No more hollow promises, we want water; we want a thriving Sistan”
College students and brave residents of the Sistan & Baluchistan province in southeast Iran expressed their abhorrence during a visit by the Iranian regime’s President Hassan Rouhani to the cities of Zabol and Zahedan, protesting the regime’s repressive policies.
“No more hollow promises, we want water,” “Rouhani, Sistan has no clean air,” “We want water, water, we want a thriving Sistan.”
The people of Zabol held written placards protesting lack of educational supplies, unsafe paths known as “death roads,” and the crackdown imposed on this province’s population. Other placards read, “Border markets controlled by officials’ relatives,” “What happened to the poor people’s rights?” “The country’s youngest province is also the most unemployed.”
Students of Sistan & Baluchistan University in Zahedan chanted slogans against Rouhani’s visit.
“We don’t want a farce parliament; Students would rather die than succumb to such conditions” and “Release all detained college students,” they shouted. They refused to accept Rouhani on their campus.
In his speech in the city of Zabol, Rouhani claimed to have successes during the first 100 days of his second term as president. He ridiculously said the achievements of this period are tantamount to those of his first four years in office. One such success claimed by Rouhani is his horrendous report card of providing anything resembling aid to the earthquake victims of Kermanshah province in western Iran. Three weeks after the quake these people remain without any elementary aid to even stay alive.
In other preposterous and deceptive remarks Rouhani described the increasing international isolation and growing abhorrence of this regime’s aggressive policies as the mullahs’ “pride.”
Rouhani’s speech a few nights ago, aired by state TV, in which he delivered a report on the first 100 days of his second term, has become a target of ridicule by the faction loyal to the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Even members of Rouhani’s own faction have mocked his remarks.
Javan daily, linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), described Rouhani’s speech as “broad remarks” and Zolnour, a member of the Iranian regime’s parliament from Khamenei’s faction, said his words were mere “rhetoric.”
“We heard contradictory employment statistics from you and relevant officials… why do you provide numbers that cannot be proven by the people’s tables, nor the unemployed and nor their homes,” he asked. (State TV – November 28, 2017)
The IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency wrote, “It is as if Rouhani has not looked at the numbers provide by government institutions in this regard. Based on the statistics issued by the Census Center and the Central Bank, Gini coefficient [the index indicating inequality between distribution of income and wealth] during Rouhani’s first term reached its worst state ever. The gap between the rich and the poor has increased… How does Rouhani in his second term seek to continue these policies… and fight the unjust distribution of income across the country?”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
December 3, 2017
