THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
UPDATE: 5:00 PM CEST
Iran: Pensioners, Retirees Hold Protest and Rally in Several Cities
Sunday marked another round of protests by retirees and pensioners of the Social Security Organization, who took to the streets and held protest rallies in spite of a growing wave of repressive measures by the Iranian regime. The protest rallies, which are the latest in a series of events coordinated and organized on social media, took place in front of the offices of the Social Security Organizations in several cities, including Tehran, Karaj, Kermanshah, Khorram Abad, and Mashhad.
May 16 – Shiraz, south-central #Iran
School janitors protesting express their economic woes and demanding higher wages. #IranProtestspic.twitter.com/gdXcIVv0tA— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 16, 2021
May 16 – #Iran
Pensioners seen rallying in Tehran and Kermanshah demanding higher pensions as inflation continues to rise. Price of bread and other daily necessities are skyrocketing in Iran.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/dRlI80gE2Q— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 16, 2021
UPDATE: 9:00 AM CEST
Iran – Coronavirus Death Toll in 541 Cities Surpasses 288,200
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on Friday, May 14, 2021, that the Coronavirus death toll in 541 cities is more than 288,200. The number of victims in Tehran has reached 66,981, Isfahan 19,050, Khuzestan 17,799, Khorasan Razavi 17,690, East Azerbaijan 11,773, Mazandaran 11,765, Lorestan 11,735, West Azerbaijan 10,728, Gilan 9,851, Qom 9,460, Fars 9,307, Alborz 7,848, Kermanshah 5,724, Hormozgan 3,365, and Zanjan 3,170.
#Iran Coronavirus Update
More than 289,200 people have died of the novel #coronavirus in 541 cities checkered across all of Iran's 31 provinces, according to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK.
Full Reporthttps://t.co/WAffcCgfta pic.twitter.com/bwTffTdlON
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 16, 2021
Who Are the Candidates in Iran’s Sham Presidential Elections
Ebrahim Raisi, Chief Regime Henchman
Ebrahim Raisi, stepped into Iran’s political scene after the 1979 revolution against the monarchy as a pro-Khomeini cleric who would carry out his mentor’s every command. Raisi was born in 1960. He started training as a cleric in Qom’s seminary at 15 years old and entered the clerical regime’s judiciary from early on, as an assistant prosecutor in Karaj (West of Tehran) when he was 19 years old. He became the prosecutor of the revolutionary court of Karaj when he was just 20 to rise to the head of the Judiciary in 2019.
Ali Larijani
Larijani belongs to the Principlist faction, aligned with the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He was born in Najaf, Iraq in 1957 to a senior Iranian ayatollah but returned to Iran in 1961.
Larijani was previously appointed as the head of the board involved in drafting and signing the very unpopular 25-year strategic pact with China by Khamenei.
Larijani was an IRGC Brig. Gen. and played a major role in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. He held the following posts in the IRGC
The IRGC’s Smuggling Network That Is Destroying Iran’s Economy
In a meeting of the government’s economic coordination headquarters, Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani called the smuggling of goods “a disgraceful and harmful thing for a healthy and transparent economy and trade in the country,” according to his website on May 11. Despite Rouhani’s remarks, smuggling of goods, like other economic corruption, is systematic in the regime, and according to various estimates by government entities, more than a third of imported goods are smuggled into the country.
Read more: Iran News in Brief – May 15, 2021
