Hactivists Interrupt Live Streaming Of Iran State TV, Call For Protests

Managing director of Iran’s Airports Company, Siavash Amirmokri, said that after preliminary studies and negotiations, Tehran would begin talks over technical matters including navigation systems. Giving a 20- to 25-year timescale, Amirmokri said there were no immediate plans for new airports.

The semi-official news agency ISNA said in a report November 2016 that only six of Iran’s 54 airports were profitable, up from three in 2013.

The former head of Civil Aviation Organization, Touraj Dehghani Zanganeh said in March 2021 that over 90 percent of flights were concentrated in only 10 airports, with over half of the traffic at Mehrabad airport, Tehran, and Mashhad International airport.

Internal air travel in Iran is relatively common due to the country’s size, although Iran has long struggled to replenish its ageing fleet in the face of international sanctions. The reputation of Russian-made Tupolevs, used for many internal flights, dived in the early 2000s with disasters in Iran and elsewhere.

The US imposition of ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions after 2018 derailed deals Iran had agreed with Boeing and Airbus to purchase dozens of planes after international sanctions were lifted following Iran’s 2015 Iran nuclear agreement with world powers.

For decades the Islamic Republic has celebrated what is known as Ten Days of Dawn (dah-ye fajr) which marks the ten-day period from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's arrival in Iran on the first of February 1979, to the day of the Islamic Revolution's victory, but this year's celebrations are marred not just by the pandemic but also the fact that it is much harder than ever to speak of the promises of freedom and prosperity given to masses in 1979.

Amid soaring poverty, a debate is raging among Iranians as to whether the revolution has failed in delivering on its promises. Many on social media and among activists in Iran point to government data that shows poverty has increased since 1979.

Khomeini always insisted that the revolution belonged to the mostaz'af, a Qur'anic word which means disempowered, oppressed, underprivileged, suppressed, or poor. He often used the word mostaz'af together with the "barefooted", "slum dwellers", and the "deprived". In his speeches he often said the Islamic Revolution was the revolution of "slum dwellers" against "palace dwellers" and could not survive without their support. Four decades later, however, poverty has not only persisted, but has been growing at a faster pace in recent years.

100%

According to official figures released by the interior ministry, in total, around 60% of the 84 million Iranians live under the relative poverty line of whom between 20 to 30 million live in "absolute poverty". In 2010, for instance, the number of those living under the absolute poverty line was around 10 million according to government statistics.

Economic failures of the regime are becoming more and more difficult to justify, even given US sanctions. "The main reason for the [economic] problems [in the past ten years] is not just the sanctions. A major part of these were caused by wrong decisions and inefficiency," Supreme leader Ali Khamenei admitted in a speech Sunday.

Khamenei who charts the country's macro-policies, including the economy, takes no personal responsibility for the failures. Instead, in a speech last week he cast the blame for the troubles on President Ebrahim Raisi's predecessors, Hasan Rouhani and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and their governments.

Since 2017, Iran has seen several major protests fueled by economic demands rather than any specific political issue. The driving force of the unrest, including the nationwide November 2019 protests following an increase in fuel prices that left hundreds of protesters dead, and the 2021 water shortage protests in Khuzestan and Esfahan, were mainly the impoverished groups of the Iranian society rather than political groups and parties.

Even some of the most ardent supporters of the revolution and Khomeini's legacy are now questioning the outcome of the revolution. "One must ask, wouldn't much of the services [offered to the people] and the progress made happen anyway even if there was no Islamic Republic?", the Society of Combatant Clergy (Majma-e Rohaniyoun-e Mobarez), a reformist clerical group which is one of the oldest political groups in the country asked in a statement Sunday issued on the anniversary of the Revolution. "It is difficult to speak of the Islamic Revolution…and acclaiming it is even harder," said the statement.

The Combatant Clergy also warned that the Iranian society is now facing major economic, political, cultural and international crises including impoverishment and shrinking of the middle class. "People are saying forget about free water, electricity and cheap housing promised to us [by Khomeini and the revolutionaries], at least provide our most basic needs," the statement said.

The Combatant clerics who alleged that the Revolution has "deviated" from its original goals of providing freedom and prosperity to people also pointed out in their statement that anti-government protests are now more driven by economic demands than political reasons.

The allegation of deviation from revolutionary ideals of freedom and prosperity has angered the hardliners in power who find it very difficult to justify the various crises, including the crisis of poverty even by blaming the US sanctions.

Javan newspaper, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards argued that when Khomeini said the 1979 Revolution was for the mostaz'af, he did not mean the economically poor but those who were "politically oppressed". "One can never say the roots of [the revolution] lay in the [demands of the economically impoverished] classes," Javan wrote.

Samimi's lawyer, Mosafa Nili tweeted late Tuesday local time that after a report by a doctor's report that his health was deteriorating, he was freed from prison

In a letter from Semnan prison published earlier in the day, Samimi explained he had been transferred to Semnan while suffering from heart problems and facing stress.

"It seems that these pressures may never end,” he wrote, suggesting he was being submitted to “burnout or gradual murder.”

Samimi was sent to Semnan from Gohar Dasht Prison in Karaj, also known as Rajai Shahr, where most inmates are common criminals including murderers. He was originally in Evin prison, Tehran, after being sentenced to three years in 2020 over his coverage of labor unrest the previous year.

According to the Iranian Writers' Association, Samimi was likely sent to Semnan, seen as a form of internal exile, because he described as murder the death of jailed writer Baktash Abtin from Covid-19 complications after he was allegedly denied timely treatment early in January.

Last week, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed concern for the lives of three jailed activists, including Samimi, who it said had been transferred to jails known for “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in a practice often used to deliberately break the resistance of prisoners of conscience.”

Such listing requires financial and banking institutions to freeze any funds held by the named individuals. A notice released by the United Kingdom Treasury Monday said Hassan Firouzabadi, Hassan Haddad, Ahmad Zargar, and Mohammad Hejazi had been withdrawn from the list of “persons, entities or bodies involved in the commission of serious human rights violations or abuse in Iran.”

Firouzabadi, who died in September, remains sanctioned by both the United States and European Union. Zargar is still listed by the EU, and Hejazi by the US, the EU, and the United Nations. All four were designated in 2011.

Firouzabadi was chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces from 1989 to 2016 before he was appointed a senior advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Hejazi was Khamenei’s intelligence and security advisor. Both were at some time commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary force.

Haddad and Zargar worked as judges and prosecutors in Revolutionary Courts. Haddad ordered a number of those protesting after the disputed 2009 presidential election to be arrested and sent to Kahrizak Detention Center, where prisoners were allegedly torturedandsome died.

Blinken wrote that they had discussed “common challenges, including the risks of further Russian aggression against Ukraine and threats posed by Iran.” Around one-fifth of Israelis are native Russian-speakers.

The United States administration’s relationship with Israel has been strained by Washington’s efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which Israel opposed.

Blinken’s phone call with Lapid came hours after a phone conversation with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss “strengthening the US-Palestinian relationship”, strained during the previous administration of President Donald Trump.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, visiting Abu Dhabi, said the Middle East had a choice of two futures: one of hope and peace, and “what Iran is doing, which is destabilizing the region and using its proxies to employ terror”.

During Herzog’s visit, the United Arab Emirates intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemeni fighters, the third such attack in a month. Ansar Allah, or the Houthis, confirmed the strike as a response to the UAE role in the Yemen war. The UAE is among several countries that accuse Iran of ‘interference’ in Yemen by supporting the Houthis against Saudi Arabia and the UAE.