Iran Hardliners Attack Writer For Love Without Marriage Comment

Romanowski, who will soon head to Baghdad after she was nominated as ambassador to Iraq by President Joe Biden, said on Sunday that the Iran’s proxies are a real problem for the stability of the region.

“Iran in our view is promoting very destabilizing activities in the region, which doesn’t help the security of the region; the support they are giving to non-state actors is a real problem in terms of stability”, she told TimesKuwait.

She said Washington is trying to find a solution for the Islamic Republic’s support for Houthis, noting that “Our efforts are focused on assisting people in Yemen on humanitarian grounds, but at the same time in the UAE we are giving support on the defense side”.

About the Biden administration’s indirect nuclear negotiations with Iran in Vienna, she said, “We are in a very delicate time now in this negotiation… We are consulting our partners and allies in the region, and also with the EU. We see that time is running out in terms of finding a solution and our ways to go back to the JCPOA. We have the Iranians as partners too, but at the end of the day, our objective is for us not to see Iran acquiring the capability to further destabilize the region”.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, also voiced hope there was a serious desire by Iran to find a "new modus operandi" in the region.

The two countries held talks in April last year with Iraqi mediation. Tehran said the talks were productive, while Riyadh said no serious progress took place.

Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi who took office last August announced that his government’s priority was to improve relations with regional countries, but no visible change has taken place in Tehran’s regional policies, including support for Houthis in Yemen or militant militias in Iraq and elsewhere.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran are locked in several proxy conflicts around the region, including in Yemen.

Houthis have continued missile and drone attacks against civilian targets in Saudi Arabia and in January also launched missile strikes against Riyadh’s ally, the United Arab Enirates.

Many do not trust hardliners because they have manipulated elections and created a monopoly of power, and reformists have been discredited because of their inability to make a difference in major decisions in the past two decades.

The warning comes as the most important reformist political figure, former President Mohammad Khatami intends to withdraw from all political activities, including offering his opinions or endorsing any politician or election. Khatami has been banned from political appearances and public speeches for many years. Even his photos are banned in the media.

Recently there were reports that Khatami and a few other polticians seemd to be regrouping to offer an alternative to the current political situation.

According to moderate conservative website Khabar Online, the reason for the shift is the decline in the popularity of political groups and parties, as well as "engineered" elections that have gradually eliminated any group that voters could turn to for political insight and guidance.

The website pointed to Khatami’s decision to withdraw from politics, saying that those who still had an inkling of hope in reforms have lost their main point of reference.

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Khabar Online warned that "A headless society will be a menace for Iran's political future." This is a reference to the lack of intellectual and political leadership in the country while a totalitarian ruling system is monopolizing all institutions in Iran.

In the 2020 parliamentary elections and the 2021 presidential vote, the regime’s power centers controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ruled out the candidacy of everyone other than hardline conservatives. The decision led to a parliament of everyone for himself rather than a single body of hardliners who were expected to speak in one voice. And in the presidential election, it was clear long before voting that regime insider Ebrahim Raisi would be the winner.

Khabar Online says this has led the people to no longer trust any political party and refuse to acknowledge the leadership role of political groups and parties as their point of reference. As a result, there is no one play a leading role in the society during turbulent times.

Social networks, such as unofficial trade unions, have to an extent replaced influential and trusted political groups. But although they have proved to be popular at times, the sensational nature of their activities prevented them from garnering true political support, Khabar Online wrote. This explains why protests by vocational groups including teachers and steel workers failed to turn into a strong political movement.

The website added that this situation has led to destructive consequences. The public has lost trust in government and politics, political groups have become weak and political elites of the regime have lost credibility.

Meanwhile, reformist newspaper Sharq wrote in a report about the same topic that was also carried by proreform website Fararu. The report argued that both the reformists and conservatives in Iran have lost their status as points of reference for voters and political activists, mainly because they fail to respond to the people's real problems.

Sharq argued that since 1979, all the political debates in Iran dealt with the dichotomy between "the status quo" and "the ideal situation." This was the source of all conflicts between the left and right. But the non-competitive 2021 presidential vote and Raisi's victory put an end to any pretence of political activism and competition within the regime. “This has dramatically changed Iran's political scene,” Sharq wrote.

The demonstrations were held in at least 100 cities and towns, while teachers have announced their rallies and strikes will continue until Thursday, the end of the week in Iran.

According to Teachers’ Trade Associations, which organized the protests, security forces “attacked” a rally in the city of Karaj, beating teachers and arrested 15 (video) Videos posted on social media show crowds shouting slogans against unfulfilled promises by the authorities and asking for an imprisoned teacher to be freed. “From Tehran to Khorasan; Teachers are in prisons,” they chanted.

As in earlier protests, teachers gathered in front of the parliament building in Tehran and the provincial offices of the education ministry, protesting against ministry directives asking principals to warn teachers not to leave work to take part in protests and sit-ins.

Two years of deep recession in Iran following the introduction of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 led to sharp increases in living costs and to labor unrest. According to social media posts, officials in the labor ministry also held a protest Saturday. In January hundreds of firefighters and staff from the judiciary took to the streets in several cities. Prison guards have also picketed to protest their salaries.

But a reformist website, Ensaf News, on Friday published vox pops from several provinces and explained that due to media restrictions it has edited out some of the remarks.

The initiative is quite unique because when it comes to controversial matters, most news websites in Iran do not even allow readers to comment, or edit the comments before publishing, to prevent the closure of their publication by the authorities.

"What are they expecting to happen that they are dallying so much? Why are they delaying it when eventually they will accept to directly talk with the US? Why shouldn't we do it when we can live better if we make a deal with the US, so we won't need Russia and China?", Ensaf News quoted Sattar, a carpenter in Sabzevar in eastern Iran, as saying.

Mohammad-Hesam, a student at Khorasan seminary, told Ensaf News that direct negotiation with the US is banned by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei because it "entails many harms and no benefit at all." He added that if the US changes its “wolfish behavior” there will not be a problem to "negotiate with the enemy".

A professor of Tabriz University in northwestern Iran whose first name was not mentioned in the article noted the "bitter experience of the JCPOA" during which Iran and the US engaged in direct negotiations with Khamenei's permission, but former US president Donald Trump unilaterally left the deal. He said repetition of that experience is "not only stupid but also treachery". "Authorities should take action against those who still speak about this subject and sadly are not few even in universities," he added.

"The alternative to negotiation with the US is war with that country. Are we prepared for such a war? Even if we are militarily prepared, do we have enough financial resources for such a war? a lawyer in Ahvaz in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, told Ensaf News while Faezeh, a photographer in Tabriz, said what people think and want is clear. "But nobody cares what people want. They do whatever they please," she said.

"To resolve this issue, they must hold a referendum. The most peaceful and legal solution, as long as people and the authorities think differently, is to hold a referendum and let people's vote decide the matter. Rouhani spoke about holding a referendum a few times but did not follow it with action. There wouldn't be so many problems now if a referendum had been held about negotiations between Iran and the US," Saleh, a student at Isfahan University of Technology said according to Ensaf News.

A retired teacher in Isfahan, Nahid, argued that the US is a country like all other countries but has been unduly singled out. "In fact, Israelis hope for the enmity between Iran and the US to continue because it them who profit from it."

Conspiracy theories are abundant too. Mojtaba, a taxi driver in Mashhad, accused the government of secretly negotiating with the US. "The president's visit to Russia was to make a deal with Russia and the US [over Ukraine]. They don't announce it in order not to contradict themselves, otherwise, they have always negotiated behind the scenes and the rest is only a game because they don't want to tell people."