NCRI

Iran News in Brief – December 26, 2023

Sedighe Shahrokhi

iran protests 25122023

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 8:30 PM

Tuesday Protests in Iran

Ahvaz, Southwest Iran: Security forces have been deployed to quell a worker’s strike at the Iran National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz. The strike, now in its fourth day, was initiated after authorities barred 21 workers from entering the facility, ignoring the workers’ demands.

Tabriz, Northwest Iran: Workers at a car parts factory in Tabriz have initiated a strike, rallying against low wages and substandard working conditions. The protest highlights the widespread dissatisfaction among laborers.

Ardakan, Central Iran: In Ardakan, locals have taken to the streets to protest against air pollution caused by industrial complexes. The demonstration reflects the community’s frustration with the adverse effects of the regime’s construction policies.

Tehran, Iran’s capital: Workers from Tehran municipality organized a protest rally in the capital, drawing attention to their concerns. The demonstration adds to the chorus of dissent echoing through various sectors in Iran.

Tehran, Gold Bazaar: Merchants in the gold bazaar continued their strikes in Tehran and other cities, expressing their discontent with new taxation rules imposed by the regime. Notable bazaars, including Farvardin, Ordibehesht, Khordad, Hakim Hashemi, Makareh, and the Alley of Goldsmiths, remain closed in solidarity with the ongoing protests.

The multifaceted demonstrations across the country underscore a growing wave of discontentment with the regime’s policies, touching on labor rights, environmental concerns, and economic grievances. As these protests gain momentum, they highlight the diverse range of challenges faced by various segments of the Iranian population.

UPDATE: 5:00 PM

Iran Undoes Slowdown in Enrichment of Uranium to Near Weapons-grade -IAEA

VIENNA, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Iran has reversed a months-long slowdown in the rate at which it is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to weapons grade, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday.

Many diplomats believed the slowdown, which had begun by June, was the result of secret talks between the United States and Iran that led to the release of U.S. citizens held in Iran earlier this year.

Iran already has enough uranium enriched to up to 60%, if enriched further, to make three nuclear bombs, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s theoretical definition, and more at lower enrichment levels. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.

Read more

Security Concerns Surrounding Ebrahim Raisi’s Travels Reveals Public Hatred Against Regime’s President

The exposure by a member of the regime’s parliament that a substantial security detail of several hundred personnel has been assigned to accompany the Iranian regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi during his official trip to Parand has caused some internal feud inside the clerical dictatorship. On December 24, MP Hassan Norouzi stated that during Raisi’s visit to Parand, a town southwest of Tehran, between 400 to 500 security personnel were deployed, and the inauguration would be limited in scope.

Following an initial and outright dismissal, the official government newspaper “Iran” addressed the criticism raised by Norouzi. Defending the tight security measures, the newspaper asserted that Norouzi’s comments were not far from reality. It emphasized that, during each trip or public appearance by Ebrahim Raisi in various regions, security personnel from different branches, including the Revolutionary Guard, law enforcement, emergency services, and Basij, are present to ensure the security of the events.

The official government media’s recognition reveals a stark contrast to the regime’s assertions, indicating a notable degree of public hostility toward its representatives. This perspective views ordinary citizens as potential security threats.

Joe Lieberman to Newsmax: US Must Hit Targets Inside Iran

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman told Newsmax on Monday that the U.S. should retaliate against Iran in Iran because the Islamic regime has targeted U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

The Pentagon announced Nov. 21 that U.S. forces have been attacked approximately 66 times since Oct. 17 by Iranian proxies in the Middle East, including 32 times in Iraq and 34 times in Syria. U.S. personnel have sustained approximately 62 injuries. Also, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have fired drones at missiles that U.S. ships in the Red Sea have intercepted.

Read more

UPDATE: 11:00 AM

Biden Orders Strike On Iranian-Aligned Group After 3 US Troops Injured in Drone Attack in Iraq

Associated Press – President Joe Biden ordered the U.S. military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. servicemembers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said one of the U.S. troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone

Biden, who is spending Christmas at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, was alerted about the attack by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan shortly after it occurred on Monday and ordered the Pentagon and his top national security aides to prepare response options to the attack on an air base used by American troops in Erbil.

Read more

Iranian War Crimes: the Leaders Must Answer for Their Crimes

For the second time since he became president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi has been forced to cancel a visit to Europe due to widespread protests and a demand for his arrest under the law of universal jurisdiction. Dubbed ‘The Butcher of Tehran’ for his direct involvement in the execution of political prisoners in an infamous 1988 massacre, Raisi was forced to pull out of a planned visit to Geneva where he had hoped to address the UN Global Refugee Forum, which began on Dec. 13. Raisi was one of the members of a series of Death Committees, set up by the then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Under a fatwa issued by Khomeini, the death committees were ordered to execute more than 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, most of them members and supporters of the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran/Mojahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK).

Read more

UPDATE: 8:30 AM

Steelworkers in Ahvaz Continue Strikes, Retirees and Nurses Resume Protests

Workers of Iran National Steel Industrial Group went on strike for the third successive day on Monday after the company banned the entry of 21 workers to the company and refrained from implementing job classification rules. The workers took control of the factory’s entrance as authorities refrained from responding to their demands. The workers are demanding company authorities to revoke the restrictions on entry to the suspended workers and the return to the work of former fired colleagues. The workers are also demanding the equalization of wages with those of neighboring steel companies, the complete and immediate implementation of the job classification laws, the removal of the corrupt CEO and the dispossession of the state-run Bank-e Melli (National Bank), and the participation of workers in corporate management.

Read more

How To Deal With the Iranian Regime’s Threat to Global Peace and Security

Global peace is alarmingly under threat. Some analysts warn that a prolonged war in Gaza could potentially lead to a regional or even global conflict. What’s surprising is the fact that despite political leaders acknowledging the center of warmongering in the Middle East and the world as the religious fascism ruling Iran, they turn a blind eye and pretend not to see.

This “turning a blind eye” has grave consequences and implications. To the extent that the United States and Europe cover up the role of the warmongering godfather of fundamentalism and terrorism, they allow religious fascism to become more emboldened and increase its provocative actions. The most prominent example of this is the attacks on commercial and transit vessels in the Red Sea by proxy forces of this regime.

Read more

Iranian Cyber Espionage Group Targets Defense Industry with New Malware

In a recent announcement, Microsoft revealed that an Iranian cyber espionage group, identified as Peach Sandstorm (formerly Holmium, also known as APT33, Elfin, and Refined Kitten), is actively employing a newly developed malware named FalseFont backdoor to conduct intelligence-gathering operations on defense industry companies globally. These attacks have focused on organizations within the US Defense Industrial Base (DIB), a sector encompassing numerous American and foreign entities and subcontractors engaged in work for the US Department of Defense (DOD) and other Federal departments and agencies.

Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Unit, a global network of security experts, has been closely monitoring the activities of Peach Sandstorm.

Read more

Mahdiyeh Hospital Nurses Hold Protests Against Poor Wages

Nurses working for Mahdiyeh Hospital at Tehran’s Melli University held a protest in the premises of this hospital, on Monday, December 25, 2023, to protest poor wages, the lack of implementation of tariff laws, and forced overtime work with low fees.
Overtime work for nurses who work 12 to 16 hours a day is something like forced labor, they say. The protesting nurses at Mahdiyeh Hospital called for fair compensation and better working conditions.

While there is a shortage of nurses in hospitals across the country, Mohammad Mirzabeigi, the head of the Nurses Organization said some 10,000 of the country’s best nurses had left and migrated to other countries.

Read more

Iran: 150 Emergency Patients Escape Tabriz Hospital Monthly Due to Poverty

Poverty in Iran is causing increasingly widespread repercussions. In the latest case, Sajjad Ahmadi, the Deputy of Development, Management, and Resources at the Imam Reza Educational and Medical Center in the city of Tabriz (northwest Iran), stated that an average of 150 cases of emergency escapes are registered and documented in this hospital on a monthly basis.

Low-income individuals who seek medical care at the hospital flee because they are unable to afford the treatment costs.

According to a report by the regime’s Statistical Center in October 2023 on the expenditure and income status of Iranian households, healthcare expenses accounted for approximately 9.1% of the urban household expenditure basket in the previous year, ranking third after housing and fuel, as well as food and tobacco.

Read more

How Misery in Iran Has Changed in the Past Three Decades

International official statistics indicate that in 2022, Iran ranked as the eighth country in the world with the highest recorded misery index. In less than two decades, the misery index in the country has more than doubled.

In the past calendar year, the misery index for Iran reached 57, marking the highest level recorded in the country’s three-decade history. This index is only surpassed by Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Lebanon, Sudan, Turkey, Argentina, and Suriname in 2022.

However, this is not the first time that Iran has ranked high on the misery index. Analysis of data from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank shows that over the past twenty years, Iran has ranked among the top 12 countries with the highest misery index for 14 years.

Read more

Also, read Iran News in Brief – December 25, 2023

Exit mobile version