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Protests spread across Iran over fuel rationing, gas price hike

By Sadegh Pashm-Foroush
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Reporting by PMOI/MEK

This report will be updated 

Iran, November 16, 2019—Numerous cities across Iran are witnessing escalating protests in response to a gasoline price hike imposed by the mullahs’ regime in Iran. People in Tehran and other major cities throughout the country are blocking roads and highways in their sign of protests.

Update (9:00 PM CET):

Locals in Andishe, west of Tehran, youths angry over the wounding of one of their colleagues by the regime’s oppressive forces are chanting: “I will kill those who killed my brother!”

Protests over the regime’s petrol price hikes continue.

 

In Shahriar, west of Tehran, locals torched a police station in an expression of their protests over the recent fuel price increase.

Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), once again praised the courageous protesting Iranians. “A number of rebellious youths were shot to death by Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in Sirjan, Behbahan, Karaj, Shiraz, Khorramshahr, Marivan and other cities. Hail to these courageous youths,” she said.

“From Beirut to Baghdad and now in Tehran, Shiraz, Ahvaz, and all across Iran, the earth is shaking underneath the mullahs. With these crimes, the mullahs cannot evade from certain downfall.”

 

IRGC units are opening direct fire on protesters based on orders from Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and targeting the Iranian youth. IRGC units have shot and killed eight protesters in the cities of Sirjan, Behbahan (3), Karaj, Shiraz, Khorramshahr, and Marivan, according to an NCRI statement.

The PMOI/MEK spokesperson hailed the Iranian people rising today and honored the memory of those who have lost their lives in this latest nationwide uprising. The ground is shaking under the feet of the mullahs and IRGC thugs from Beirut to Baghdad, and now in Tehran and all over Iran, the PMOI spokesperson added.

Update (8:10 PM CET):

In Fardis, a city west of Tehran, most of the banks are torched by locals protesting recent gas price hikes.

In Khorramabad, western Iran, locals are reporting hit and run skirmishes as people protest recent petrol price escalations. Sites associated to the mullahs’ regime are being torched one by one.

 

The brave people of Shiraz, central Iran, are targeting the regime in its entirety in reports over recent fuel price increases.

“Down with dictator,” “Down with Khamenei” and “Down with Rouhani,” referring to the Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, respectively.

Update (7:00 PM CET):

In the city of Robat Karim, southwest of Tehran, protesters have torched 12 banks following the recent gas price hikes. Locals have also forced the regime’s security forces to retreat, taken control of the municipality and installed roadblocks.

 

In Golestan on the road leading to Saveh, southwest of Tehran, protesters have taken control over their city and set fire to the regime’s Refah Bank.

In the Golshahr district of Karaj, west of Tehran, people are taking over the streets and starting fires to establish roadblocks as protests continue in cities checkered across the country over the recent gas price hikes.

In Shahriar, brave protesters forced the regime’s fully armed security forces, dispatched to quell their rallies, to retreat from the area.

Update (5:55 PM CET):

In the city of Shahriar, west of Tehran, locals protesting gas price escalations are seen setting fire to a large sculpture symbolizing the ring of the regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini, further expressing their utter and complete hatred of the mullahs’ entire apparatus.

In Ghale Hasan Khan, a district near Tehran, set fire to a local administration building.

“Be afraid, we’re all together!”

 

In Zanjan, northwest Iran, brave protesters are chanting and warning regime officials, “Be afraid, we’re all together!”

In Shiraz, south-central Iran, protesters continued their anti-regime measures by setting fire to four vehicles belonging to the regime’s oppressive security forces.

 

In Eslamshar, on the road leading to the city of Saveh located southwest of Tehran, protesters are seen setting fire to a local gasoline station.

In Urmia, northwest Iran, protesters furious over the recent gas price hikes across Iran were seen chanting, “Sattarkhan, Bagherkhan, we’re filling your shoes.” They are referring to two historic symbols of resistance in Iranian history and indicating their readiness to overthrow the mullahs’ regime in its entirety.

Update (4:45 PM CET):

In Pasargad, near Shiraz, south-central Iran, brave protesters forced armed police units to flee the scene.

In Tehran, locals set fire to a branch of the regime’s Sina Bank.

In another part of the capital, protesters were seen installing road blocks on the Imam Ali Highway.

In Gorgan, northern Iran, protesters are overcoming their previous fears and directly confronting the regime’s oppressive security forces.

In Zanjan, northwest Iran, protesters are taking control over various streets across the city. They’re saying Khamenei should be terrified and must leave the country.

 

Update (4:15 PM CET):

 Locals in the Sadeqiyeh district of Tehran are protesting and targeting the main source of their miseries by chanting, “Down with Khamenei!”

Knowing the regime is plundering the Iranian people and using its banks to channel this money for its malign activities, protesters across the country are targeting branches of the regime’s various banks. In Isfahan, central Iran, brave youths are seen torching a local bank.

In Eslamshahr, southwest of Tehran, brave youths were seen setting fire to vehicles belonging to oppressive forces.

In Qazvin, northwest Iran, locals launched a large rally in the city’s Vali Asr Intersection to voice their protests to recent gasoline price hike imposed by the mullahs’ regime.

In Tabriz, brave youths defended themselves against an attack by the regime’s security forces and torched a police bus.

Update (3:20 PM CET):

Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi once again praised the brave protesters across Iran rising and protesting in numerous provinces.
“So long as this corrupt and medieval regime is in power, poverty, high prices, unemployment, corruption, repression and discrimination will continue to persist,” Mrs. Rajavi said, adding her sympathies to the family of Ruhollah Zamani, the young man killed by the regime forces in the city of Sirjan as protests erupted Friday night local time.

 

“I urge the United Nations and all international human rights organizations to strongly condemn the crackdown on the Iranian people’s demonstrations. I urge them to launch a mission to look into the circumstances of death, injury and arrests of participants in the uprising,” the NCRI President continued.

Mrs. Rajavi also expressed condolences to those protesters killed by the mullahs’ forces in the city of Behbahan, southwest Iran.

 

Demonstrators in Behbehan set banks on fire

Demonstrators in Behbehan set banks on fire

Update (2:45 PM CET):

In Shiraz, a major city in south-central Iran, youths clashed with local security forces and set two of their vehicles on fire. In Tehran, gold bazaar merchants closed shop and launched a strike in solidarity with popular protests spreading in dozens of cities across the country.

In the town of Rudhan located in northern Iran, protesters were seen holding a rally and chanting, “We won’t leave this place until our rights are recognized” and “The oil revenue is lost and spent on Palestine.” There is an increasing sign of protests evolving and growing more and more political, targeting the regime’s senior officials and foreign policy initiatives. This especially includes Tehran’s decisions to waste billions of dollars on terrorist groups across the Middle East.

In the city of Bushehr, southern Iran, security forces resorted to firing tear gas into the crowd. In Tehransar, locals were heard chanting, “Mullahs must get lost!”

Update (2:00 PM CET):

Youths in Isfahan, central Iran, are protesting in the city’s Simin Square and launching a demonstration against the regime in its entirety. “Down with Khamenei!” is a slogan heard from the large crowd.

The Iranian regime has dispatched security forces in many major cities and reports indicate the oppressive units have opened fire on civilians. Three protesters in the city of Behbahan and one in the city of Sirjan have been killed by the regime’s forces.

In Tehran locals are continuing to hold protests in areas checkered across the capital, especially by using different means to block various roads.

Iranian opposition President Maryam Rajavi, head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), hailed the protests, calling on all provinces to rise in support and against the mullahs’ regime.

 

“This is the only way to get rid of high prices, poverty, inflation & calamities the mullahs’ regime has inflicted on the Iranian people,” Mrs. Rajavi emphasized.

Protests began Friday and continued into the evening and night hours. In addition to blocking roads, people were also seen chanting slogans indicating the protests evolving into political rallies targeting the mullahs’ foreign policies.

 

The Iranian people are sick and tired of the fact that their God-given wealth is stolen to be used by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to provide billions of dollars to the Assad regime in Syria, terrorists groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hashd al-Shaabi and other extremist militia groups in Iraq, along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine.

 

There are also reports of people chanting slogans against senior regime officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. On Saturday, authorities dispatched security forces to attack the protest gatherings using tear gas and other means.

 

On Friday, Rouhani resorted deceptive remarks aiming to justify the recent decision to raise gasoline prices by up to threefold, claiming this increase was actually in favor of the people’s interests and not aimed at compensating the regime’s budget shortage from the people’s pockets.

Iranians in their protests are specifically targeting senior regime officials and setting their images on fire.

 

The Iranian regime, despite sitting on the world’s fourth largest crude oil reserves, has failed to adequately provide its domestic needs and resorts to such price hikes to provide the budget needed for the mullahs’ terrorism drive and other malign activities.

Even regime officials have been expressing grave concerns about such a gasoline price hike. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Relations Committee, voiced concerns about the country being a powder keg.

“Considering the popular anger and concern about the price increase of fuel, the government is obliged to consider the possible consequences and societal damages of any decision and its decisions must have social reasons,” he said back in May.

However, Jalal Mirzaii, member of the Energy Commission in Majlis and a close aid of  Rouhani’s faction, explained how senior Iranian regime officials are in line on the necessity to further plunder the Iranian people. “This is a decision collectively made by the heads of the three branches of power. This is one of the few issues where the heads of the three branches have accepted responsibility and made a final decision,” he said.

It is worth noting that increasing fuel prices led to popular and violent protests during the tenure of former Iranian regime president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005 to 2013).

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