Still Another Hot Spot — Unrest Erupts in Iran
Author: Greg Valliere
September 22, 2022
IN THIS ERA OF SOCIAL MEDIA, cellphone videos of police beatings go viral virtually instantly — and often intensify the protests, as Vladimir Putin is about to discover.
AN INTRIGUING UPRISING MAY BE UNDERWAY IN IRAN, in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini, a protester who was beaten and died last week in police custody. The Iranian government said, unconvincingly, that the 22-year-old woman had a heart attack.
SINCE HER DEATH, PROTESTS HAVE ERUPTED — especially in Kurdish regions, as women have burned their headscarves and chanted “Death to Dictators,” referring to ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Both have given wide latitude to the Morality Police; seven protesters have been killed, mostly by live ammunition.
THE PROTESTS HAVE NOW SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, including Tehran, where young people in universities want more freedom. And the country’s economy is crippled by Western sanctions that won’t be lifted until there’s a nuclear deal, which does not appear to be imminent.
MOST ANALYSTS BELIEVE IRAN will have a crude nuclear bomb within months, although a delivery system isn’t ready yet. But this has prompted Israel to launch a pre-emptive de facto war targeting Iran’s scientists and labs with assassinations and drone attacks.
GEOPOLITICS ARE ESPECIALLY VOLATILE NOW: Threats from Russia, Iran, China and North Korea have produced this conclusion — the most dominant investment theme in Washington is continued huge increases in defense spending.
MOST REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS will support greater Pentagon outlays, as defense spending hits $800 billion annually within the next couple of years. A particular focus will be shipbuilding, as instability persists in the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: We have a super-early flight tomorrow and won’t publish.
Back on Monday.
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