in dozens of cities chanting, “Death to Khamenei, death to the dictator”
The wave of widespread protests due to the continuous power outages that started on Sunday evening, July 4, in Tehran, has spread to dozens of cities across the country last night and today.
This morning in Shiraz and Gohardasht, the people chanted, “Death to Khamenei and death to the dictator,” protesting power outages. In Ahvaz, the protesters entered the city’s Power Department. In Pakdasht, protesters blocked the streets and set fire to garbage cans and tires to protest the power outage. Protesters closed the roads in Fashafuyeh and Bahnamir in Mazandaran last night. People also gathered and protested in front of local power departments, in Amol, Semnan, Babol, Rostam-kola, Khomam (Gilan), Daryakenar Babolsar, Behshahr, Fereydunkenar, Qaemshahr, Kazerun, Bandar Gaz, and Juybar,
While the spokesman of the regime’s power industry announced on Monday that the country’s power shortage is at least 11,000 megawatts (MW), the head of the power department of the western cities announced today that yesterday’s “imbalance between electricity consumption and production was 15,000 MW across the country.” He also warned, according to IRNA today, of more power plants being phased out in the next few days, should the situation continue.
Meanwhile, according to the state-run news site, Tabnak, today, head of the Power Industry board, acknowledged that “the occurrence of blackouts this year was quite predictable.” He added: “The country’s power plant capacity has been largely declining from 2010 to 2020, declining from 8.8% in 2010 to 2.2% in 2020.”
Yesterday, the spokesperson for the Power Industry was quoted by the State TV and Radio news agency, as saying, “the closure of many power plants due to technical failures, a 14% increase in electricity consumption, and unauthorized bitcoins mining (which are mainly owned by the Revolutionary Guards) were the reasons for the shortage of electricity.”
Yesterday, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), saluted the protesters who shouted “death to Khamenei, death to the dictator” and said that the repeated and lengthy power shortages in the summer heat had endangered millions of lives, particularly the ill. Meanwhile, the country’s wealth and resources are being plundered by the regime’s leaders or wasted on repression and warmongering and the unpatriotic nuclear and missile projects. This is the flip side of the regime’s criminal and plundering policies in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left 330,000 victims. The clerical regime is the cause of poverty, unemployment, and the destruction of infrastructure. The only way to achieve freedom and justice is to overthrow this regime, Mrs. Rajavi added.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
July 6, 2021
