Demonstrations in Iran Follow Parliamentary Vote
It's quite a coincidence that the first mass Iranian demonstrations in nearly a decade began just two weeks after the US and Israel reached an agreement to to counter Iran's missile and nuclear programs and just one day after Iran's parliamentary voted on Jerusalem.
U.S. and Israeli officials reached a closed-door cooperation agreement on how to deal with Iran, according to Israel's Channel 10 News. The agreement, which was reportedly signed on Dec. 12 at the White House, aims to counter Iran's missile and nuclear programs.
The two countries have reportedly decided to set up joint teams to combat Iran in the region.
One joint team would grapple with Iran's ties to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, as well as Iranian activity in Syria. The second team would aim to deal with Iran's nuclear goals, while another team would specialize in dealing with the country's missile program.
Meanwhile, dueling protests erupted in Iran on Thursday. Initial protests were organized by so-called hardliners who think the government isn't being religious enough and tough enough. Those were followed by ever-willing students.
Overall, the numbers said to be taking part in demonstrations range from hundreds in some places to thousands in others - but demonstrations do not appear to be taking place on a massive scale.
Slogans have been chanted against both Mr Rouhani and Mr Khamenei, and clerical rule in general.
There is also anger at Iran's interventions abroad. In Mashhad, some chanted "not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran", a reference to what protesters say is the administration's focus on foreign rather than domestic issues.
Source: Iran protests: Violence on third day of demonstrations
Now here's where coincidence appears most strongly: On Wednesday, the day before spontaneous protests erupted, Iran's parliament voted to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
Iran declared Jerusalem the "capital of Palestine" on Wednesday following a parliamentary vote, according to the country's semi-official Fars news agency.
Iran's announcement to recognize the holy city as the “Palestinian capital forever” comes in direct response to President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
“It comes in response to the recent U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in hopes of dealing a blow to Muslims,” said Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency.
Source: Iran votes to declare Jerusalem 'capital of Palestine'
December has been an especially busy month for America in the Middle East. There was Trump's declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. There was Nikki Haley's purported smoking gun about Iranian missiles. There was the overwhelming UN vote against Trump's declaration about Jerusalem. There was doubling down on Syrian regime change by Turkey after the U.S. bribe -- er, understanding about Turkish visas.
As they say, interesting times we live in.
Comments
are you suggesting that the US has something to do with this?
after what we've learned from our own society, a foreign country interfering in the internal affairs of another is not permitted and bad form.
You Bernie Bros and hard leftists might deny it all you like, after the Russians hacked into our computers and changed the results of the 2016 election, the leaders of our country know it's just not right to meddle. Although Trump, who you lefties love so much you let your precious god, Bernie Sanders, destroy the reputation of the most qualified candidate ever to run for President, and I mean Hillary Clinton (all praise be!), probably helped his good friend Vladimir, giving him access to the servers so maybe Trump, your 2nd favorite (behind Sanders who's not even a Democrat) thinks it's ok.
As for Bill Clinton's $500,000 speech in Russia while Hillary was "deciding" on a uranium deal...well, he had to but you're so blinded by your Bernie love you can't see that he had no choice.
That was exhausting...
People who believe that kind of thing must get physically tired.
As various videos show
Hillary Clinton gets obviously tired just maintaining belief in herself.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Here Shah, have a cookie...
@Shahryar
Not as tiring as it must have been for the RUSSIANS!!!, who apparently did virtually it all through hacking Vermont's electrical grid - which wasn't even on the intertubz (clever devils, these crony capitalist Reds) - and through mostly after-the-fact mentions of BLM and puppy-pics on FB. Oh, and Twitter accounts.
(And thanks for the giggle - that snarktastic post was well worth the effort!)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Right before that 500k speech
Orwell: Where's the omelette?
We will never end our quest
We will never end our quest to realize all of the goals of the Project for The New American Century, first created in 1997. Neocon all the way. If it means taking extra years to foment more dissent from "within" these countries or to manipulate US citizens to believe more lies, no matter. I was wondering why Trump announced recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. Maybe it was part of this strategy.
There's this
And this:
And this:
And this:
Ugh
There's more. I don't know what to believe. Like this (or any of it):
I don't believe we started these demonstrations
The question is how we take advantage of it?
Do we use it as an opportunity for war?
US interests did not start these particular demonstrations
truth is considered foreign influence, world peace is a threat to national security
I don't think now is any different than then.
"President George W Bush requested and received funding of $400 million (£200 million) for the plan after he made a secret appeal to Congressional leaders last year.
The money is likely to be used for operations carried out by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, according to the New Yorker magazine.
The appeal for funds "was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change" said the magazine.
A source cited the contents of the appeal - known as a Presidential Finding - as involving "working with opposition groups and passing money".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/2218623/George...