NCRI Staff
NCRI – The first vice-president of Iranian regime noting recent protests in early January in Iran said: “It is the people’s hatred, anger, and grudge toward the officials and the system that should worry us.”
Ishaq Jahangiri also warned against the danger of the people’s “protest” turning into “hatred and anger”.
In a speech on Tuesday, March 6, he spoke on the subject of the general demonstrations in Iran last January, saying that the protests “had both losses and benefits”.
“All political figures, even those who were not expected, stated that protest is the people’s right,” he added.
At the same time, however, Jahangiri added: “Of course, some irrelevant words were spoken in some protests that were not acceptable to us, but everyone came to the conclusion that they have to hear the people.”
“Death to Khamenei” and “Death to dictator” were among the main slogans chanted by people during the protests showing people’s hatred and anger towards the regime.
The street protests in Iran began on 29 December 2017, beginning in Mashhad, with slogans against poor livelihoods, but quickly swept across the country and targeted the entire regime. Demonstrators in more than 200 small and large cities in Iran chanted slogans against Khamenei and the regime’s top officials, as well as its interference in the region, and showed their desire to overthrow the regime.
Jahangir added in another part of the speech: “There is a lot of corruption in the country and there is systemic corruption….”
During the protests last January, the issue of “people’s right to protest” became a comprehensive debate, and a large number of regime officials inevitably emphasized this “right”. But in most cases it was also spoken of provocation by the “enemy” and the hands of “foreign agents”.
In the meantime, Khamenei described the protests as “plans” by the United States and Israel, “one of the richest governments in the Persian Gulf” and the Mojahedin.