. This regime is a threat to the whole world .

Read the article how the regime in Iran will harm you now (not with their nuclear weapons as yet)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-incompetent-response-coronavirus-threatens-215343093.html

Iran’s failure to confront the health crises is not just due to the regime’s authoritarianism. China has fought the virus with authoritarian quarantining of Wuhan. Instead, it is the regime’s preexisting arrogance, conspiracy-minded behavior, and siege mentality that led to its discounting an emerging crisis and enabled Shi’ite pilgrims traveling to Qom from all over the world to continue praying together and traveling without checks, becoming incubators of the virus.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

Iran's prince in exile and the likely next Iran leader calls for release of political prisoners unjustifiably held on bogus charges.

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/amid-coronavirus-crisis-iran-s-exiled-prince-calls-for-release-of-political-prisoners/30457837.html

Edited March 1, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

This British Iranian went back to Iran for a visit. The regime charged her with a bogus made up crime against national security. took her hostage to take something in return from Britain and now they have exposed her to coronavirus. Where is the justice in the world. What is happening to this world that evil gets its way and the world democracy stands by and witness the crimes against a nation and collaborate with evil or remains silence?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/world/nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-coronavirus-iranian-prison/index.html

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian mother jailed in Iran on espionage charges, believes she has contracted coronavirus in Evin Prison outside Tehran, according to a family statement released Saturday.

Although authorities have not tested Zaghari-Ratcliffe for the virus, she says in the statement that she has been sick for "all week" and describes her symptoms as those reported of the coronavirus:

"I am not good. I feel very bad in fact.... At the beginning I had a runny nose and a cough. Now I have this continual cold sweat I have a temperature, though not all the time. The past couple of days I have been shivering every night."

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, now 42, was arrested in 2016. The Iranian government accused her of working with organizations allegedly attempting to overthrow the regime. She was sentenced to five years in jail.

[CITIZEN_2015]

Berlin International Film Festival: Iranian film about executions wins top prize

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51693417

A film by an Iranian director about capital punishment has won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Mohammad Rasoulof was banned from directing in 2017. He produced There Is No Evil, his sixth film, in secret.

He is unable to travel outside Iran owing to charges relating to his earlier films.

Mr Rasoulof's daughter Baran, who also stars in the film, received the Golden Bear on his behalf.

Jury president Jeremy Irons said that the film, which tells four stories about the death penalty, showed "the web an authoritarian regime weaves among ordinary people, drawing them towards inhumanity".

The second-place award at the festival went to Never Rarely Sometimes Always, a film about abortion in the US by director Eliza Hittman.

[CITIZEN_2015]

Medical workers, doctors and nurses threaten by islamic regime security forces to shut up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/03/world/middleeast/coronavirus-iran.html

A nurse in a northwest Iranian city sent a private message to her family — later shared with The New York Times — describing a letter from the security service warning that sharing information about infected patients constitutes a “threat to national security” and “public fear mongering.” Such offenses “will be swiftly dealt with by a disciplinary committee,” the nurse said the letter had warned.

 

The secrecy and paranoia, doctors and other experts say, reflects what they call a counterproductive focus on Iran’s public image and prestige that appears to be damaging public trust and hindering more practical steps at containment.

A prominent pathologist in Tehran said laboratory staff members testing for the coronavirus were told that they had been threatened with interrogation and arrest if they provided information to the news media.

 

“Disgraceful,” the pathologist said in a telephone interview. “By turning this into a national security issue, they are putting more pressure and stress on doctors and medical teams and creating an environment of chaos and fear.”

All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the threats.

Iran regime action is putting the whole world in danger not just Iranians.

[CITIZEN_2015]

On 3/1/2020 at 8:27 AM, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Berlin International Film Festival: Iranian film about executions wins top prize

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51693417

A film by an Iranian director about capital punishment has won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Mohammad Rasoulof was banned from directing in 2017. He produced There Is No Evil, his sixth film, in secret.

 

Award winning film maker summoned to prison!!!

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/30468271.html

[CITIZEN_2015]

True face of a falling islamic republic regime:

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/486438-coronavirus-the-true-face-of-iran

Oppressive, totalitarian regimes are not noted for flexibility or responsiveness. Last month, faced with a citizenry in open rebellion and humiliated by its forced admission that it had shot down a plane full of innocent civilians, Tehran’s ruling mullahs went back to the classic playbook of authoritarian tactics. They disqualified fully one-third of the sitting members of the Majlis, Iran’s parliament, from running for reelection — because they appeared to have the unnerving habit of thinking independently. Then they disqualified at least 7,000 other would-be candidates — because they seemed untrustworthy.

Then they conducted what amounted to sham elections and installed a new legislature filled with hardliners and representatives of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That only a little more than 42 percent of the country bothered to vote did not concern the ayatollahs in the least.

But things are different now. The old plays may not work anymore.

Man has so far failed to end 40 years of Iran’s theocratic domestic tyranny and international terror, but Mother Nature may yet succeed.

The coronavirus that is sweeping the globe is tearing the heart out of Iran, and the thugs who rule that nation appear powerless to even slow its spread. Iran has admitted to 145 dead from the disease. Opposition forces are saying that there have been closer to 1,800 fatalities. Member of Parliament Gholamali Jafarzadeh characterized the government’s figures as “a joke” and added that no matter what the government said it would be impossible to hide the cemeteries.

Iranian officials have been particularly hard hit by the virus. At least 23 Members of Parliament are confirmed to have the disease. That’s 10 percent of the nation’s parliament. Two of newly elected MPs have DIED from the virus  In addition two ayatollahs also DEAD one being former islamic ambassador to Vatican and second a deputy to the head of Iran’s Judiciary. The Deputy Health Minister and Vice-President tested positive a week ago. Another senior official, the head of the nation’s emergency services, has also now been confirmed to have COVID-19.

The Iranian government was aware many weeks ago that it had a problem on its hands, but paranoid and determined at all times to project a false image of invincibility, it did what it typically does. It lied. It covered up. It avoided taking any action that might suggest that it was anything less than infallible.

Flights to and from China continued unabated. Pilgrims to Shia shrines were allowed to move freely as if their piety would protect them from illness. The holy city of Qom, epicenter of the virus in Iran, remains crowded with worshippers. They are jammed into crowded, unsanitary conditions, coughing, sneezing and exchanging germs by licking holy shrines in hope the epidemic will spare them.

Tehran’s admission that it shot down an Iran Air airliner was another critical moment in the nation’s history. It exposed the regime for what it is — not only oppressive, but grossly incompetent. Each new coronavirus death in Iran, sends the same message, over and over and over. This is a regime that not only brutalizes its people but fails to deliver even the most basic services and protections that any nation state must provide.

In the recent elections, it was Iran’s poor who participated least. Precisely those individuals who the regime claims to represent were least interested in another sham. Those same people, the great mass of Iranian society, are now the ones dying and being buried in hastily dug graves without ever having seen a doctor. 

Yet it may be that this horrifying epidemic will bring with it a silver lining.

By showing the true face of Iran’s leaders, the coronavirus may finally lead the Iranian people to rise up and end their 40-year nightmare.

Edited March 8, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[Rue]

I read and support all your posts C2015.

[marcus]

What a shit show in Iran. I can't believe how much they've gone through in just the past year.

The corruption and incompetence of the Iranian government is what will end them. Not the sanctions and economic pressure. Perhaps this virus will bring the majority to the boiling point. 

[marcus]

On 3/7/2020 at 10:40 PM, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Iranian officials have been particularly hard hit by the virus. At least 23 Members of Parliament are confirmed to have the disease. That’s 10 percent of the nation’s parliament. Two of newly elected MPs have DIED from the virus  In addition two ayatollahs also DEAD one being former islamic ambassador to Vatican and second a deputy to the head of Iran’s Judiciary. The Deputy Health Minister and Vice-President tested positive a week ago. Another senior official, the head of the nation’s emergency services, has also now been confirmed to have COVID-19.

Holy crap!

10% of the parliament?! Hopefully that's not a reflection of the numbers in general.

[eyeball]

14 minutes ago, marcus said:

Holy crap!

10% of the parliament?! Hopefully that's not a reflection of the numbers in general.

Probably more a reflection of how long tyrants are 'allowed' to stay in power. I guess it stands to reason that countries with compromised governing systems are like people with compromised immune systems - they're  more vulnerable to dying. 

[kactus]

On 3/10/2020 at 5:54 AM, eyeball said:

Probably more a reflection of how long tyrants are 'allowed' to stay in power. I guess it stands to reason that countries with compromised governing systems are like people with compromised immune systems - they're  more vulnerable to dying. 

From the strategic viewpoint there's a matrix law that defines the correlation of Interest and Power. In Iran this Matrix is eschwed towards high power and low interest level...This is why when you give too much power to an ayatollahs instead of think tanks dictatorship will ensue. That's what is screwing the country with the Coronavirus spread when the power and fate of Iranians are in the hand of one Ayatollah currently in hiding to avoid catching the virus....That said the medical team and staff are doing a sterling job to save lives despite medical sanctions imposed by the US on one hand and having to deal with backward ayatollahs on the other....    

Edited March 12, 2020 by kactus

[kactus]

On 3/8/2020 at 6:40 AM, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Iranian officials have been particularly hard hit by the virus. At least 23 Members of Parliament are confirmed to have the disease.

Good riddance....I am not normally in favour of cursing ordinary people but the fewer Mullahs and their apparatus are alive the more Iranians will prosper.

This regime has no mercy for Iranian people. Whilst Iranians are suffering they are supplying aid to Iraqis. Not that there's anything wrong with this but they have completely got their priority wrong.

I have not shy away from expressing my opinion on this forum and being critical of the policies of Netanyahu. But Kudos to him and I respect his decision to quarantine people who come to visit Israel for 14 days. It shows that he cares about his people.... 

[CITIZEN_2015]

On 3/10/2020 at 5:01 AM, kactus said:

Good riddance....I am not normally in favour of cursing ordinary people but the fewer Mullahs and their apparatus are alive the more Iranians will prosper.

This regime has no mercy for Iranian people. Whilst Iranians are suffering they are supplying aid to Iraqis. Not that there's anything wrong with this but they have completely got their priority wrong.

Their own survival is the only thing they care even if they have to kill the entire Iran's population ...wait the entire world's population  even.

Iraq is not the only one they help what they can take from their own hungry people. They also help Syria, Lebanese terrorist groups and Palestinian terrorist groups not to mention their other few friends like China. They gifted Chinese for example with many thousands of surgical masks so that when the virus hit Iranians they didn't have much left for their own people. Young doctors and nurses are dying now due to lack of protection not to mention thousands of other Iranians while they are hiding in remote motels on the Caspian sea, Wish the virus somehow could only kill mullahs, it would have been historically recorded as Godsend!!!!!!!!!!.

[CITIZEN_2015]

Iran in dystopian situation as the regime threatens the people with silence. The regime is directly responsible for this situation with their lies and deceives and hiding the facts and figures on coronavirus spreadin Iran for parliamentary elections for weeks until it was too late and the disease was out of control.

https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Irans-Rouhani-warns-media-seeks-to-suppress-coronavirus-coverage-620941

“All Iranians will be monitored by cyberspace, telephone and if necessary sent to prison. All sick people will be identified,” he said. His directives could be an excuse to begin a military coup, as it would be the perfect time with people removed from the streets and many leading clerics and officials and members of parliament already sick from the disease.

Scores of leading officials are sick and some have died. With the army in control of the streets and the president seeking to wrangle the media, Iran is entering an era of total control over every aspect of society, even more than was already the case under the regime. Last year the regime killed as many as 1,500 protesters. Freshly-dug mass graves likely containing coronavirus victims have been identified from satellite photos. The regime has no compunction against burying dissidents in the same graves.

Medical workers who were able to send out messages through sources have said that the situation borders on apocalyptic scenes from movies. One image that was smuggled out showed the parking garage of a hospital full of beds preparing for the sick to arrive, as there is no room in the hallways of the hospital.

 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

Lies lies and more lies by the regime though insiders have started telling the truth.

Some Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and IRGC Commander Hossein Salami have said that the outbreak could have been part of a biological attack against Iran, but they failed to explain why it started in China, and why over 130 countries including the United States are also affected.

Khamenei charged that "There is some evidence this may be a biological attack."

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to Khamenei's comment, saying that "As Khamenei knows, the best biological defense would’ve been to tell the Iranian people the truth about the Wuhan virus when it spread to Iran from China. Instead, he kept Mahan Air flights coming and going to the epicenter in China and jailed those who spoke out.

In the meantime, Deputy Health Minister Reza Malekzadeh rejected the idea of biological warfare as the cause of the outbreak in an interview with the Iranian state TV. Iran’s hardliners have been alluding to “the possibility” of the United States using coronavirus against Iran.

Malekzadeh said the delay in announcing the start of the epidemic and failing to control flights between China and Iran have caused the massive outbreak in Iran.

Some social media users have reminded Malekzadeh that Health Minister Namaki lied to the people on 29 January telling them there were no coronavirus cases while several patients were hospitalized at Tehran's Masih Daneshvari Hospital.

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/up-to-70-percent-of-iranians-likely-to-contract-coronavirus/30487845.html

Edited March 15, 2020 by CITIZEN_2015

[CITIZEN_2015]

As the Persian New Year Kicks in, Iran's King in Exile Reza Pahlavi sends a massage to the nation.

Prince Reza Pahlavi called on Iranians to recognize the urgency eliminating "the principal infection", that is, the Islamic Republic.

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/exiled-prince-says-iran-s-regime-primary-barrier-to-overcoming-coronavirus-crisis/30495291.html

In a video message on the occasion of the Iranian New Year (Nowrouz) on March 21, the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi has said that he considers the Islamic Republic the "primary impediment in remediation and containing the [coronavirus] crisis".

"This year I will not celebrate the New Year, he said and told Iranians he will be observing a moment of silence, both in his own solitude and with his family, in the memory of all those who lost their lives to coronavirus and other natural disasters as well as anti-regime protests in the "black year".

 

[CITIZEN_2015]

Lift the US sanctions.

Iranians are paying a heavy price for the regime's actions. They suffer from this brutal regime and at the same time they pay a price with US sanctions, At this time Coronavirus also has hit them hard mainly due to corrupt incompetent nature of this murderous regime. To ease the suffering due to the pandemic May be it is time that US sanctions against Iranian people should be lifted so that there would be one less pain this defenseless nation to have to deal with so that food and medicine urgently needed can flow again and not blocked by the banking system..

[Rue]

Iran has refused offered medical assistance from the US.

[dialamah]

40 minutes ago, Rue said:

Iran has refused offered medical assistance from the US.

Do they say why?

[Marocc]

On 3/10/2020 at 7:54 AM, eyeball said:

Probably more a reflection of how long tyrants are 'allowed' to stay in power. I guess it stands to reason that countries with compromised governing systems are like people with compromised immune systems - they're  more vulnerable to dying. 

That doesn't make any sense.

 

1 hour ago, dialamah said:

Do they say why?

Is there a reason they would want the help of their enemy? They have God, they don't want America, which doesn't have any particular abilities anyway. While Russia is going to help Italy, but they have an old friendship.

[Marocc]

On 3/21/2020 at 5:27 AM, CITIZEN_2015 said:

They suffer from this brutal regime

They suffer of the brutal western democracies as well. In fact, those are the only thing supporting the "brutal regimes" time and time again.