How do you know what majority of Iranians want? through internet?
This is not going to happen for some obvious reasons. You see, The Mullahs have ruined Iran and turned the people into purposeless zombie like beings wondering the earth, They also pissed off too many people and created too many enemies for themselves. Now Mullahs have nothing to lose and nowhere to retreat, And after seeing the state run media news today, It is clear to me that they will not listen to the people nor do they change their destructive policies, Under them we are going to face our demise sooner or latter.
Honestly I don't understand from where you get this nonsense . 90% of statistic is wrong .
BY DAVID P. GOLDMAN JANUARY 3, 2018
Before we wax too eloquent about the democratic aspirations of the great Iranian people, we should keep in the mind that the most probable scenario for Iran under any likely regime is a sickening spiral into poverty and depopulation. Iran has the fastest-aging population of any country in the world, indeed, the fast-aging population of any country in history. It has the highest rate of venereal disease infection and the highest rate of infertility of any country in the world. It has a youth unemployment rate of 35% (adjusted for warehousing young people in state-run diploma mills). And worst of all, it has run out of water.
We might be observing the birth of Iranian democracy in the protests of the past few weeks, but it is more likely that we are watching the slow-motion train wreck of a once-great nation in all its gory detail. As I noted in an Asia Times analysis this morning, the most violent protests, e.g. the burning of a police station near Isfahan captured on this video, happened in the boondocks where water has run out. The river that runs through Isfahan, a legendary city of gardens in the desert, literally has run dry. Some Iranian officials warn that tens of millions of Iranians will have to leave their homes for lack of water. The country has used up 70% of its groundwater and its literally drying up major rivers to maintain consumption. It's the worst ecological disaster in modern history.
The Islamic Revolution presided over an orgy of corruption, brutality and mismanagement. Despite the Obama administration's cash infusion and the lifting of sanctions on oil exports, the government is nearly bankrupt. It has allowed several major banks to fail, wiping out the savings of millions of depositors, after the banks lent vast sums to regime cronies for real estate speculation. 45% of Iranian bank loans are toxic and the cost of cleaning up the bank mess is estimated at half of GDP (to put that in perspective, the US Treasury set aside $700 billion, or 1/20th of US GDP, to bail out the banks in 2008, and needed only a fraction of it. The Iranian banking crisis is a full order of magnitude worse than the US 2008 crisis).
Iran's pension funds, as I report in Asia Times, are bankrupt. The civil service pension fund as only 100 employees paying in for every 120 employees receiving a pension. The government is on the hook for the rest.
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Add up the costs of dealing with the water emergency, the bank crisis and the pension crisis, and Iran is close to broke. And that's just the beginning: The average working-age Iranian today comes from a family of seven children, but has fewer than two children. That means that when the older generation retires, there will be fewer than two new entrants into the workforce to pay for the pensions of seven retirees. The demographic crisis hasn't hit yet, and when it does, it will be the financial equivalent of an asteroid hitting Iran.
In other words, Iran's exhaustion of physical as well as human capital may have pushed it past the point of no return.
Iran has plenty of smart people, and two of the best engineering universities in the world, except virtually all the top graduates leave the country. There probably is a theoretical way out of Iran's economic spiral, but no collection of Shi'ite mullahs is going to find it. The most likely outcome is that Iran will undergo economic and social collapse.
That, sadly, is the norm in human history. The democracy first practiced by the Greek city-state is exceptional, and classical Greece is Exhibit A for civilizational self-destruction. Of the nearly 150,000 languages once spoken on this planet, a couple of thousand are left, and 90% of those will fall silent forever during the next century or so. Sometimes the best thing you can do for dying civilizations is, don't be one of them, as I wrote in my 2011 book, How Civilizations Die.
This makes the mullahs all the more dangerous, like a bank robber with a brain tumor who takes hostages. I sincerely wish a happy outcome for the people of Persia. But we need to be prepared for a very unhappy one.
You are right about the bold part. It seems the government is ignoring all the concerns of these protesters and why the protests started in the first place. They have used the obvious model many Islamic/Muslim country's dictators use when faced with protests from their people. i.e BLAME THE WEST/ISRAEL/ FOREIGN HANDS(in this case also KSA,GCC). Its quite funny since its not just Iran that indulges in such behaviour when faced with such situation, almost every ruler/regime in the region always uses such rhetoric when faced with public protests. I believe it's because that's the easy way out and its enables the regime to rid itself of any blame. It's a smart move though, even though it comes with consequences in the long term.
Iran protests: General declares 'sedition' defeated
- 3 January 2018
Iran protests: Why people have taken to the streets
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has declared the defeat of the "sedition" in the country, referring to a wave of anti-government protests.
Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari made the announcement as tens of thousands of people attended pro-government rallies called to counter the unrest.
It began last Thursday in the city of Mashhad and has seen 21 people killed.
The protests were initially against price rises and corruption, but turned to wider anti-government sentiment.
They have been the largest since the disputed 2009 presidential election
What was the general's announcement?
Gen Jafari said: "Today, we can say that this is the end of the 96 sedition," referring to the current year - 1396 - in the Persian calendar.
He said "security preparedness and people's vigilance" had led to the defeat of "enemies" and that the Guards had only intervened in a "limited" way in three provinces.
He added: "There were a maximum of 1,500 people in each place and the number of troublemakers did not exceed 15,000 people nationwide."
Gen Jafari claimed the total number of protesters had not exceeded 15,000 nationwide
The general blamed anti-revolutionary agents, pro-monarchists and forces which he said had been "announced by [US-ex Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton to create riot, anarchy, insecurity and intrigue in Iran".
The "enemies" had tried to pose "cultural, economic and security threats against Islamic Iran", he said.
His comments echoed those by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday, which also blamed unspecified "enemies" and which analysts believed referred to the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But the general also blamed a "former official" for the protests, in a comment analysts believe referred to ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been critical of government officials, in particular Judiciary Chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani, in recent weeks.
What about the rallies?
State television broadcast some of the pro-government rallies live.
Among those holding events were the cities of Kermanshah, Ilam and Gorgan.
Media captionPro-government rallies have been held in a number of cities
Some marchers carried Iranian flags and images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the city of Qom, marchers chanted "death to American mercenaries". Chants elsewhere included "the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader" and "the seditionist rioters should be executed".
Are protests still going on?
Reuters news agency is reporting fresh protests after nightfall on Wednesday in the city of Malayer in western Hamadan province, with protesters chanting: "People are begging, the supreme leader is acting like God!"
Video on social media showed protesters in Nowshahr in the north chanting "death to the dictator", a phrase that has been used against Ayatollah Khamenei, the agency reported.
Another video showed a building burning in Gohardasht.
Associated Press said other video had emerged on Wednesday of protesters tearing down images of the ayatollah in Noor Abad, 360km (225 miles) south-west of Tehran, although it was unclear when the footage was shot.
Meanwhile three members of the security services have been killed in Piranshahr, an area in West Azerbaijan province which borders Iraqi Kurdistan, according to a statement by the Revolutionary Guards.
However, the area occasionally sees clashes with Kurdish separatists based in Iraq, and the attack is not thought to be linked to the recent protests.
read more:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42556729
You are right about the bold part. It was expected that the government will ignore all the concerns of these protesters and why the protests started in the first place. They have used the obvious model many Islamic/Muslim country's dictators use when faced with public protests/revolt from their people. i.e BLAME THE WEST/ISRAEL/ FOREIGN HANDS(in this case also KSA,GCC). Its quite funny since its not just Iran that indulges in such behaviour when faced with such a situation. Almost every ruler/regime in the region always uses such rhetoric when faced with public protests. I believe it's because that's the easy way out and its enables the regime/government to rid itself of any blame/responsibility while at the same time mobilising conservative elements of the population/public to come out in support of the government. It's a smart move if you look at it closely, even though I agree it comes with consequences in the long term.
Iran protests: General declares 'sedition' defeated
- 3 January 2018
Iran protests: Why people have taken to the streets
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards has declared the defeat of the "sedition" in the country, referring to a wave of anti-government protests.
Maj Gen Mohammad Ali Jafari made the announcement as tens of thousands of people attended pro-government rallies called to counter the unrest.
It began last Thursday in the city of Mashhad and has seen 21 people killed.
The protests were initially against price rises and corruption, but turned to wider anti-government sentiment.
They have been the largest since the disputed 2009 presidential election
What was the general's announcement?
Gen Jafari said: "Today, we can say that this is the end of the 96 sedition," referring to the current year - 1396 - in the Persian calendar.
He said "security preparedness and people's vigilance" had led to the defeat of "enemies" and that the Guards had only intervened in a "limited" way in three provinces.
He added: "There were a maximum of 1,500 people in each place and the number of troublemakers did not exceed 15,000 people nationwide."
Gen Jafari claimed the total number of protesters had not exceeded 15,000 nationwide
The general blamed anti-revolutionary agents, pro-monarchists and forces which he said had been "announced by [US-ex Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton to create riot, anarchy, insecurity and intrigue in Iran".
The "enemies" had tried to pose "cultural, economic and security threats against Islamic Iran", he said.
His comments echoed those by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday, which also blamed unspecified "enemies" and which analysts believed referred to the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But the general also blamed a "former official" for the protests, in a comment analysts believe referred to ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been critical of government officials, in particular Judiciary Chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani, in recent weeks.
What about the rallies?
State television broadcast some of the pro-government rallies live.
Among those holding events were the cities of Kermanshah, Ilam and Gorgan.
Media captionPro-government rallies have been held in a number of cities
Some marchers carried Iranian flags and images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the city of Qom, marchers chanted "death to American mercenaries". Chants elsewhere included "the blood in our veins is a gift to our leader" and "the seditionist rioters should be executed".
Are protests still going on?
Reuters news agency is reporting fresh protests after nightfall on Wednesday in the city of Malayer in western Hamadan province, with protesters chanting: "People are begging, the supreme leader is acting like God!"
Video on social media showed protesters in Nowshahr in the north chanting "death to the dictator", a phrase that has been used against Ayatollah Khamenei, the agency reported.
Another video showed a building burning in Gohardasht.
Associated Press said other video had emerged on Wednesday of protesters tearing down images of the ayatollah in Noor Abad, 360km (225 miles) south-west of Tehran, although it was unclear when the footage was shot.
Meanwhile three members of the security services have been killed in Piranshahr, an area in West Azerbaijan province which borders Iraqi Kurdistan, according to a statement by the Revolutionary Guards.
However, the area occasionally sees clashes with Kurdish separatists based in Iraq, and the attack is not thought to be linked to the recent protests.
read more:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42556729
