Iranian Dissident Group: Anti-Regime Protests Exhibit ‘All the Hallmarks’ of a Revolution ‘in the Making’

Iran is currently witnessing a revolution “in the making,” according to representatives of Iran’s Parliament-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, who claimed that despite the crimes and “savagery” committed by the regime’s “suppressive forces” — including the killing and torturing of protesters during current protests against the Islamic regime by angry citizens — the Islamic Republic is no longer capable of containing the current uprising which has entered its fifth week.

In a Wednesday press briefing by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) during the fifth week of anti-regime protests in the Islamic regime, speakers shared updates and a background of the protests, including the Iranian regime’s reactions and tactics.

The briefing, attended by Breitbart News, featured “key information” on the ongoing protests and their trajectory.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, the deputy director of NCRI’s Washington office, addressed the “uprising” which began in September and is still ongoing “with even more intensity and resolve,” with the Iranian regime unable to successfully suppress it, despite the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) having been “engaged with full force” and mobilized in “full capacity” from the start.

“Reports suggest that over the past month, the IRGC has used its forces in different ways, either as plainclothes forces, some wear state security forces gear, and others are deployed near potential trouble spots to be used when called upon,” he said.

These forces “use maximum brutality and viciousness to beat the protesters and severely injure them,” Jafarzadeh charged, citing “hundreds” of reports received from Iran.

“In addition to the killings, one of the tactics they use is to beat the protesters in the head or break their limbs,” he said, noting that such actions have the potential to “end their continued participation in the protests for a period.”

In a recent example of the brutal tactics used by the Islamic regime, Jafarzadeh highlighted the “crime against humanity” exhibited in the murderer of detainees at the notorious Evin prison, which has become “a symbol of savagery on the one hand and a symbol of resistance by those seeking freedom on the other.”

Claiming the recent killings of dozens of Evin prisoners by the IRGC’s NOPO special forces were “planned in advance,” he described how the “savage guards threw some prisoners down from the roof” while targeting prisoners in the courtyard “with live ammunition” and beating some “to the point of death.”

 

He also accused the regime and the IRGC of using various other extreme measures, including helicopters, live fire, and excessive tear gas against protesters, as well as employing foreign proxies to suppress the unrest in various cities.

In addition, when unable to contain the protests, the Islamic regime has “resorted to large scale killings” and “widespread arrests to target the leaders of the protests,” while “making it difficult for reorganization of the protests by torturing key elements.”

Jafarzadeh charged that Tehran also plans to broadcast “forced confessions” on television as part of its “campaign of lies and deception.”

However, he insisted, the aforementioned tactics have proven to be failures.

“Despite all these measures over the past five weeks, the IRGC has failed to contain the uprising,” he said. 

“This has had a ripple effect with the suppressive forces, who are suffering from very low morale and afraid of the people’s wrath, who could potentially punish the IRGC forces,” he added.

He also claimed that reports he had received indicate “only a limited number” of the volunteer paramilitary Basij forces operating under the IRGC “are willing to participate in suppressing the protests,” forcing it to “resort to underaged recruits.”

That the protests are widespread and involve “all sectors of the Iranian society,” Jafarzadeh argued, has made it “very difficult for the suppressive forces to simultaneously confront them.”

“The anger by the people is at an all-time high and rising, something they had never seen before, [and is] a clear indication that the protests are not going to end until the regime is overthrown,” he said. 

He concluded by maintaining that “despite bringing all the suppressive forces of the IRGC, killing and beating the protesters, and showing savagery,” including the crimes committed in Evin prison, “the regime has been unable to contain the uprising in its fifth week, which has already gone far longer than all the previous uprisings.”

In remarks made by Soona Samsami, the U.S. representative for the NCRI, the current protests — which have “far outlasted all previous uprisings since 2017” — were described as a democratic revolution “in the making,” and a “universal call for regime downfall.”

“Over 190 cities in all 31 provinces, various sectors of the Iranian society, including many key universities [as] four generations — even high schools — have joined the uprising,” she said.

She noted that the uprising is “singularly focused” on Supreme leader Ali Khamenei in a display of rejection of any form of dictatorship. 

“This is evident in the chants of ‘Death to Dictator,’ ‘Death to Khamenei,’ and ‘Death to the Oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader (referring to Khamenei),’” she said.

“The protesters are determined and laser focused only on one objective: the overthrow of the clerical regime in its entirety,” she added.

With regime forces reportedly having killed over 400 demonstrators, including at least 28 minors, and arrested over 20,000, Samsami said that “all the killings, arrests and torture have only added fuel to the fire.” 

“The protesters, led by women, are quite agile and use different tactics to evade arrest and charge at the security forces,” she said, adding that the regime “has admitted to at least 2,000 of its agents being beaten and wounded in acts of self-defense by the protesters.”

She described the current situation in Iran as possessing “all the hallmarks of a revolution in the making.”

“We have passed a historic inflection point with people’s fear dissipating and fear reigning in the regime — a point of no return,” she said. “No matter what the regime does and despite all the ebbs and flows, the regime can never return to the status quo.” 

“This is evident in one remarkable chant: ‘For everyone that is killed, a thousand rise in his/her place,’” she added.

The protests, she noted, have become “increasingly organized” and are “neither leaderless, nor sporadic.”

“The Iranian nation is increasingly unified behind chants of ‘Death to Khamenei’ and ‘Death to Dictator,’” she said. “Those leading the fight on the ground to confront the repressive forces are setting the pace and leading the way in the streets.” 

“This is a very forward-looking nationwide democratic revolution and the objective is clearly chanted in the Iranian street: ‘Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,’” she added.

She also highlighted the role of women throughout the protests.

“The world has been witnessing the courage, bravery, commitment, and enormous wisdom among the Iranian women confronting a regime that considers them as second-class citizens,” she said.

“The women’s resilience did not emerge overnight,” she added. “Over 35 years of women’s leadership in the organized resistance against the regime has created a culture of defiance among the women who are not fighting only for their own rights, rather their priority is to free their nation.”

She also listed two things that have contributed to the protests which have persisted for several weeks after they first began, something Samsami described as “significant.”

“First, the divide between the people and the regime has gotten far deeper than ever before, as those who used to be on the sidelines, have now gotten involved,” she said. “The intensity and anger among the people against the regime has never been so high.”

“Second,” she added, “the role of organized resistance — particularly the resistance units of the Mujahedin-e Khalq, or the MEK — has been critical:” 

Over the past five years, these resistance units, consisting mostly of youth with significant participation of women, have played a significant role in trying to crack the wall of repression by torching the posters, statues of regime’s officials such as [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei and [former Quds Force General] Qassem Soleimani, and targeting centers belonging to the IRGC and the Basij, mounting cyber operations to take over the radio and television of the regime, disclosing information about the prisons organization and other acts of defiance, laying bear the vulnerabilities of the regime and the power of the people. 

“This summer during the annual summit of the Resistance, over 5,000 members of the Resistance Units of the MEK sent video-taped messages in support of the Resistance and in favor of changing the regime — a 500 percent increase relative to the year before,” she added.

Samsami concluded by suggesting several policy recommendations.

“First, lead in concert with democratic allies at the United Nations punitive, political, diplomatic, and commercial sanctions against the Iranian regime,” she said. “All its embassies must be shut down and its diplomats expelled.” 

“Tehran must be treated as it deserves, a pariah state and thus it should be expelled from all international bodies and all economic ties must be severed,” she added.

She also called on the U.S. and the European Union to “support the Iranian people’s bid for democratic revolution against their tyrannical rulers.” 

“They need to recognize the Iranian people’s right to self-defense against the brutal attacks of the regime in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognizes the right ‘to have recourse as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression,’” she said.

In addition, Samsami urged the launching of “diplomatic efforts to establish an urgent special session of the United Nation’s Human Rights Commission as well as other urgent measures to secure the freedom of political prisoners, [as well as] prevention of torture and execution.”

Lastly, she referred to “the dossier of four decades of genocide and crimes against humanity,” while calling to “bring the leaders of the Iranian regime, including Iran’s supreme leader and its hardline president, to justice.”

The briefing comes as massive protests continue to sweep Iran following the death of a 22-year-old woman while in the custody of the state’s notorious “morality police” for violating strict requirements for women to keep their heads covered in public.

The protests were set off last month by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Islamic theocracy’s morality police. 

Amini was reportedly abducted and killed by the force for having exposed some hair from beneath her mandatory Islamic headscarf.

As a result, women cutting off locks of hair has become an international gesture of solidarity with Amini and the other oppressed women of Iran.

Iranian officials have unconvincingly claimed she died of natural causes after the patrol stuffed her in a van and carted her off to a grim detention center. 

However, her family insists she had no life-threatening health problems.