The adviser of Iran’s president believes that the city protests will continue for as long as their causes remain unresolved.
In an interview with ISNA (a video of which was released on January 11th, 2019) Hesamodin Ashna stated that last year’s protests were very similar to the ones from previous years, as they shared an economic root; but that the 2018 protests on the other hand, had “much deeper” roots of social nature.
Rouhani's Advisor Says #Iran's Street Protests Will Continue
An adviser to Iran’s President Rouhani said that there was still potential for Iran protests because the cause of the protests still existed. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/cdDRivwkio— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 13, 2019
Back in the 90’s, few protests took place in Mashhad, Qazvin, and Eslamshahr; in which many were either arrested or killed by the Police Force.
Before Rouhani’s advisor ever commented in this regard, other government officials had already warned of the potential continuity of protests; for instance, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, who acknowledged that the roots of people’s frustration are alive and will at any point “trigger a massive explosive of protests”.
According to Ashna, the purpose of last year’s protests was to “subvert the government” but that “it soon became clear that the subversion of the government requires the subversion of the entire system”; emphasising that “some people assume that they can subvert one without the other; but last year’s protests proved that the government and the system are both in the same line”.
One of the most commonly used slogans in last year’s protests was “things are over for your fundamentalists and reformists”, which targeted both political parties.
Back then, the Deputy Interior Ministry of Security and Police Affairs (Hossein Zolfaghari) had acknowledged that the protests were “targeting all political parties within the country”.
Over the months, there’s also been various online campaigns amongst Iranian protestors, one of which was known as “Barandazm”.
According to a senior member of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Organisation (July 7, 2018), the only “effective solution” for all Iranians is the subversion of Ali Khamenei (Iran’s supreme leader), adding that the so called reformists “can’t be actual reformists” when they’re “keeping the corrupt system alive”.
The protests that we witnessed last year, were developed very quickly and spread over more than 100 cities of Iran.
In December protests, dozens of protestors were killed by the security forces, and at least 5000 people (more than 400 from Tehran) were also arrested.
Source » ncr-iran