Spring of freedom

US economic sanctions against Iran   A significant portion of the sanctions imposed against the Iranian regime following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal will become active after 90 days and others after 180 days. The new U.S. Treasury sanctions, however, go online immediately. The economic impact of these sanctions can be witnessed in a rush to the exit door by numerous foreign companies involved in business with Iran. Many foreign companies one after another are currently pulling out of Iran and/or completely ending their contracts with Tehran. “Eight large European firms are determined to exit Iran,” according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency, affiliated to the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force. There are numerous reports in the media of large, multinational European companies exiting Iran. This slate includes Total, Reliance, Eni, Siemens, Airbus, Maersk, Allianz and…, proving the United States’ influence to neutralize Euro...

Truck drivers of about 280 cities in Iran are on strike On Wednesday, May 30, the nationwide strike of heavy vehicles and truck drivers continued for the ninth consecutive day. In some cities, such as Sanandaj (Kurdistan province), taxi drivers also went on strike in solidarity with the heavy vehicles drivers. Truckers’ strike continues while in the past two days the clerical regime agents tried to break the strike by resorting to repressive measures. In Doroud (Lorestan province), a number of truckers who refused to load were arrested. In Amirabad (Mazandaran province), repressive forces attacked strikers and arrested some of them. On Monday, hundreds of truck drivers driving from Kovar (Fars province) and intending to join strikers in Shiraz were attacked and dozens were arrested. In Zarrinshahr (Isfahan province), the anti-riot guards were dispatched to disperse strikers and truckers who had gathered in Vegetable (Tareh Bar) Square. With counter attack of the strikers, ...

The nationwide strike of truck and heavy vehicles drivers continued in Iran The nationwide strike of truck and heavy vehicles drivers continued in Iran On Sunday, May 27, the nationwide strike of truck and heavy vehicles drivers continued for the sixth day in spite of threats, pressures and repressive measures. In the past days, the intelligence henchmen have summoned drivers from different classes to pressure them to end the strike and to announce it in the cyberspace. In Sabzevar, the head of State Security Forces threatened to prevent drivers from driving in all the roads of the country should they continue their strike. In some cities, such as Hamedan and Tehran, the police insult drivers and fine them for unfounded offences. In spite of these repressive measures, the freight terminals in various cities are half-closed, and drivers refuse to load and with lining up their trucks along the roads, demand for a solution to their problems. In Akbarabad Kovar (Fars provi...

The funeral ceremony of Naser Malek Motiei, turned into an anti-regime demonstration.   Naser Malek Motiei, an Iranian actor and director who starred in numerous films and television shows, passed away on Friday, May 25 th . He was 88 years of age. Motiei was first a sports instructor and began his work as an actor in the early 1950s. In addition to playing in around 100 movies, Motiei was also very active in theater and enormously popular amongst Iran’s poor class for his chivalric roles. Following the 1979 revolution in Iran, Motiei was a target of the Iranian regime’s censoring due to his unwillingness to promote the mullahs’ mentality. Motiei began a pastry business due to the pressures imposed by the mullahs’ apparatus. He was deprived of any and all access to the profession he loved and the Iranian regime would never provided him the necessary authorization. “I loved the cinema. I loved my work for forty years. Nothing ever distanced me from the cinema....

Every day, the Iranian regime is creating grounds for new protests to take place in the country Iran, May 24, 2018  - In December, protests that erupted in the eastern city of Mashhad over unemployment, poverty and government corruption quickly turned into a nationwide protest across Iran. Although the regime brutally cracked down on the protesters, tensions continued to simmer and manifest themselves in smaller yet constant protests in other parts of the country. Last week, the protests in Kazerun, which had begun about  a few months earlier  over the government’s plans to divide the city into smaller areas, turned into clashes between the government and people when security forces attacked and killed several of the protesters. As the Kazerun protests showed, the social climate across the entirety of Iran is tense, and chances that uprisings reoccur are very high. Here are a few of the ongoing crises that might flare up in the coming weeks and months: ...

The widespread and nationwide strike of truck drivers On Friday, May 25 th , the widespread and nationwide strike of heavy truck drivers and truckers in different cities of the country continued for the fourth day. The number of cities that have joined the strike during these four days has grown to 177 cities in 29 provinces. The day before, minibus drivers and taxi drivers in some cities, including in Shiraz and Yazd, joined this nationwide strike. Striking drivers and truckers demand a salary increase taking into account the hard work, the right to retire after 25 years of work, a reduction in extortion of the regime on various grounds, as well as a commission, which the regime's agents at each terminal impose at their own discretion, without any specific frameworks and an end to police crackdown on drivers. On Friday, the Revolutionary Guards rushed fuel tanks with escort in order to cope with the strike. The risen people and the courageous drivers in various citi...

Hundreds of senior former officials, lawmakers, and prominent personalities from 5 Continents attend The grand gathering of Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance was held in Paris on Saturday, July 1 st , in which hundreds of senior former officials, lawmakers, and prominent personalities from more than 50 countries in five continents participated. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was the keynote speaker. She emphasized that the only way to liberate the Iranian people from religious tyranny and to establish peace and tranquility in the region is to overthrow the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule) . She underscored that the overthrow of this regime is indispensable, feasible, and within reach, and that a democratic alternative and an organized resistance exists to topple it. Mrs. Rajavi added that this democratic alternative is working to establish freedom and democracy in Iran; it will bring harmony to various...

By Reza Shafiee After months of speculations, finally President Donald  Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal  formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal was struck by his predecessor President Obama who went out his way to sweeten the deal for the regime in Iran hoping that its rulers may eventually come around and stop their destabilizing behavior in the region, not to proliferate long-range ballistic missiles and end human rights violations at home. None of that happened. Lack of transparency in the deal from day one raised many eyebrows. No one really knows how much money was offered to the regime in exchange. The figures are anywhere from $50 to $150 billion. Sadly not a dime of the money gained from the deal was spent to make life easier for average citizens. Instead it was generously wasted on wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Iran’s clerical regime did everything possible to prop up its puppet Bashar al-Assad in...