News of spreading and morphing political protests in Iran are beginning to surface as social media accounts are now gaining MSM attention.
Openly political protests are not common in Iran ever since the 2009 ‘Green Revolution‘ was harshly put-down by security forces carrying out the instructions of the ruling Mullahs and political class.  Iranian security services are omnipresent and looming.   However, what appears to have begun as protests over prices, inflation and the lack of economic freedom, seems to have morphed into several regional political protests directly challenging the Mullahs and the reigning political class.

Back in 2009, after President Obama gave his famous Cairo speech, the message was interpreted by the Iranian reform movement, the “Greens”, as a spark toward freedom.  However, the Mullahs responded violently, Iranian security forces attacked the protestors, several were killed and hundreds jailed and President Obama stood by, watched the brutality, saying and doing nothing. 2009 was a very dark time for the reform movement.
It is too soon to tell if today’s protests are the beginning of a similar uprising, a resurgence of those previously crushed cries for freedom, but the reform movement appears to be pushing the message: this is indeed their objective.   It is a very interesting development.

(Reuters) – Demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans in several cities across Iran on Friday, Iranian news agencies and social media reports said, as price protests turned into the largest wave of demonstrations since nationwide pro-reform unrest in 2009.

Police dispersed anti-government demonstrators in the western city of Kermanshah as protests spread to Tehran and several other cities a day after rallies in the northeast, the semi-official news agency Fars said.
The outbreak of unrest reflects growing discontent over rising prices and alleged corruption, as well as concern about the Islamic Republic’s costly involvement in regional conflicts such as those in Syria and Iraq.
An official said a few protesters had been arrested in Tehran, and footage posted on social media showed a heavy police presence in the capital and some other cities.
About 300 demonstrators gathered in Kermanshah after what Fars said was a “call by the anti-revolution”. They shouted: “Political prisoners should be freed” and “Freedom or death”, and some public property was destroyed. Fars did not name any opposition groups.
The protests in Kermanshah, the main city in a region where an earthquake killed over 600 people in November, took place a day after hundreds rallied in Iran’s second largest city Mashhad to protest at high prices and shout anti-government slogans.
Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators yelling, “The people are begging, the clerics act like God”.
Fars said there were protests in the cities of Sari and Rasht in the north, Qazvin west of Tehran and Qom south of the capital, and also in Hamadan in western Iran. It said many marchers who wanted to raise economic demands left the rallies after demonstrators shouted political slogans.  (read more)

I would advise caution not to read too much into the events and accept there are tenuously connected seeds within the larger Middle-East struggles.  History is filled with the conflicting polarity between Persians and Arabs.
Iran has been on a growing question to influence the broader middle-east ideology, and Saudi coalition members are pushing back against that influence with open support for the reform agenda within Iran.  Proxies on proxies, and sub-sects on sub-sects.  A considerable challenge for those who would support increased ‘freedom’.


Viewpoint of National Council of Resistance in Iran – SEE HERE
Another Viewpoint of Resistance Supporters – SEE HERE
Reminder, proceed with caution.  There’s a great deal of misinformation.


https://twitter.com/oliverartist/status/946835784480579584
https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor/status/946874429337776128
 

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