THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 9:00 PM CET
Iran Uprising at a Glance – Day 185
Based partially on reporting by PMOI (MEK) Network in Iran
Sunday, March 19, 2023 – 8 PM GMT + 1
- Days: 185
- Protests: 282 cities
- Fatalities: 750+ estimated deaths, 672 identified by MEK
- Detentions: 30,000
Iran’s nationwide uprising marked its 185th day with more protests reported by people from different strata demanding their rights from the ruling mullahs’ regime. The dictatorship’s disastrous economic policies have left many across the country in extreme conditions and unable to make ends meet. This has led to continuous gatherings and rallies by Iranians demanding better living conditions and adequate work that provides decent pay for them and their families.
This evening, in Laly a city located in Khuzestan province, southwest Iran, defiant youth targeted the regime’s repressive Emdad committee and set it on fire.
Pensioners and retirees of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the cities of Ahvaz, Shush, and Shushtar in Khuzestan rallied on Sunday morning protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, poor living conditions, and officials’ refusal to address their demands.
In Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan, the protesters were chanting: “Our enemy is right here! They lie in saying it’s America!”
Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions commensurate with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.
The government has long made hollow promises to increase pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.
Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.
Last night until the early hours of today, locals in the capital Tehran’s different districts, including Narmak and Shahrak-e Bagheri, began chanting anti-regime slogans on Saturday night, including:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Death to the child-killing regime!”
In Tehran, disabled people held a gathering in front of the Program and Budget Organization and protested their poor living conditions and the ongoing plunder by regime officials.
UPDATE: 5:00 PM CET
Zelensky Imposes Sanctions on Hundreds, Including Iranian Regime’s Chief of Staff of Armed Forces
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree Saturday to sanction hundreds of individuals, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to a Ukrainian government statement.
The decree, which approved a proposal by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, imposes sanctions primarily on Russian citizens and legal entities. But the list also includes other prominent names such as Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal аl-Mekdad, and Chief of Staff for the Armed Forces of Iran Mohammad Bagheri.
The statement added that the sanctions — which order a halt on trading operations and restrict or completely ban shipping resources, flying or otherwise traveling through Ukraine — will be imposed for 10 years.
All those who produce weapons for terror against Ukraine, who help Russia incite aggression, in particular by supplying Shahed drones, who support Russia's destruction of international law, can only be marginals for the world. pic.twitter.com/v2GunkSvMD
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 18, 2023
UPDATE: 10:30 AM CET
Message to the Iranian New Year Celebration at the UK Parliament
Honorable members of both Houses of Parliament, as the Iranian New Year draws near, I offer my warm greetings and thanks for your continued support of the Iranian people’s resistance and fight for freedom and democracy. First, I would like to take a moment to pay tribute and commemorate the two great friends of the Iranian Resistance, Baroness Boothroyd, and Sir David Amess; they are not with us today but their memories are always with us. As winter ends and spring arrives, nature begins to blossom, and life revives. Therefore, the people of Iran consider their quest to end dictatorship and obtain freedom as the “Spring of Liberty.”
Iran’s Baluchis Renew Protests, Call For Khamenei’s Downfall
The brave Baluchis of Iran took to the streets once again for the 24th Friday of the country’s ongoing revolution since September 2022. In their large demonstration that took place in Zahedan, the provincial capital of Sistan & Baluchestan in southeast Iran, protesters condemned the crimes of the mullahs’ theocracy and rejected and any all forms of dictatorship, most specifically that of the Shah that ruled Iran prior to the 1979 revolution.
People throughout the country are specifically holding the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
Golrokh Iraee Detained in Limbo Despite 6 Months in Evin Prison
Political prisoner Golrokh Iraee remains in limbo in Evin Prison despite nearly six months past her arrest. Security forces violently arrested Golrokh Iraee at her home on September 26, 2022. They ransacked her residence and confiscated some of her personal belongings. In late October, Branch 2 of Evin’s Prosecutor’s Office informed Ms. Iraee regarding “assembly and collusion” and “propaganda against the state.”
Amnesty International Verifies Horrific Torture of Child Protesters
Amnesty International published the outcome of its research on the torture of child detainees in Iran during the 2022-2023 uprising. Although there is no transparent information on the number of child detainees in Iran, there have been acknowledgments on the part of Iranian regime officials that a considerable number of children were among the protesters detained. The Iranian Judiciary Chief also recently admitted that they had released 22,000 protesters detained during the 2022-2023 Iran protests. One could conclude that thousands of children, boys, and girls, were among those arrested and tortured by the Iranian regime.
The Role of the Revolutionary Guards in Money Laundering for Khamenei in 2021
In addition to its control over a significant portion of Iran’s banking and financial markets, the Revolutionary Guards play an extensive role in money laundering for the system of the Supreme Leader.
This article focuses on the role of the Revolutionary Guards in money laundering for the regime. Perhaps it is better to say it upfront: the Revolutionary Guards is an organization whose illicit revenues and expenditures are not transparent, and it does not even give an account to the government and the parliament; this is a clear example of money laundering.
Mike Pence To Iranian Activists: Anti-regime Protests a ‘Revolution in the Making’
Current anti-regime protests in Iran are a “revolution in the making,” according to former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who blasted the Biden and Obama administrations for their ineffectiveness at combating Iranian threats, while warning that a renewed nuclear deal would pave a path “in gold” for the Islamic Republic to attain a nuclear bomb.
Appearing at a Washington summit hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities (OIAC) in support of a free and democratic Iran on Saturday, Pence addressed Iranian anti-regime activists, delivering a major foreign policy speech focusing on the Islamic Regime.
Also, read Iran News in Brief – March 18, 2023