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The Persian New Year of 1402 ended on March 20, 2024. While there are numerous aspects to assess the Iranian regime’s position, the ruling theocracy’s relation with its organized opposition group is utterly important.
The nationwide 2022 uprising, which spanned several months into 2023, rattled the regime’s foundation. As previously reported, the Iranian regime’s security apparatus is entirely designed to suppress any protest and uprising. Thus, the continuation of those protests indicated a driving force that organized them. Arresting over 3,600 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) Resistance Units is a testament to this fact.
Following the bloody crackdown on the 2022 uprising, the regime intensified its oppressive measures to clamp down on any form of dissent. Yet, despite the regime’s efforts, defiant youths targeted many centers of oppression and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) bases. These operations, along with numerous torching of the regime’s symbols and signs by the MEK Resistance Units, were roughly 3006 cases.
In addition, the MEK Resistance Units carried out 27,726 activities across Iran, such as portraying large images of the Resistance’s leadership on buildings and writing graffiti and slogans on the walls encouraging people to resist the tyranny. These campaigns and activities, under the nose of tens of thousands of the regime’s covert and overt forces, have cast deep fear in officials’ hearts.
It is worth noting that on October 20, the Iranian Resistance revealed a confidential document, showing instructions from the IRGC’s Commander-in-Chief, Hossein Salami, to the terrorist force’s bases across the country. “In light of the violent actions and assaults carried out to take over the Basij centers, allocate the necessary capabilities for added protection of weapons, ammunition, and equipment in these canters and undertake the needed measures to secure them,” read the document.
In February, the Resistance’s vast network inside the country showed itself during the massive boycott of the regime’s sham parliamentary elections. In addition to generalizing this boycott, thousands of reports showing empty election centers were conducted by citizen reporters of Simay-e Azadi, a satellite channel linked to the Iranian Resistance.
In his Nowruz message on March 20, the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, acknowledged this fact, saying, “The enemy tries to deny hope in the youths and wipe out optimism from hearts. The enemy is lurking to kill the spirit of youth.”
Fearing the increasing influence of the Iranian Resistance on society, especially youth, the regime began a sham trial of 104 officials and members of the MEK and its parent coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). The trial, held three decades after the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 MEK members and supporters, intends to counter the organization’s growing popularity while paving the way for its terrorist plots abroad.
While the regime desperately attempts to curb the MEK’s influence on society, it is worth noting that due to society’s restiveness, and following several nationwide uprisings, Iranians seek a way and a movement that advocates for the regime’s overthrow in its entirety and establishment of a democratic republic.