Workers, Employees Stage More Strikes Across Iran

Hacktivist group ‘Anonymous’ -- that has focused its cyber operations on Iran since the current wave of protests started mid-September – released Monday audio messages by someone who is claimed to be Nader Safaverdi, one of the former commanders of 5th Nasr Division. 

The unit, known as Sepah-e Nsar Corps, is one of the divisions of IRGC’s ground force was formed with recruits from northeastern Khorasan province in 1982 during the Iran–Iraq War. The unit fought in several of the important operations during the conflict and after the war was stationed in the province near the border with Afghanistan.

Safaverdi, 67, who apparently has been living in the US since 2007 or 2009, is not well-known in the media but was evidently close to Esmail Ghaani (Qaani), the current commander of IRGC’s Quds (Qods) Force -- a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations – and to Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Qalibaf), both former commanders of the 5th Nasr Division. 

The files seem to be audio messages shared in a WhatsApp or Telegram group with many IRGC ranking members, as Safaverdi started his message with greetings to Seyyed Hossein Mousavi and Hadi Sa’adati, both IRGC commanders formerly serving in the 5th Nasr Division. The group is probably comprised of IRGC members hailing from Khorasan province because during his message Safaverdi once said he would be invited to their meeting if he was still in Mashhad, and referred to similar meetings organized by Abbas Shamlou, another IRGC commander that used to serve as the governor of Mashhad. 

He urged his fellow comrades for “unbiased and clear monitoring” of the activities of foreign-based opposition figures and the protesters in provinces. He said one of the ways to understand the movement against the Islamic Republic is by heeding his advice, and that of other regime insiders who live abroad. 

Criticizing “his friends" for limiting themselves to information released by Iran International, BBC, VOA, and other dissident outlets, he said monitoring means being aware of statements released during protests against the Islamic Republic in other countries and claimed that he has access to such information. 

He mentioned the gatherings in Berlin and Canada, where 50,000 to 100,000 people held protest rallies, as the largest demonstrations against the regime. In a tone as if he is teaching something new to the group, Safaverdi said the slogans by the Iranian expatriates are not like what they have heard in the past 43 years since the Islamic Revolution. He argued that the current wave of the protests is not in support of any specific ethnicity or even the Iranian royal family. “They officially chant slogans in support of the country’s integrity,” he said. He claimed that another motto the protesters follow is distancing themselves from the older opposition groups or figures, such as Reza Pahlavi or the exiled group Mojahedin Khalq organization, known as MEK. 

He added that the closest figure to a leader the foreign-based opposition has, is Canada-based activist Hamed Esmaeilion -- who lost his daughter and wife in the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January 2020 by the Revolutionary Guard. The veteran IRGC commander believes that he is the symbol of an Iranian hurt and oppressed by the regime. 

Safaverdi then mentioned the Islamic Republic’s lobby groups in the US including allegedly NIAC– or the National Iranian American Council – saying that the opposition movement has also distanced itself from such groups in a clear message that they would not negotiate with the Islamic Republic. He said that he believed NIAC was formed upon an order by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to follow the Islamic Republic's agenda and mentioned some examples of their long history of lobbying for Iran. For instance, he mentioned Trita Parsi, a former NIAC president, as the courier between Khamenei and former President Barack Obama. Safaverdi claimed that NIAC is being devastated by the current front of opposition as its members are even banned from attending the events against the Islamic Republic. 

Safaverdi claimed the new opposition keeps calling on world bodies and countries to increase diplomatic pressure on Tehran, adding that anyone who supports lifting the sanctions on the Islamic Republic or negotiating with the regime has no place in the current opposition, which has a global consensus.

He also claimed that the new opposition has a wide range of influence both inside and outside the country, from students to teachers and professors, from NASA scientists to employees of Google and Facebook, noting that these new faces have not been identified before the current wave of protests. 

He urged his fellow group members to deliver his points to the authorities, including Ghalibaf and President Ebrahim Raisi – also hailing from Mashhad – calling himself an “American gladiator” who is spending every minute of his days on the issues about the Islamic Republic. Safaverdi said he had never seen such a universal unity and consensus behind a cause before the current wave of the protests in Iran. He also inadvertently praised the main motto of the protests – Women, Life, Liberty -- as something that resonates with all the people of the world. 

Note: NIAC denies it is affiliated with the Islamic Republic or acts as a lobby group for the Iranian government.

The research conducted by the National Security Monitor magazine for its September-October 2022 issue, says the current uprising is pluralist, has major objectives to change the bigger picture in Iran, is cyberspace-based, and does not seem to be backed by any institution.

The magazine is believed to be close to the Islamic Republic's Supreme National Security Council.

The research further found that collective reactions to events relating to the protests spread quickly although there seems to be no formal organization and leadership for the movement.

Other findings of the research include the fact that the uprising aims to bring about fundamental changes in Iran's political establishment, is backed by various layers of socio-political groups while also enjoying wholehearted support from the Iranian opposition abroad.

The government policy of suppressing protests by force and then failing to address the underlying problems has led to a worsening situation after each round of unrest and today, it might have become too late to come to peace with the disgruntled masses.

The study also found that although previously major protests occurred almost once in every decade [like the protests by the student movement in 1999 and the post-election unrest in 2009],during the past five or six years the interval between various protests have become shorter and they have occurred every one or two years. Soon, major protests may take place in Iran once in every two to three months, the study predicted.

The conclusions corroborate the attestations of individual social scientists and political activists who have generally attributed the protest in Iran to promises that have not been met for a long time and demands that have been ignored by several governments during the past 40 years.

Meanwhile the study also observed that the driving force behind the current movement are youngsters born after the second half of the 1990s. This part of the findings also corroborate with what Iranian sociologists and political activists have said or written during the past two months.

The main problem of the new generation appears to be lack of social freedoms within an Islamic system and general hopelessness about the future.

As this study and several Iranian sociologists have observed, the disillusioned new generation of Iranians is fed up with senseless and inefficient bureaucracy and at the same time does not believe in the outdated and meaningless ideology the Islamic Republic has been propagating during the past four decades.

Generally, according to this research, the current movement in Iran is marked by a generation gap, fluctuating at times between activism and mutiny, not being mainly about economic demands, changing mood between anger and hope, using opportunities provided by events, and a horizontal steering structure [lack of formal leadership].

Meanwhile, according to the study the way the Iranian government has been handling the protests have not changed during the past four decade. It is common knowledge that the government's first and only solution to any crisis like the current uprising is handling it violently. At times, such as during the protests against rising fuel prices in 2019, Iranian government forces have killed hundreds to silence uprisings. But this way of handling crises, coupled with failure to address systemic problems is only a temporary solution and protests flare up as soon as another event triggers a new round of protests. What triggered the current wave of protests in Iran was the murder of a young woman in mid-September while she was in morality police custody.

Reports say workers of Masjed Soleyman (Masjid Suleiman) Petrochemicals Company stopped work to protest their low wages and living condition.

Meanwhile, workers of Bahman Motors car production company went on strike chanting slogans in protest to their living conditions and low wages.

A group of truck and pick-up drivers at a terminal in southern Tehran also held gatherings and went on strike. Videos on social media show the government deployed security forces to quell their protests.

Other videos show a nationwide strike by the businessmen in the Kurdish city of Saqqez in western Iran.

Popular protests in the cities of West Azarbaijan, Kordestan and Kermanshah provinces gained momentum after security forces attacked people in Mahabad on Saturday.

On Monday, security forces opened fire on mourners during the funeral ceremony of three people who were killed by regime forces in Javanroud and Piranshahr west of Iran. During the Monday attacks, over a dozen were reportedly killed and injured.

Strikes were instrumental in the overthrow of the monarchy during the 1979 revolution. This time around protesters have urged all groups — including merchants in the bazaars, teachers and workers in the oil sector — to stage strikes in the hope that this would turn the latest unrest into a revolution and lead to the overthrow of the theocracy.

Tuesday was another tension-filled day for residents of Kurdish-majority cities in western Iran while people in many other cities, including capital Tehran and its neighboring cities as well as others in the southwestern Khuzestan province and southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province also held gatherings in support of their fellow Kurdish countrymen. 

In addition to Kurdish cities, people in the city of Shahr-e-Rey in Tehran province, Dezful and Andimeshk in Khuzestan, Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan, and Mehr County in Fars province as well as in several neighborhoods in Tehran held rallies, set fire to trash cans and chanted slogans against the regime’s clampdown. 

While the Islamic Republic has cut people's access to the Internet in Kurdish-majority cities and also disrupted to access in Tehran, videos are slow to surface online but according to reports protests started before noon at university campuses across the country. Workers in several industrial complexes and numerous businesses were also on strike on Tuesday, and by afternoon people started pouring into streets, chanting slogans against the government. 

As students continued to hold antigovernment rallies, members of the Iranian parliament presented a proposal to ban the protesting students from traveling abroad for ten years. 

While Iran's Revolutionary Guard has intensified attacks on Iraq’s Kurdistan region, the United States and Israel announced that they would hold a joint air exercise next week simulating scenarios against the Islamic Republic and its proxies in the region. The announcement came as Israeli officials warned in the past few days that the unabating protests across Iran may push the Islamic Republic to be more aggressive regionally. 

The head of Israel’s military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, Monday said, “The extremely exceptional protests… have moved to a civilian rebellion. The death toll, the attacks on national symbols, this is very troubling for the regime, in combination with sanctions,” adding that “as the pressure on Iran increases, including internal pressure, the Iranian response is much more aggressive, so we should expect much more aggressive responses in the region and in the world.” 

The global outcry over the crackdown on protests is gaining a new momentum following the European Parliament’s announcement on Monday that it would not keep direct contact with the Islamic Republic authorities. 

European Parliament member Charlie Weimers told a special session of EU Parliament on Iran Tuesday that "The Iranian protesters want a divorce from the Islamic Republic, not counselling," calling on EU countries to expel the Tehran’s diplomats, recall EU envoys, shut down Iran’s embassies and proscribe the Revolutionary Guard as a terror organization.

Also on Monday, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said, “there will be no direct contact between the Parliament and Iranian officials until further notice,” adding that the Islamic Republic must stop its oppression of legitimate protests. In reaction to the death sentences imposed on protesters, Metsola urged Iranian authorities to “stop, here and now”.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that Washington is "gravely concerned" about the Islamic Republic's intensifying crackdown on peaceful protestors that has killed at least 400 people so far.

The UN’s Third Committee approved a draft resolution on Iran’s human rights situation last week, expressing concern at the alarmingly high frequency of the death penalty in the country. Moreover, the UN Human Rights Council will also adopt a resolution aimed at holding the Islamic Republic accountable on November 24.

Voicing concerns over the situation in Iran and especially Kurdish cities, the UN Human Rights council said at least 40 people were killed by security forces over the past week. “We urge your authorities to address the people's demands for equality, dignity and rights instead of using unnecessary or disproportionate force to suppress the protests,” said a spokesperson for UN human rights chief at a Geneva press briefing. 

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said that "The rising number of deaths from protests in Iran, including those of two children at the weekend, and the hardening of the response by security forces, underline the critical situation in the country."

Also on Tuesday, German MP Norbert Röttgen highlighted that "Since the weekend, the regime has been literally waging war against protesters in the Kurdish regions of Iran. The fact that the German Federal Government has so far been silent on this issue now borders on a political and moral failure on a historic scale."

Two videos were posted on social media that showed thick green smoke wafting through the streets in Javanrud, a city of around 50,000 in the western province of Kermanshah, amid heavy clashes between stone-throwing protesters and security forces shooting at them. Reports also emerged on the same day of the use of a similar green gas in Piranshahr in West Azarbaijan Province.

The use of an unidentified gas that causes skin irritation, nausea and other symptoms has conjured up memories of Saddam Hussein’s chemical attack on the Kurdish border city of Sardasht, also in West Azarbaijan during Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) in the minds of many, particularly people in Iran's Kurdish areas.

Saddam’s chemical attack during which mustard gas was used killed at least 130 people and injured 8,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants of the city in 1983. Many victims still struggle with respiratory and other health issues.

“The occupying regime [of the Islamic Republic] is using banned weapons in Kordestan,” a tweet accompanied with an image of CS gas canisters allegedly found in Piranshahr said. The tweet also said CS gas has been banned by the UN Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993.

The canister is marked with the word “irritant” only, but posts shared on social media claim these are perceived as chemical weaponry that has been banned.

Iran's Kurdish cities have been at the forefront of the protests that started with the death is custody of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini from the Kurdish city of Saqqez two months ago.

People in most Kurdish-populated areas in Kordestan, West Azarbaijan and Kermanshah provinces have relentlessly protested and defied government forces since Masha’s death. Security forces have killed and wounded dozens of protesters and bystanders including children in these provinces.

Some chemists and physicians have identified the green gas used in Javanrud and Piranshahr as hexachloroethane, others say it is adamsite (DM), a chemical used as a riot control agent.

Hexachloroethane has been used by the military in smoke compositions, such as smoke grenades worldwide. DM belongs to the group of chemical warfare agents known as vomiting agents or sneeze gases.

Most western countries have abandoned the use of smoke grenades but some activists have accused police of using it against protesters in Portland, Oregon, in 2020.

US-based physician Dr. Mohammad-Kazem Attari told Iran International Tuesday that hexachloroethane is used widely in military exercises in open air but unlike extremely toxic Sarin, VN and other nerve gases, it does not cause death or permanent disabilities.

According to Dr. Attari hexachloroethane can cause serious skin irritation, partial paralysis of facial muscles and fogginess of mind but temporarily. The chemical is also considered as a carcinogen.

“It is mainly used on the streets [for crowd control] to inspire fear due to its color. It is characterized as a nerve gas but is not as dangerous as nerve gases used in wars,” he said and added that the use of this gas is not likely to scare people who are not afraid of firearms used by Iranian regime forces.

Tear gas itself is banned in war according to UN’s Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) but its limited use is reportedly permitted for law enforcement purposes.