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Iran Holds Pro-Government Rallies After Days of Unrest Iran Stages Pro-Government Rallies After Days of Unrest
(about 4 hours later)
TEHRAN — Iranian state media on Wednesday aired pro-government demonstrations in cities across the country after a week of protests and unrest over the nation’s poor economy — a move apparently seeking to calm nerves amid clashes that have killed at least 21 people. TEHRAN — Orchestrated, pro-government rallies were held throughout Iran on Wednesday, after nearly a week of protests over the ailing economy and the suppression of individual rights.
The protests, the largest seen in Iran since its disputed 2009 presidential election, began Dec. 28 in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, over the weak economy and an increase in food prices. They have since expanded to nearly every province. Hundreds of people have been arrested, and a prominent judge warned that some could face the death penalty. The demonstrations received copious coverage in the Iranian state media, apparently in an effort to demonstrate the clerical government’s depth of support, after 21 people were killed and hundreds were arrested as unrest erupted in provincial areas and, to a lesser extent, in Tehran.
The English-language broadcaster Press TV showed Wednesday’s pro-government rallies live, saying they were to “protest the violence that has taken place over the last few nights in cities.” Demonstrators waved Iranian flags and photographs of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many carried placards saying “Death to seditionists” and chanted slogans like, “We offer the blood in our veins to our leader.”
Demonstrators waved Iranians flags and signs supporting the country’s clerically overseen government. Anti-government demonstrations started on Thursday in the city of Mashhad and quickly spread to other parts of the country. Dissatisfaction is running high over rampant unemployment, inflation and the general state of the economy, but also about the lack of freedoms in entertainment and personal matters.
According to state television, the demonstrations took place in at least 10 cities, including Ahvaz, the capital of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan; the Kurdish town of Kermanshah in the country’s west; and Qum, the religious capital of Shiite Islam. In Isfahan, a central city, pro-government demonstrators marched and shouted slogans against the United States, which Ayatollah Khamenei blamed on Tuesday, with other “enemies of Iran,” for instigating the protests.
The rallies come after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday blamed days of protests across the country on meddling by “enemies of Iran.” “In recent events, enemies of #Iran have allied & used the various means they possess, including money, weapons, politics &intelligence services, to trouble the Islamic Republic,” he said on Twitter. “The enemy is always looking for an opportunity & any crevice to infiltrate &strike the Iranian nation.”
“Look at the recent days’ incidents,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “All those who are at odds with the Islamic Republic have utilized various means, including money, weapons, politics and intelligence apparatus, to create problems for the Islamic system, the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution.” Mr. Khamenei has been a principal target of the anti-government demonstrators, who have torn down posters bearing his portrait and demanded his removal from power. That is a particularly dangerous challenge under the Iranian political system, in which the supreme leader is considered nearly sacred, the official representative of God on earth.
Ayatollah Khamenei avoided identifying any foreign countries, although he promised to elaborate in the coming days. Undoubtedly high on his list is the United States, where President Trump has tweeted his support for the protests for several days. Iran’s state-run English-language broadcaster, Press TV, carried Wednesday’s pro-government rallies live on Wednesday, proclaiming that they were intended to “protest the violence that has taken place over the last few nights in cities.”
Iran’s government has since shut down access to the messaging service Telegram and the photo-sharing app Instagram in an attempt to slow the unrest. Facebook and Twitter had already been banned. The anti-government demonstrations have surprised Iran’s establishment, which has been slow to respond. Organizing mass rallies with exhortations and various inducements is a favorite tactic, a tried-and-true method to bolster the state’s legitimacy.
The Trump administration called on Iran’s government to stop blocking Instagram and other popular social media sites. Steve Goldstein, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, said Instagram, Telegram and other platforms were “legitimate avenues for communication.” Anti-government demonstrations flared in several cities on Wednesday, videos posted on social media seemed to show. In Khomeynishahr, where a 13-year-old boy was killed on Monday, protesters set fire to a seminary; demonstrations were also reported in Shiraz, Kazerun, Lenjan and Rasht.
The head of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court also reportedly warned that protesters could face the death penalty. In the six days since the protests broke out, demonstrators have appeared in more than 80 cities, human rights advocates say, but Tehran has by and large been an exception and anti-government protesters have been frustrated by the lack of a large response there.
“Obviously one of their charges can be Moharebeh,” or waging war against God, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency quoted the court official, Mousa Ghazanfarabadi, as saying. Moharebeh is punishable by death in Iran. “I wanted to protest on Tuesday, and while opposition channels said people had gathered, I arrived at Vali-e Asr Square, and there was no one,” said Farhad, 33, a cybersecurity expert, who asked that his surname not be mentioned for safety reasons. “There were lots of police, however.”