Tehran Asks Moscow For Help To Suppress Protests - Sources

One of the mourning gatherings was for Mehran Samak, a 27-year-old resident of Bandar Anzali in the northern province of Gilan, who died in hospital after being shot in the head with a bullet this week while he was celebrating after the Iranian soccer team’s loss against the US in the World Cup. Many Iranians wanted their team to lose because players had not shown support for antigovernment protests.

But once people crowded the streets after the football match ended in Qatar, security forces opened fire at cars that were honking as a sign of celebration, hitting Samak and many others. The government was ready to celebrate a win against the US team and security forces who had been prepared to wave flags and distribute sweets to people, were in no mood to see protesters expressing happiness for Iran’s loss.

Hours before Samak’s mourning gathering Friday, security forces had blocked the roads leading to the designated location. However, the protesters attended the mourning ceremony for the third day after his death, chanting "We will fight, we will die, we will take back Iran..."

In the city of Arak, people gathered for the 40th day anniversary of the death of Sina Malayeri, chanting slogans such as “Poverty, corruption and high prices, we are going to overthrow the government."

They chanted, "Death to Khamenei" and "This year is the year of the blood, Ali Khamenei is downed.” 

Malayeri was reportedly killed by security forces and his body was found in a workshop near his place of residence, but the city’s prosecutor claimed that he died due to a drag overdose.

In the city of Izeh in the oil-rich Khuzestan province, people held gatherings in honor of Hamed Slahshour, a protester whose body was buried in a graveyard near the city by the security forces. His body was exhumed by his family members and re-buried in the family’s plot, but did not manage to do so under pressure of the security forces. The Iranian Human Rights Center reported that the 22-year-old was killed under torture after his arrest.

The mourning protest gatherings came on the backdrop of widespread rallies in the Baluch-majority cities across Sistan-Baluchistan province as the government has killed nearly a hundred people in the impoverished region since September 30. Protesters marched after Friday prayers particularly to voice support for their religious leader Mowlavi Abdolhamid.

The popular protests demanding an end to Islamic rule started in mid-September when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed in the custody of the so-called “morality police,” igniting the boldest protest movement against the Islamic Republic in its 43-year history. 

About 18,000 people have been arrested since the beginning of the protests, and some death sentences have already been issued for the protesters, though none have been carried out. According to Norway-based HRANA on December 2, 469 protestors and 61 members of the security forces have been killed in protests since September 17.

A ship tracker said on Friday that Lana delivered an oil shipment of around 700,000 barrels in the Syrian port of Banias, ending months of uncertainty about the cargo. 

The seizure from the Lana prompted Iranian forces in May to seize two Greek tankers in the Persian Gulf which were released on November 16. 

Claire Jungman, the chief of staff with US advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic through ship and satellite tracking, said Iran's shipments to Damascus "are regarded as a way of strengthening the country's regional position and are also a major part of the regime's survival strategy". 

The Lana's last reported position on November 20 was anchored off Syria's coast, according to ship tracking on Eikon. The ship, previously called Pegas and renamed Lana in March, had reported an engine problem in April. It was headed to the southern Peloponnese peninsula to offload its cargo on to another tanker but rough seas forced it to moor just off Karystos where it was seized, according to the Athens News Agency.

Syria is undergoing severe fuel rationing as a response to shortages, leading to rolling cuts in the electricity and telecoms sectors. According to UANI analysis, Syria received 1.39 million barrels in shipments from Iran in November, down from 3.5 million barrels in October and 3.7 million barrels in September. 

For over two months, the Lana remained under arrest off the Greek island of Evia. It was tugged to Piraeus following court orders that allowed its release.

Residents of several cities Sistan-Baluchistan Province, including its capital Zahedan, held demonstrations after Friday prayers as they have done since unrest began in mid-September in Iran. The protesters are especially enraged over a recently leaked document that revealed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ordered his officials to defame Abdolhamid, the most prominent religious leader of Iran's largely Sunni Baluch population living in the province. 

Earlier this week the hacktivist group Black Reward breached the data servers of Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard, and released several documents indicating that Khamenei is dismayed by Abdolhamid’s remarks, who has been critical of Iran’s autocrat for the indiscriminate crackdown on protests in the province and elsewhere.

Relations between Abdolhamid and the government became tense after security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Zahedan September 30, killing more than 80 people.

In addition to Zahedan on Friday, protesters in Chabahar, Khash, Iranshahr, and Zahak, chanted slogans such as "Sheikh-ul-Islam (Abdolahamid) is with God, Khamenei is disgraced,” “Salute to Mowlavi, Death to Khamenei,” and “With Hijab or without hijab, moving towards revolution.”

According to videos posted on social media, security forces clashed with protesters in Zahedan and used teargas to disperse the gathering. 

During his Friday prayer sermon earlier in the day, Abdolhamid decried the torture of detained protesters and warned the Islamic Republic against issuing verdicts that call protesters mohareb (muharib), which means warrior in Arabic. In Iran’s Islamic law the term means ‘enemy of God’ which carries the death penalty. 

"A prisoner is a captive. Beating, insulting, cursing and assaulting him is against the teachings of Imam Ali (the first Shiite imam), Ahl al-Bayt (the family of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad), Hazrat Rasool (Prophet Muhammad) and Islam. The dissidents and critics should be treated in an Islamic manner,” he emphasized. 

Abdolhamid went on to say that the nation has endured problems for 44 years, now they are protesting, insisting that their protests should not be a pretext to execute them. He said that their demands are legitimate, adding, "We want our country to be safe and united. We don't have Shiites, Sunnis or ethnic groups here. We are all Iranians. From Zoroastrians and Dervishes to Baha’is. They are also human and Iranian, and their rights should be respected…If an American or an Israeli speaks the truth, it is still the truth," he said. 

Dervishes of the Gonabadi order are among religious groups seen as potential security threats in Iran, and are regularly persecuted by the regime. Baha'is, who number around 300,000 in Iran, also say their rights are systematically violated and they are often harassed, forced to leave their homes and businesses, and are deprived of government jobs and university education. Khamenei has on several occasions called the Baha'i faith a cult and in a religious fatwa in 2018 forbade contact, including business dealings, with followers of the faith.

Referring to the recent leak and the regime’s efforts to tarnish his image, Abdolhamid said "If the reign and power are in your hands, it was God's will. If we have respect and love of people, it is also a God's gift. What God gives, only He can take back. God gives honor and takes it away. No one else can take someone’s honor."

Abdolhamid's popularity is largely because of his willingness to challenge Khamenei’s absolute power. Earlier in November, the outspoken Sunni Imam said women, ethnic and religious groups have faced discrimination after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

With an array of celebrities at a red-carpeted state dinner Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told France 2 TV he would support the French team if the United States were knocked out of the World Cup. The joint presidential statement called France the US’s oldest ally.

The two countries were at one in supporting global human rights and in Middle East policy, the presidents’ statement said. This included a “just solution to the Syrian conflict,” where US troops remain in the north east, backing the Abrahamic Accords, by which some Arab states have recognized Israel ahead of Palestinian statehood, and a determination that “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon.”

While the statement expressed commitment to “democratic values,” respect for international law, and international cooperation to address Iran’s “nuclear escalation,” the Washington political mood is increasingly polarizing the US and western Europe on one side, against Iran, China, and Russia on the other.

Republicans and Democrats are vying to push harder. Senator Mario Rubio, an advocate of more US weapons for Israel, Wednesday demanded that President Joe Biden look into whether the Chinese tech company Tiandy’s involvement in Iran “raises serious questions about whether its products are being used against peaceful Iranian protesters.”

‘Barbaric treatment’

In a 20-minute interview for CNN, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton envisaged US foreign policy as a struggle for women’s rights. Highlighting violations by Russia, Iran and the Afghan Taliban, Clinton called for an “absolute rejection of using sexual attack as a weapon of war,” for holding leaders accountable for “barbaric treatment,” and for stepping up sophisticated arms supplies to Ukraine, including from Israel, whose new government needed to understand “Iran and Russia have made an alliance.”

Clinton explained her approach as secretary of state to protests in Iran after the disputed 2009 presidential election as due to intelligence assessments that “overt American support would actually hurt” and that “behind the scenes” activity was better. “Now it’s very different, what’s happening now deserves our full-throated support,” she said.

“I would not be negotiating with Iran on anything right now, including the nuclear agreement,” Clinton continued. With the US withdrawal in 2018 from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, “that horse is out of the barn,” she said, while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had lost its “eyes” on Iran’s nuclear program as Tehran reduced the agency’s access in response to US sanctions and attacks on its atomic sites.

Clinton suggested that maintaining US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions was to force “regime change” but rather to spark “internal discussions” in Iran, “not just [within] the government … but [within] the clerics.” This tied in with Rob Malley, the White House special envoy for Iran, telling Foreign Policy magazine in an interview this week that “the Iranian system is divided.”

‘Active diplomatic track’

The Biden administration’s approach is not without critics. Much of the ‘global south’ is increasingly wary of US ‘exceptionalism,’ accusing the US of hypocrisy and double standards. The US-France presidents’ statement expressed support for the International Criminal Court, which Washington has refused to join. Both India and Pakistan abstained on the recent US-sponsored resolution condemning Iran at the IAEA governing board. South Africa and Brazil are among those refusing to take sides over Nato and Ukraine.

Nor is opposition to talks with Iran unanimous, in the US or Europe. In the Washington Post Thursday, Ellie Geranmayeh, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, argued for “an active diplomacy track to reverse Iran’s nuclear conduct before it is too late.” Rejecting the case for more and more sanctions, she argued there was “little evidence” they had worked, since Iran had “escalated its behavior” in response.

“It is irresponsible to risk everything on the hope that a peaceful transition of power will place Iran’s nuclear program under democratic and safe control anytime soon,” Geranmayeh wrote.

But the issue now is not just nuclear escalation. It is also the deadly violence the Islamic Republic is using against antigovernment protesters, which leaves little room for sanctions relief. More than 450 protesters have been killed since mid-September while several have been sentenced to death.

The announcement titled “We the literary” was published by a Canadian Iranian writer, Fereshteh Molavi, but it is signed by writers from Iran and the diaspora.

The clerical government in Iran requires all books, films and music be submitted for review be censors before publication or screening. Works by artists perceived to have dissident ideas usually get rejected and others are altered to fit the religious and political boundaries of the authoritarian regime. Some books have been in limbo for years, waiting for permission.

The signatories say, “We are regard democratic freedoms, especially freedom of thought and expression as well as freedom to write as our civil and citizenship rights.”

The writers also said that they pledge to undertake their share of duty “in building the Iran of tomorrow.”

More than three hundred Iranian translators in November joined other professional groups expressing their support for the ongoing protest movement against the Islamic Republic.

They announced that they will stand against all types of discrimination and prohibitions that have made life in Iran similar to “mere survival in forced labor camps.”

They also condemned the killing of civilians and children, saying like others in Iran and abroad they stand with “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.