Protests Against Khamenei and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Spread to Dozens of Iranian Cities on Second Day
Protests against the role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the downing of a passenger aircraft and the cover-up by Iranian Islamic Republic officials expanded to more than twenty cities on Sunday, the second day of demonstrations.
According to photos and videos sent to Voice of America and reports published by other Persian-language media outlets, on Sunday cities including Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Gorgan, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Rasht, Qazvin, Kerman, Semnan, Damghan, Yazd, Shahroud, Amol, and Babol witnessed protest gatherings.
The main slogans were directed against the leader of the Islamic Republic and the Revolutionary Guards, calling for prosecution and resignation of Iranian regime officials.
The New York Times reported Sunday night: In Tehran, large crowds thwarted officials’ attempts to prevent gatherings at Azadi Square. Security forces later deployed tear gas to disperse them. According to the New York Times, eyewitnesses at Azadi Square told the American newspaper’s correspondent that after the use of plastic bullets by Basij forces and the Special Guard, the confrontation between security forces and protesters became violent at that location.
During these gatherings, people chanted: “We didn’t sacrifice lives to compromise, we won’t praise a leader who is a murderer,” “Tanks and cannons and guns, the clerics must disappear,” “Supreme Leader, resign, resign,” “Basiji, have shame, abandon the country,” “They killed our elites and replaced them with clerics,” “We don’t want Islamic Republic, we don’t want,” “One hundred fifty people, our dead from November,” “Death to the dictator” and “The incompetent Revolutionary Guards are responsible for the people’s deaths.”
Early Wednesday, December 18, a Ukrainian Boeing 737 aircraft crashed near the city of Parand in Tehran province with 176 passengers aboard, minutes after takeoff from Imam Khomeini Airport heading to Kyiv. This occurred only hours after Iran’s missile attack on American military positions in Iraq, which according to Revolutionary Guards officials, was retaliation for the killing of Qassem Soleimani by America. At the same time, the Associated Press reported that Ukraine, despite Iranian denials, considered the missile attack or terrorism among possible theories for the occurrence of this incident.
The Islamic Republic of Iran on Friday, December 20, and after several days of denial, finally acknowledged under international pressure that the downing of the Ukrainian passenger aircraft, which resulted in the death of 176 people, was due to “human error” and occurred through the “unintentional” firing of a missile by the Revolutionary Guards.
One day before that, on Thursday, December 19, U.S. President Donald Trump, calling the crash of the Ukrainian aircraft in Iran a “tragedy,” had said: “I have my suspicions. It’s a terrible thing. There have been reports that this crash involves suspicions. Maybe somebody made a mistake there.”
Protesters angry at the Islamic Republic’s cover-up began demonstrations starting Friday at several locations including in front of Amirkabir University and Sharif University with slogans against the leader of the Islamic Republic, the Revolutionary Guards, and other officials.
Following these protests, President Trump and American officials, while warning the Iranian regime, demanded that protesters not be suppressed.
Source: Voice of America
