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Most Iranians have lived their whole lives under the Iranian regime, which took power in a 1979 revolution that toppled the monarchy, only to replace it with autocratic clerics.
It is hard to assess support for the government in a country with such a heavily restricted media climate, and where open dissent can mean jail and death.
Yet, for almost two decades, protest movements have managed to thrive, often sparked by political unrest, a sudden rise in fuel prices, economic turmoil or the repression of women’s rights.
In 2009, in what was known as the Green movement, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets over disputed presidential elections. The protests were met with a bloody state crackdown.
In 2022, one of most powerful uprisings, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini over her alleged improper wearing of the hijab.
The most recent wave of protests began in late December. They began as small-scale strikes in Tehran’s bazaar over plunging currency. As they spread into countrywide rallies of mass upset, security forces launched one of their deadliest crackdowns, killing thousands.
An Iranian doctor who treated protesters in January for gunshot wounds said he still had some hope the war would “at least result in real change”.
“What we fear most is the war stopping now in its current stage,” he said. “Then we’ll be left with the same people who massacred us last month … only stronger.”
But many others in the anti-regime movement are hearing reports of newborn babies being killed by the US and Israeli strikes, and conclude simply that now three governments, rather than one, are killing Iranians.
A protester in Tehran said: “A significant portion of the people I’ve been speaking to, after witnessing the killing of civilians, have altered their perception of military intervention.”
#Ali#Khamenei#son#trump#war#killing
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Trump Suits In Favor of Wrapping Up the War. But What’s Next?
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After years of arrests, disappearances and mass killings of protesters, the hatred in Iran from some quarters for the hardline, oppressive governing regime had boiled into such a desperate rage that many believed Trump’s promise that the US would “come to their rescue”.
Now, after a fortnight of war, with US and Israeli airstrikes killing hundreds as they hit residential blocks, shops, fuel depots and even a school, the mood is changing.
“They are also lying! Like the regime has been lying to us,” said Amir, a student at the University of Tehran. “You are all worse than each other.”
The anti-regime protester has let himself hope for more from the US and Israel, which on the first day of the war had swiftly killed Iran’s most feared and powerful man, the supreme leader.
Yet the regime lives on, with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son quickly appointed to replace him, while Israel has widened and intensified its attacks on the country of more than 90 million people.
“We’re tense. We are really tense,” said Amir. “I feel worse when I am alone. Khamenei’s death has left us with this weird sense of emptiness. Like I am now forced to think about the future, which seems so chaotic right now. We never got to look at him in the eye. He died just like that? Without facing justice for what he did to us?”
The turning point for Amir was the Israeli strikes on fuel depots in Tehran last week, with one attack on the Shahran oil depot overshadowing the capital with black smoke. A rain shower later covered trees, homes and cars with layers of toxic oil.
“I genuinely believe now they [the US and Israel] didn’t have a plan. I was still hoping I was wrong, but the Shahran attack changed the way I look at this war right now,” he said.
“If the regime is what you want to hit, even if you think these depots were used by the regime, where do you draw the line? What about us, the ordinary Iranians? We rely on this civil infrastructure. Why take away our ability to govern in the future? Who can rebuild utter ruins?”
Amir said he now had constant anxiety about Iran “turning into another Iraq”, a country the US invaded in 2003, promising freedom but delivering a civil war.
Israeli leaders have also previously called on Palestinians in Gaza and the Lebanese people to rise up against oppression, only to later kill them in large numbers.
“My heart is so heavy,” said Amir. “I don’t even have tears left. Only anger and more anger. At this regime, and them,” he added, referring to the US and Israel.
Others people also have a shift in their attitudes towards the war, especially after the attack on oil depots, but also after seeing images of the country’s heritage sites damaged.
#Ali#Khamenei#son#trump#war#killing
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Border patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino was asked why federal agents shot and killed Pretti.
“You don’t know he was unarmed,” Bovino told CNN’s Dana Bash. “I don’t know he was unarmed. That’s freeze-frame adjudication of a crime scene via a photo. That’s why we have investigators.
“The facts are going to come to light as to what exactly happened with an investigation.”
When asked by Bash whether he was blaming the victim, he said, “The victims are the border [atrol agents.”
During a Sunday afternoon press conference, Bovino was asked about the videos that show Pretti was unarmed before being shot and killed. He said there are, “Many videos out there, many different accounts that you may see that I may see.”
“Folks, this is why we have something called an investigation, to take what you’re talking about, to take those videos, to take witness statements, to take, officer statements, all those minute details that will paint a true picture, not a freeze frame concept, and paint a larger picture of what really happened.
Republican US senator Lindsey Graham also took the line that “an armed man trying to impede a lawful arrest is a recipe for disaster”.
The South Carolina Republican said he expects law enforcement officers to use good judgement “but not to foolishly risk their lives or the lives of others”.
The Minnesota attorney general, Keith Ellison, said the suit demanded “a full, impartial, and transparent investigation into [Pretti’s] fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents [that] is non-negotiable”.
Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara, meanwhile, said information about what led up to the shooting was limited. As protests erupted in Minneapolis on Saturday, federal officers impeded state investigators from accessing the scene of Pretti’s killing.
Trump responded to Pretti’s shooting with his typical combativeness. The Republican president accused Walz and Frey of “inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric”.
Vance for his part claimed events in Minneapolis were “engineered chaos” resulting from “far-left agitators, working with local authorities”.
#trump#administration#killing#immigration#pretti#minneapolis
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Trump Must Have Twigged: the Immigration War Has Just Began
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Pressure mounted on Trump’s administration on Sunday to fully investigate the previous day’s killing by federal immigration officers of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Calls for an investigation have come from all sides of the political divide after video analysis showed officers had removed from Pretti a handgun he was reportedly permitted to carry – and which he was not handling – before fatally shooting him.
Former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, called the killing “a heartbreaking tragedy” and “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”.
“For weeks now people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city,” they said.
The former president and former first lady said these tactics had now resulted in the fatal shootings of two US citizens – Pretti and Renee Good, both in Minneapolis.
Yet, they said, Trump and other administration officials appeared eager to escalate the rhetoric before an investigation had been undertaken – and despite the fact that they “appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence”.
Clinton followed with a statement that also condemned the killings of Good and Pretti amid the “horrible scenes” of the immigration crackdown.
“All of this is unacceptable and should have been avoided,” Clinton said. “To make matters even worse, at every turn, the people in charge have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes”.
Republican US senator Bill Cassidy said the “credibility” of ICE and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were “at stake”.
On Sunday morning, US senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Adam Schiff of California, both Democrats, said they would vote against the impending department of homeland security funding.
Connecticut US senator Chris Murphy, also a Democrat, told CNN’s State of the Union that Democrats “can’t vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security (…) that is murdering American citizens, that is traumatizing little boys and girls all across the country, in violation of the law.”
#trump#administration#killing#immigration#pretti#minneapolis
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A legal group submitted to the #UN the most thorough legal analysis of Israel's actions concluding it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
This is probably the most complete report to date that demonstrates how #Israel's attacks on #Palestinians in #Gaza meet the legal definition of #genocide.
It's a 100-page report, by legal experts at #Boston University School of Law, #Cornell Law School, #Yale Law School, and others.
The report's conclusion:
"Israel has committed the #genocidal acts of #killing, causing serious harm to, and inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical #destruction of #Palestinians in #Gaza, a protected group that forms a substantial part of the Palestinian people.
These #genocidal acts have been motivated by the requisite genocidal intent, as evidenced in this report by the statements of #Israeli leaders, the character of the State and its forces’ conduct against and relating to Palestinians in Gaza, and the direct nexus between them."