Reflection of Protests in Iran in International Media

In the continuation of the reflection and explanation of the recent unrest in Iran, foreign media have focused their attention on the composition and class of street protesters and the consequences of the Islamic Republic's adventures in the region. The Washington Post writes that the protesting people in the streets, unlike the protests of 2009, are mostly from the poorer segments of society who feel ignored by corrupt elites. The report adds that these protests are significantly different from the populist movements of 2016 in the U.S. and Europe. The Washington Post states that while this uprising of the poor may not be able to overthrow the Islamic Republic, it shows that Iran is now paying the price for its revolutionary adventures in the Middle East within its own country. Unlike the protests of 2009, it is not facing intellectuals and the urban middle class, but rather the fire of these protests is erupting from a deeper and broader layer, and suppressing it could yield the opposite result and intensify the protests. Alireza Nader, a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation, says that the recent uprising is widespread across the country, the government is confused, and security forces have acted slowly. "These protests have arisen from the underprivileged and marginalized, although the presence of the urban middle class is also observed." The newspaper refers to the continuous tweets of Donald Trump, the President of the United States, and quotes a White House official stating that "Iranian protesters have shown that the country is grappling with deep structural problems and a corrupt economic system that is largely dominated by the Revolutionary Guards, which is irreparable." According to him, the U.S. is consulting with its allies to force the Islamic Republic to take responsibility for the violence against the people. "Iran is paying the cost of creating chaos in the region and has no choice but to change its approach." The Washington Post mentions research by the Iran Polling Institute in Toronto, which found that 54 percent of participants said, "The living conditions are unbearable and barely manageable." Last year, the Gallup Institute reported that Iran ranks third in negative experience index, after Iraq and Sudan. This index is determined based on factors such as stress, anger, sadness, anxiety, and psychological pain that people experience in their daily lives. The report adds that people elected Hassan Rouhani, the moderate president, to see the results of the nuclear agreement and the lifting of sanctions, but the people's economic expectations and the country's economy were not met, and ultimately angry protesters took to the streets, directing their attacks at red lines such as Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, and Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force. In another report, the Washington Post cites a report from the New York Times stating that the unemployment rate among youth, who make up half of Iran's population, is about 40 percent, and official statistics show that 90 percent of those arrested during street protests are under 25 years old. Dennis Ross: We should not remain silent In this context, Dennis Ross, a former U.S. representative for Middle Eastern affairs, also writes in an article for Foreign Policy magazine that Iran's adventures abroad have fueled anger among the people inside the country. He states that apparently, Iran's leaders have gained the upper hand in the region. They have helped the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria to survive, strengthened Hezbollah in Lebanon, and turned Shiite militias in Iraq into tools for Iran to pressure the central government of Iraq. Iranian weapons and missiles reach the Houthis in Yemen, and Qassem Soleimani appears to be at the forefront of the Arab world to say that Iran and its allies are invincible. However, the recent protests in Iran have shown that the Islamic Republic is paying the cost of all these adventures within Iran. He writes that Iranian officials, including Khamenei and his advisor Ali Akbar Velayati, believed that Iran had moved the battlefield beyond its borders to Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon and had formed a resistance front led by the Islamic Republic. Mr. Ross continues by referring to the start of protests in Mashhad, noting that the scope of protests quickly spread to other cities in the country, and not only the urban middle class but also the lower and marginalized classes took to the streets, directing their attacks at economic corruption and chanting death slogans against the dictator, referring to Khamenei. He writes that the slogan "Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life is for Iran" also reflects the people's protest against the Islamic Republic's adventures in the region. He points to the country's dire economic situation and the reduction of subsidies, including bread, stating that the lower class has been severely affected by this situation. Mr. Ross writes that the mismanagement of the economy in Iran, where half of the country's GDP is under the control of the Revolutionary Guards and religious foundations, has also put the country's economic situation in the crosshairs of criticism. According to him, the unmet economic demands of the people from the benefits of lifting sanctions have fueled the protests. He mentions that some people are chanting slogans about a referendum, similar to what happened at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. Ross further adds that the scale of the ongoing protests after the events of 2009, which faced widespread arrests of political activists and whose leaders are still under house arrest, is unprecedented. He states that one of the reasons Khamenei agreed to Rouhani's victory in the elections and the nuclear agreement was the protests of 2009. He refers to the position of the Obama administration at that time and writes that the lesson to be learned from U.S. foreign policy at that time is that Washington should not remain silent regarding these protests. Although European governments such as France and Germany have remained silent so far, the Trump administration is trying to encourage them not to turn a blind eye to the human rights situation in Iran. According to him, it is estimated that Iran provides $800 million annually to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the cost of maintaining Bashar al-Assad's government has reached several billion dollars for Iran. The way to silence the protests: listening to the people The Guardian also reports that the Iranian government can only find a way to silence the protests when it finds a way to listen to them. However, for now, Iranian officials are focusing their efforts on blaming foreign governments and regional rivals for the internal situation instead of responding. The report adds that the protests began in a city where two powerful figures from Rouhani's rival faction, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad (Alim al-Huda) and his electoral rival (Ebrahim Raisi), who is in charge of the Astan Quds Razavi, are present, but quickly spread to more than 20 cities in the country. The Guardian adds that the lifting of Western sanctions had no immediate impact on the country's economy, and Rouhani's efforts to reform the banking system faced opposition from hardline and security factions that feared for their losses. "Rivals arrested the brother of Rouhani's first vice president and threatened to pursue his own brother legally, and ultimately the president resorted to small measures such as increasing taxes on foreign trade instead of deep structural reforms. The vital role of the U.S. in supporting the people of Iran The website Politico also published an article titled "Where We Can Agree on Iran" by Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Daniel Shapiro, U.S. ambassador to Israel during Barack Obama's presidency, stating that the people of Iran have taken to the streets these days to make their voices heard against corruption, inflation, and unemployment. However, they are equally frustrated with the adventures of their leaders in regional countries and the sending of millions of dollars in financial aid to Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, and terrorist groups like Hezbollah. The report adds that the Islamic government of Iran rules oppressively over its people, violates human rights, supports terrorism, seeks to destabilize the region, and still harbors dreams of nuclear weapons. "The Iranian government is unable to revitalize its economy after sanctions because its economy is socialist, centralized, and against privatization. Companies run by Ayatollah Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards and their religious system spend millions of dollars on their corrupt administrative network to seize control of the central economic hubs and implement a legal system that instills fear in domestic and foreign investors." The authors of this report further state that as those looking at the recent protests from outside Iran, we do not know enough about their nature. The reasons for the start of these protests have not been uniform everywhere. The scale of these protests is impressive, but not enough to change the situation entirely. The path of the protests is unclear. There is no leadership, and it seems that the government is intent on suppressing them. We must cautiously observe the protests and be aware that we do not yet have a complete understanding of their causes and effects. These protests seem numerous, brave, significant, sincere, and very widespread, but it is still unclear whether they pose a serious threat to the Iranian regime or not. Of course, we hope that this is the case. If this movement leads to the overthrow of Ayatollah Khamenei's regime, it would be a great favor not only to the Iranians but also to the people of Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and ultimately the U.S. Politico adds that those who agreed with President Obama's administration's decision regarding the agreement with Iran also ultimately want the threat from Iran to be removed from the region. The very reason for the nuclear agreement was for the U.S. to be able to confront "Iran's other mischiefs" in the region. Supporters and opponents of the nuclear agreement with Iran should avoid "finger-pointing" at this moment and refrain from telling the other side that you see we were right. Such discussions diminish the chances of broad support for the peaceful protests of the people and hope for a change in the situation in Iran. Instead of these discussions, we should see how the U.S. government and its European allies can give the people of Iran more hope to continue these protests. We can all agree that the uprising of hundreds of thousands of protesters against corruption and government repression should be a wake-up call not only for Ayatollah Khamenei but also for Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (the presidents of Russia and Turkey). This report adds that Americans—both conservatives and Democrats—should show their support for the people of Iran. The Trump administration's statement in the early days of these protests, along with supportive messages from Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders, and other Democrats and conservatives, played an important role in drawing attention to the protests in Iran and media coverage of the events. This may cause the Iranian regime to be cautious in its use of repressive and violent forces. The need for further actions This report continues that, in the first stage, officials from current and former governments (Trump and Obama) should convey their supportive messages to the people of Iran and their human rights to protest against the regime. They should communicate with Persian-language networks. They should inform the people about the details of the assets stolen by the regime and the Revolutionary Guards and explain how the Iranian government uses this money to create insecurity in the region. Millions of dollars of American taxpayers' money are spent on running networks like Voice of America and Radio Farda. They should be utilized. Politics should not be involved in the matter. Human rights violations and ongoing corruption in the Iranian government should be condemned. In the next stage, the U.S. Congress should condemn the widespread and systematic human rights violations by the Iranian government against its citizens in a firm language similar to what was used in the 2012 "Freedom and Drug Control Act" for Iran. All 535 members of the U.S. Congress should support this statement. Thirdly, the White House, with the help of Democrats and Republicans in Congress, should pursue the corruption of the Iranian government and human rights violations through international forums. The Iranian government does not like Trump's immigration order, the closure of access routes to wealth stored outside Iran, and being held accountable in global forums. The doors of European countries should also be closed to regime supporters. Finally, the White House should ensure that the Iranian government cannot use tools of repression and censorship. Companies like Telegram, Twitter, and Instagram should not comply with the Iranian government's demands to block channels that protesters and demonstrators use. These companies can stand on the right side of history and provide the Iranian people with the necessary tools to undermine the regime's restrictions. The authors of this article state that ultimately it does not matter what we say and do. The Iranian government will ultimately blame the U.S. for its failures. It is important that the demands of the Iranian people and their protests are prioritized, but we should not remain idle. For example, the Trump administration can show that it does not harbor animosity towards the Iranian people and allow them to travel to the U.S. "This is an important moment in history. Protesters can make their country's fate fall into the hands of their prominent people and establish a free and prosperous society, at peace with their neighbors and the U.S. This should be a goal that both supporters and opponents of the Iran nuclear agreement should think about and unite to achieve it.