The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), reported that the protests in Iran about water scarcity are approaching the end of their second week, and they have spread both inside and outside the region where they began.

Mismanagement and waste of natural resources

The first protests took place on July 15 in the province of Khuzestan, where a severe drought had exposed the regime’s mismanagement and waste of natural resources. As the protests reached their second week, reports of sympathy demonstrations in other provinces began to emerge, with Tehran, Tabriz, Zanjan, Lorestan, Bushehr, and Isfahan all experiencing significant discontent.

Many of these subsequent protests are also focused on the original issue of water shortage, which is undoubtedly affecting people outside of Khuzestan. Indeed, according to at least one Iranian state media outlet, almost a quarter of the country’s 83 million people have been afflicted by water shortages in the last year.

 

 

Fake sympathy for the people of Khuzestan

The regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, held a speech in which he expressed fake sympathy for the people of Khuzestan. Meanwhile, several shootings and other acts of repression have been reported during the nearly two-week ordeal, and top officials have undoubtedly taken steps to intentionally magnify that response.

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the new judicial chief, personally ordered the deployment of more security troops, and Khamenei himself justified the escalated crackdowns by insinuating that foreign “enemies” were involved in the protests.

According to Amnesty International, the regime’s crackdown has resulted in at least eight deaths. Days later, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) reported twelve verified killings.

 

The water shortages were caused by IRGC

The water shortages were caused in part by the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which wields great power over the industry and the environment. That group has overseen all of the hundreds of dam-building projects undertaken since the 1979 Iranian Revolution through front firms.

In many cases, activities were carried out without prior investigation or even in defiance of professional warnings concerning the environmental impact. Those warnings have been ignored by the entire regime, as well as by the IRGC, while proceeds from such enterprises have been distributed among the power elite.

 

 

The coronavirus outbreak to enhance this hoarding

Regime officials and organizations have also taken advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to enhance this hoarding. According to thorough MEK reporting, the death toll from Covid-19 outbreaks throughout Iran is rapidly surpassing 350,000.

The severity of the public health crisis, as well as the regime’s efforts to conceal it, are both a result of the absence of specific interventions, such as an effective vaccination campaign.

 

 

Khamenei banned the purchase of vaccines from the US and UK

Soon after American and European vaccinations became widely available, Khamenei banned their use, forcing Iran to rely on relatively untested and ineffectual imports from Russia and China, as well as domestically produced vaccines.   As a result, many Iranian vaccination doses have found their way to the illicit market, where they have become another source of profit for government-connected organizations.

Nevertheless, the Khuzestan protests and solidarity marches could be seen as precursors of earlier mass upheavals. Participants in the past two weeks’ unrest have been heard chanting chants such as “death to Khamenei,” and “freedom, justice, national government.”

 

 

Maryam Rajavi message

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), repeated her condolences on the staggering COVID-19 death toll in Sistan and Baluchestan and called for nationwide support for the victims. She emphasized that Khamenei had not given up on the strategy of mass human casualties to prevent the uprising.

Otherwise, most of the fatalities could have been prevented. Transportation and rallies and the forced queuing of people outside polling stations during the election masquerade were clear examples of the violation of all COVID-19 preventive health protocols. The crime the regime leaders have committed, causing large-scale human casualties, is a crime against humanity.

 

 

MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook)

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