Iranian Retirees Hold Protests Across Country As Inflation Reduces Incomes

The Washington protest was held at the former building of the Iranian embassy and called by dissident singer-songwriter Arash Sobhani, a blues musician who has been an active advocate of human rights and democracy in Iran and has delivered speeches about Iranian social issues in various universities, including Harvard, Stanford, and University of California Irvine. 

During the event, Sobhani performed some of his original works, which are usually themed around the cultural and political issues in the Islamic Republic, as well as some cover songs about Iran, which were accompanied by the participating crowd. 

The gathering in Toronto was organized by Hamed Esmailioun, who is the flagbearer for the victims of the downing of Ukrainian Airlines Flight PS752 in January 2020 by the Revolutionary Guard, where he himself lost his wife and daughter. 

"Iran is ruled by the turban-wearing criminals and bloodthirsty revolutionary guards," Esmailioun said during his speech at the demonstration.

In both gatherings, people expressed solidarity with the people of Abadan, whose mourning ceremonies for the victims of the collapsed ten-story Metropol twin towers in May have turned into anti-government protests and spread to other cities of the southwestern Khuzestan province as well as other cities across the country.

“Although we tremble from sorrow but abound with anger; our heart is with you Abadan and we will not let them trample on the truth,” Esmailioun added. 

Ynet reported on Saturday that Kamran Mollapour, who was reportedly working at Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran, has died but it did not confirm or reject the possibility of assassination. 

Despite Iranian some social media reports about Mollapour’s death, no Iranian official, state media or a source close to the alleged victim have mentioned it.

Conflicting reports are still circulating about the death of Iranian aerospace scientist Ayoob Entezari -- who held a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering -- with some calling it an assassination and government saying he died of food poisoning. 

Late in May, an explosion in one of the research centers at Iran’s Parchin military complex near the capital Tehran killed engineer Ehsan Ghadbeigi and injured another employee. 

A few days earlier, Iranian government and IRGC media confirmed the death of Colonel Ali Esmailzadeh also from the Quds Force, saying he died “in an incident in recent days” at his home without mentioning any details after Iran International quoted sources in Iran as saying that the IRGC killed him over suspicions of espionage. 

He was a close colleague of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Qods Unit 840, who was earlier shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home in Tehran on May 22. The sources said that the IRGC became suspicious that Esmailzadeh divulged information about his colleague and decided to eliminate him. 

The director general of the South Asia Department at the Foreign Ministry conveyed the strong protest of the Iranian government over the comments, which the Indian envoy described as not reflecting the position of the Indian government. 

According to the Foreign Ministry website, the ambassador expressed regret over the comments made by two officials of the ruling party, clarifying that New Delhi reveres all religions. 

“The BJP strongly denounces insult of any religious personalities of any religion. The Bharatiya Janata Party is also against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion,” the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said in a statement issued on Sunday.

In recent remarks on a TV news debate, the BJP's spokesperson Nupur Sharma made inflammatory comments about the Prophet of Islam, which led to widespread condemnation in the country and also triggered protests in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur on Friday. The party suspended the spokesperson and also expelled Naveen Kumar Jindal, who heads its Delhi media, from the party. Sharma said that certain things from Islamic religious books could be mocked by people.

Qatar, Kuwait and Pakistan have also denounced the remarks made by the two BJP leaders with Kuwait and Qatar summoning the Indian envoys and Pakistani premier taking to Twitter to condemn the remarks.

The governor-general's office in the central province of Yazd handed a certificate to Entezari's family confirming his "martyrdom", a label the Islamic Republic uses for people who died in the line of duty for the country.

Yazd’s provincial judicial authorities, however, announced on Sunday that the news published in some media about the important work the aerospace scientist was doing is not true, insisting that he was an ordinary employee of an industrial company and died in hospital due to illness.

The judiciary claimed that one of Entezari's relatives had posted “these rumors” on his social media page to attract attention and was widely republished on other platforms.

The rumors and claims about Entezari’s death attracted unusual public interest because of a series of accidents and deaths related to researchers and protected nuclear and military installations in Iran in the past two years. It has been widely reported that Israel has been behind most of these incidents.

Enetzari by most accounts wroked for the government in developing drones, a field in which Iran has made significant progress in recent years and raised alarm with Israel.

Entezari, who held a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Tehran’s Sharif University, died last week with some reports mentioning food poisoning as the cause of his death. He reportedly took part in several projects at the Yazd Institute of Technology.

According to reports, Entezari returned home after a dinner meeting with symptoms of food poisoning and died in a hospital in Yazd as his condition worsened. Some sources also reported the disappearance of the person who had invited him, with some saying that he left the country immediately after the meeting.

The circumstances surrounding his death are shady as some people on social media say the Iranian scientist was killed and the Israeli Mossad is also mentioned in some reports as being responsible.

His death was covered widely across Israeli media as the case bears the hallmark of an assassination by poisoning, reminiscent of attempts portrayed in the TV series Tehran in which Israelis tried to kill the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard by a toxic agent.

Reports about Entezari’s fate came a day after Iran confirmed the death of a colonel from the Quds Force, Ali Esmailzadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the second in two weeks from the unit which allegedly oversees terror operations abroad.

Iranian government and IRGC media said that Col. Esmailzadeh died “in an incident in recent days” at his home without mentioning any details after Iran International quoted sources in Iran as saying that the IRGC killed him over suspicions of espionage. Officials of the Revolutionary Guard told Esmailzadeh’s family that the reason for his death was suicide.

He was a close colleague of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Qods Unit 840, who was earlier shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home in Tehran on May 22 by two gunmen who fled the scene on a motorbike. The sources said that the IRGC became suspicious that Esmailzadeh divulged information about his colleague and decided to eliminate him.

Lebanon warned Israel against any “aggressive action” when President Michel Aoun said any activity in the disputes area would amount to an act of aggression and a provocation.

Both countries are keen to develop considerable natural gas fields in the Mediterranean, but they have no diplomatic relations and Lebanese politics is dominated by Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group.

In 202 the United States tried to mediate between the two countries to reach a compromise over their maritime boundaries, but the indirect talks have not produce any results.

While Israel has more military and economic leverage to explore for gas, Lebanon’s military is no match, and it would not be easy for Beirut to secure participation by international investors. Lebanon desperately needs the potential income amid a catastrophic economic crisis since 2019.

There was no immediate response from Israel to Aoun's statement. Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar welcomed the vessel's arrival and said she hoped it would be brought online quickly.

"We will continue to work to diversify the energy market and maintain stability and reliability," she said.

Gas production in eastern Mediterranean could potentially benefit Europe as it tries to replace Russian gas in the aftermath of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.