Iranian regime attempts to downplay gravity of uprising - Iran Freedom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Iranian regime has traditionally denied that opposition is much of a threat. It has tried to dismiss it as a movement with very little following in country.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2019\/11\/iranian-regime-attempts-to-downplay-gravity-of-uprising\/13910\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iranian regime attempts to downplay gravity of uprising - Iran Freedom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Iranian regime has traditionally denied that opposition is much of a threat. 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{"id":13910,"date":"2019-11-29T08:56:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T07:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=13910"},"modified":"2019-11-29T08:56:54","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T07:56:54","slug":"iranian-regime-attempts-to-downplay-gravity-of-uprising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2019\/11\/iranian-regime-attempts-to-downplay-gravity-of-uprising\/13910\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian regime attempts to downplay gravity of uprising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iranian regime attempts to downplay gravity of uprising\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Ali Latifi<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people of Iran have been participating in widespread protests across the country. It all started on Friday 15^{th<\/sup>\u00a0November as a reaction to the government\u2019s announcement that petrol prices would be greatly increased \u2013 a major blow to the people of Iran who are getting poorer and poorer because of the regime\u2019s mismanagement and profound corruption.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n}

The country\u2019s interior minister,\u00a0Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli<\/a>\u00a0has tried to downplay the situation. During an interview on television, the interior minister admitted that the\u00a0People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI)\u00a0\/\u00a0Mujahedin-e-Khalq<\/a>\u00a0(MEK)\u00a0has been behind most of the protests. He also admitted that the people have been calling for regime change. However, in an effort to downplay the situation,\u00a0Rahmani-Fazli\u00a0said that between\u00a0130,000\u00a0and\u00a0200,000\u00a0Iranians have participated in the demonstrations. This is a gross understatement considering that protests have been taking place across the whole country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Iranian regime has traditionally\u00a0denied that\u00a0the\u00a0opposition is much of a threat. It has tried to dismiss it as a movement with very little following in the country. However, the opposite is true. Over the past four decades, the MEK \/ PMOI has grown larger in numbers\u00a0and in support and it has become the biggest threat to the regime\u2019s existence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, in recent years, the regime has been unable to deny the threat the opposition poses. In fact, even back in the eighties the regime knew just exactly how legitimate the PMOI \/ MEK is. The Supreme Leader at the time, during the summer of 1988<\/a>, ordered the execution of all political prisoners that refused to denounce the PMOI \/ MEK. More than 30,000 political prisoners were executed during this one incident alone, and since then the regime has continued to crack down on political opponents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the interior minister in his interview just a few days ago\u00a0said\u00a0that\u00a0there were up to 200,000 people participating in the uprising. The regime is ridiculously still\u00a0trying to give the impression that it is in control of the situation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there has been an internet and cell phone shut down and there have been difficulties with communication, the National Council of Resistance of Iran<\/a> (NCRI) maintains that this only represents a fraction of the real extent of the uprising. Furthermore, if there were only small numbers of people demonstrating, why would the regime go to such an extreme to cut the internet?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0upheaval\u00a0in the country is significant and the sheer number of deaths and injured people is shocking. Furthermore, the fact that thousands of protesters have been arrested is very concerning.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President-elect of the NCRI Mrs. Maryam Rajavi<\/a> has called on the United Nations Secretary General to ensure that a delegation is sent to the country as soon as possible to assess the situation and to protect the people that are simply exercising their right to protest and calling for peace, freedom, democracy, the respect of human rights and equality. She also calls on the international community to speak out in support of the people of Iran.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"