Without guns, Iranians take on IRGC and demand overthrow

By Kirollos Abdalla —

On the fifth day of the uprising, Iranians seized control of police stations and torched an Islamic center — where militants are indoctrinated, trained and briefed — as part of massive demonstrations catalyzed by economic woes, lack of water and the weakening of the regime after its humiliating drubbing in the war against Israel in June.

Is this the end of the Islamist overlords who have ruled with an iron grip since the Iranian Revolution of 1979?

In 2022–’23, protests spread across 31 provinces and lasted for 100 days when Mahsa Amini, was arrested — for not wearing her hijab properly — and beaten to death by the morality police. Those protests died when government forces killed 551 protesters and arrested 19,000 — of whom 10 were executed for charges like “enmity against God.”

What’s different now? The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is debilitated after 12 days of bombing from Israeli F-35I “Adir” stealth fighters, F-16I “Sufa” multirole fighters and F-15I “Ra’am” strike fighters.

Secondly, the sinkhole of the rial currency (= rocketing inflation) is a motivator beyond just feeling resentful towards the religious police.

Why haven’t the protesters just taken over already? They don’t have guns. Only the government has guns.

Seasoned journalist Mayhar Tousi, himself an immigrant from Iran with contacts in the nation, has observed that police presence has been thin, suggesting that defections are taking place giving heed to widespread calls for the death to the Supreme Leader Ali Khameni and the restoration of the monarchy in transition to democracy.

Will Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, play in role in overthrowing Iran’s government? Mossad surprised everyone by staging a base inside Iran from which to launch drones and take out ballistic missiles and anti-aircraft guns in the first stages of Israel’s attack on Iran.

“There may be a round 2 imminently,” says Emily Schrader, an Israeli based journalist. “How soon? That remains to be seen. Since the protests started, there’s been a lot of Israeli support for the Iranian people. A lot of people here on the ground, including myself, have called for the Israeli government to actively help the protesters.”

Several protesters were killed in clashes, including in Lordegan and Azna in the Lorestan province, and limited live fire suppression has been employed.

A monument in honor of terror-mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, was set on fire in the city of Lali in Khuzestan, southwestern Iran. Soleimani was eliminated by a drone strike ordered by President Trump Jan. 3, 2020.

As commander of its Quds Force from 1998, Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of as many as 600 American service members through provision of explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) and other weapons to Iraqi insurgents during the Iraq War. He was linked to the killing of over 1,000 protesters who rose up November 2019 over fuel prices.

To disrupt communication between protesters and to limit videos from getting out of the country documenting the crisis, the Iranian government has slowed the Internet but not shut it down. Video clips are short and blurry.

In desperation, the Iranian regime has issued a call to all of its proxies to come and help them against the uprising — Iraqi shi’ites, Houthis from Yemen, Hezbollah of Syria and Lebanon.

“There’s no way in Hell the Houthis are going to enter the play because they know exactly what’s going to happen,” says Catherine Perez-Shokdam, reputedly a Mossad spy. “The last time they shot a missile in direction of Tel Aviv, Bibi (Netanyahu) responded by taking out 90% of the (governing) cabinet.”

Sources: Tousi TV, NPR, Times of Israel, others.