Due to the regime’s wrong policies, state-run media warn the regime’s officials of an upcoming uprising with the growing social and economic crisis in Iran. These warnings come days after the uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan province, southeast Iran.
We could count numerous events during which Hassan Rouhani’s government refused to act. This failure has resulted in nothing other than despair for society. Instead of worrying about whether we should criticize the government or not, we should think about how burning chances in the context of people’s frustration with its long-term consequences affect other political and social developments in the future?” wrote the state-run Ebtekar daily on Wednesday. Ebtekar’s article responds to the remarks by the regime’s President Hassan Rouhani regarding the recent uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan.
Protests erupted in Sistan and Baluchistan on February 22, after the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) gunned down several deprived fuel porters. While the regime’s security forces continued oppressing people, Rouhani, as the regime’s highest executive official, only shed crocodile tears for fuel porters known as Sokthbar and porters as Kolbar.
“Kolbari and Sokhtbari are not to the dignity of people and the country. These phenomena have serious economic and social harms,” he said on Tuesday, without offering any solution to people’s hardships.
The uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan, which initially started in Saravan county, with people rapidly storming repression centers, showed the society’s restiveness. The regime imposed an internet blackout in the province to prevent news of protests and the uprising itself from spreading across Iran.
“The Saravan issue was a wound that this incident opened so that people could understand the realities and issues of this region,” wrote the state-run Mostaghel daily on Tuesday.
“The bitter incidents in Saravan have not been forgotten, but no news has been published. The reason is internet blackout in the region and the censorship of the media. The bitterness of the matter is that it seems as if we are used to this method, and we have accepted that we can pass from any crisis and event in this way. These methods turn every protest and social conflict into a fire under the ashes. With a compassionate glance [the regime] should worry about the day it flares up,” the Mostaghel article adds, underlining the regime’s oppressive measures no longer work in quelling the society.
“This incident [uprising] underlines a lack of attention to these regions, which have complex geopolitical conditions. Failure to pay attention to these areas with special geopolitical sensitivity leads to social dissatisfaction, which has severe consequences for the [regime]. Among other things, they incite a gap between the people and government that undermines the security of the [regime],” wrote the state-run Aftab-e Yazd.
[Protests] are “a time bomb under the skin of society. No one knows when it will explode, but its dangers for the [regime] are more devastating than an attack by a foreign force. Those who realized history doubtlessly embrace that [social turmoil].” according to the state-run Jahan-e Sanat on February 28.