It's been a very turbulent past few days in Iran. Starting on Thursday the 28th in Mashhad, protests initially about rising prices (the price of eggs doubled in a week) - triggered by Rouhani's conservative budget plan - quickly spread all over the country broadened into protests against Rouhani himself, Khamenei, and even the Islamic Republic as a system.
The government has so far refrained from resorting to force to put down the protests, outside of tear gas and water cannon. On the other hand, at least 10 people are reported killed in the time of the protests. 2 were killed when they were hit by a fire truck stolen by "protesters". The rest are reportedly shot by police, but because of the controversial nature of these sorts of things I won't speculate on that.
Some of the protests devolved into rioting. Setting flags, bins, public buildings, mosques and police vehicles on fire. These are absolutely deplorable and all the offenders must be dealt with accordingly. But the majority of the protests were peaceful (albeit angry).
Unfortunately for the overexcited Saudis, Israelis, and Americans (the Saudis especially made a Twitter storm about it), these protests are not the start of an uprising or a revolution. They are like a pressure valve. Rising discontent and reduced patience caused what was believed to be a principlist-sponsored protest about economic issues to escalate into such a wide scale event.
A protest like this is a signal to the government that the people have economic and socio-political grievances with both the executive and clerical branches of government. These grievances must be addressed. It is not wise to dismiss any protest movement as some sort of western backed colour revolution. Trump and co. will obviously exploit the situation for domestic and international approval, but that doesn't mean they started it. Anyone will tell you that most people in Iran are unsatisfied (to say the least) with the current socio-economic situation. Their views must be heard.
Iran... where egg prices can trigger a nationwide protest movement.
Some of the protests devolved into rioting. Setting flags, bins, public buildings, mosques and police vehicles on fire. These are absolutely deplorable and all the offenders must be dealt with accordingly. But the majority of the protests were peaceful (albeit angry).
Unfortunately for the overexcited Saudis, Israelis, and Americans (the Saudis especially made a Twitter storm about it), these protests are not the start of an uprising or a revolution. They are like a pressure valve. Rising discontent and reduced patience caused what was believed to be a principlist-sponsored protest about economic issues to escalate into such a wide scale event.
A protest like this is a signal to the government that the people have economic and socio-political grievances with both the executive and clerical branches of government. These grievances must be addressed. It is not wise to dismiss any protest movement as some sort of western backed colour revolution. Trump and co. will obviously exploit the situation for domestic and international approval, but that doesn't mean they started it. Anyone will tell you that most people in Iran are unsatisfied (to say the least) with the current socio-economic situation. Their views must be heard.
Iran... where egg prices can trigger a nationwide protest movement.
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