JEDDAH: As violent protests continue to break out across Iran, a leading member of the country’s opposition party has told Arab News that the “cleric’s inhumane regime,” which has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution is on the verge of being ousted.
Shahriar Kia, a human-rights activist, political analyst, and member of the Iranian opposition — the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran — told Arab News that the protests, which began on Thursday, are a result of “over three decades of crackdown and plundering the Iranian people’s property and wealth by the clerics.”
He also claimed that the Iranian regime has spent “billions of dollars of the Iranian people’s money to expand their fundamentalism and terrorism across the Middle East, and to support the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.”
Now, Kia said, “the Iranian people have risen against the clerical regime in its entirety, demanding its overthrow. The people’s uprising in more than 50 cities reveals how the status quo, domestically and internationally, is ripe for regime change.”
Kia’s words echoed those of Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, who said in a statement: “The ongoing protests in different cities against the regime reveal the explosive state of Iranian society and the people’s desire for regime change.”
“Iranian protesters demand a free republic which respects its citizens’ equality and is based on separation of religion and state, where they can stay unharmed by poverty, unemployment and illness,” she said.
“I strongly believe that peace and stability in the Middle East and the world over will be possible only through regime change in Iran,” Kia told Arab News.
But if regime change is to happen, Iranians will likely pay a heavy price, as some have already.
“Fearing overthrow, and desperate to confront the popular nationwide uprising, the cleric’s inhumane regime has started blind killings, murdering more than a dozen protesters and detaining at least 1,000 individuals in the first four days of the uprising,” Kia said.
This is not the first time that Iranian regime has faced protests, but Kia suggested the current protests are on an unprecedented scale — there is, he said, a “nationwide” movement.
Kia noted similarities with the revolution that brought the current regime to power in 1979.
“Back then, all protesters targeted the Shah’s dictatorship, seeking to overthrow the pillar of the monarchy,” he said. “In the current uprising, the people are placing the clerical regime’s main pillar in their crosshairs — the supreme leader. They are chanting ‘Death to Khamenei’ and ‘Death to the dictator.’ The uprising has terrified the regime, resulting in losing control of the status quo.”
But while Kia believes the protesters have the strength to achieve their goal of regime change, he stressed the need for the international community to do its part. Iran has many enemies, both regionally and internationally, and Kia said it is time for them to step up.
“One reason the Iranian regime has been able to continue its crimes inside the country, and against nations across the region, has been the West’s appeasement policy vis-à-vis Tehran,” he said.
Kia singled out the administration of previous US President Barack Obama as particularly culpable in this regard, suggesting it “extensively added to this regime’s lifespan.”
“As the Iranian people flooded the streets in 2009 chanting ‘Death to Khamenei,’ Obama stretched his hand out to Iran’s mullahs in friendship,” he said. But now that President Donald Trump is in charge, Kia believes, “circumstances have changed.”
Indeed, Trump is publicly backing the protesters, taking to Twitter on Jan. 1 to state, “It is time for change.”
Still, Kia pointed out, strong words need to be backed by strong action.
“Of course, this policy must be completed with practical measures against repression inside Iran and abroad, and this regime’s meddling in the Middle East particularly Yemen, Iraq, and Syria,” he said. “I hope the West supports the Iranian Resistance to stop this regime’s increasing bloodshed. This will be the basis of the Iranian people’s relations with other countries in the future.”
As things stand, Kia said, regime change in Iran is now inevitable, with the regime trapped in a no-win situation.
“If they launch a widespread crackdown, the resistance will flare up, and continue until the regime is overthrown,” he said. “And if they don’t resort to oppressive measures, the demonstrations will only spread and again lead to the regime’s overthrow.
“The Iranian people and their organized resistance have made their decision,” he continued, “to forever rid the world of this regime.”
Regime change in Iran inevitable, suggests opposition member
Regime change in Iran inevitable, suggests opposition member
Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.
“We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills,” said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a “public security” patch.
An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad’s forces in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years, with oil-rich Saudi Arabia a major destination.
“The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter,” said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to “protect Syrian society” and “cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses,” he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have yet to spell out their policy on alcohol, which has long been widely available in the country.
Since an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad’s forces.
Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that “this is not the first initiative of its kind — the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner.”
Maher Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.
Experts believe Syria’s former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.
A Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, a source close to the government told AFP, to discuss the “Syria situation and captagon.”
Jordan in recent years has also cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.
Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
AMMAN: About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
- Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
- Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders
DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.
Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”
