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An ongoing wave of dissent relentlessly continues across Iran. With the clerical regimes demise on the horizon, there are various speculations about what strategy results faster in regime change. Among the promoted options is civil disobedience. But would it work?

Civil disobedience is a form of nonviolent resistance where individuals intentionally break laws or regulations to challenge unjust government actions or policies. It was popularized by Henry David Thoreau in his essay Civil Disobedience in 1849, where he argued that individuals had a moral obligation to resist unjust laws.

Some of the most notable examples of civil disobedience include Mahatma Gandhis Salt March in India in 1930, the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr. in the US in 1955, and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

In other words, civil disobedience can be realized in a country with true reform is possible and a ruling establishment that tolerates peaceful dissent.

The Iranian regime is a unique political system that is governed by a Supreme Leader who has absolute power over all branches of the regime, including the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive. A brutal security apparatus, including the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij paramilitary force, also characterize the regime.

In a country like Iran, where the regime is medieval, civil disobedience does not lead to the regimes overthrow. The regime responds with the most brutal suppression of any protest threatening to overthrow it. This is evident from the regimes history, marked by the violent suppression of dissent.

Until June 1981, when there was a quasi-democratic atmosphere in Iran, opposition groups tried to express their point of view on the political scene of Iran through political activities. But the mullahs regime banned any activity and started arresting and killing the opponents. The regimes response was swift and brutal, with thousands of political activists and intellectuals detained, tortured, and executed.

As the leading progressive-Muslim opposition group in Iran, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) fervently pursued the reformation of the new Republic after the 1979 revolution. Despite their numerous meetings, protests, attempts to participate in elections, and criticism of the governments curtailment of liberties, MEKs efforts were met with ruthless suppression. Supporters of the MEK were subjected to brutal beatings, with many paying the ultimate price for their beliefs. Between November 1978 and June 20, 1981, more than 50 MEK members were killed by extremists for distributing the organizations newspaper, Mojahed, or participating in meetings.

One of the most infamous episodes in the history of the Iranian regime is the 1988 massacre of political prisoners when over 30,000 political prisoners were massacred in a matter of months. The victims were mainly members and supporters of the MEK.

Over the years, the Iranian regime has sought to deceive by promoting civil disobedience as the sole means of effecting change in the regime or its behavior. Through this tactic, the regime has succeeded in buying time for its oppressive rule. The regime has used the idea of reformists within its ranks as another facet of this strategy, advertising that change was attainable from within the system.

In the 1990s some of the most extremist individuals and groups rebranded themselves as moderates and reformists. But instead of becoming a force of real change, the so-called reform movement turned out to be a political and diplomatic tool for the regime to maintain its hold on power and delude the international community with a faade of democracy.

While the regime has put the so-called reformists and moderates in high positions of power, including the office of the president, Iran has seen nothing in terms of reform. Freedoms continue to be suppressed, dissidents are arrested, tortured, murdered, and executed. Religious and ethnic minorities continue to be denied their most basic rights. And women continue to be treated like second-class citizens.

Meanwhile, the regime has continued to mislead the international community by putting up a show of competition between different hardline and moderate factions. In reality, the power resides within the office of the supreme leader and the Revolutionary Guards. It has been proven time and again that under this regime, any kind of complacency and change from within is doomed to fail.

Encouraging civil disobedience in Iran which ranks among the worst countries in freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and gender equality, among other criteria is not only socially, politically, and historically unfeasible but also detracts from the ongoing uprising that many perceive as a burgeoning revolution in Iran. Proponents of this method cling to a firm belief in usurping office in a possible transfer of power, heavily relying on regime insiders, specifically the IRGC thugs, to assist them in pursuing authority.

The Iranian people fervently desire regime change and rightfully demand that the international community acknowledges their right to self-defense. In light of this, the discussion of civil disobedience is undeniably undermining their rights and demands.

Thus, those who promote civil disobedience implicitly attempt to hinder a revolution and instead persuade the people to continue believing in the long-disproved notion of moderation or the illusion of a transition of power with a Supreme Leader who is among the oldest and longest-standing tyrants. Therefore, the global community should lend its support to the Iranian peoples aspiration to entirely upend the regime.

The regime disregards the principles of lawful governance, necessitating its forceful overthrow. Recognizing the Iranian peoples right to self-defense is the primary action required to assist them in achieving their objectives, and this overdue measure must be taken without delay.

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Is Civil Disobedience the Answer to Iran's Ongoing Uprising? - NCRI - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he would stop Iran from strangling the Jewish state with a "noose of terror."

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, he said the countrys security personnel are working on this matter around the clock and we will continue to act both offensively and defensively against the aggression of Iran and its terrorist satellites.

The Israeli Prime Minister's statements about the aggressions of the Islamic Republic come at a time when Irans foreign minister toured Lebanons border with Israel Friday during a visit to the Arab nation, and was documented looking out at the Jewish state his regime regards as an archenemy.

After meeting with Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian took the tour along with several Lebanese parliamentarians and members of the Iranian-backed terror group.

Positive developments in the region will lead to the collapse of the Zionist entity, he said during his tour.

Mehr state news agency called Amir-Abdollahian's presence at the Israel-Lebanon border a "response" to the move by Israel's foreign minister, who visited Iran's borders during the opening of the country's embassy in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, an Israeli air attack near the city of Homs hit Iranian targets early Saturday, while Syrian state media reported that some missiles were intercepted.

Meanwhile, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in the United Kingdom, reported that Israeli missiles fired from warplanes destroyed a Hezbollah ammunition depot near Homs airport.

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We Will Not Allow Iran To Put Noose Of Terror Around Us: Netanyahu -

Irans parliament voted to dismiss the minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Sunday.

Amid allegations of mismanagement and widespread dissatisfaction with rising prices, especially in the car market, Reza Fatemi Amin was forced from his position, with 162 of the 272 lawmakers present voting to oust him. There are 290 seats in parliament.

Last year, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in major policies, criticized the high prices and low quality of home-made products, including cars.

Fatemi Amin survived an earlier impeachment by the same chamber six months ago.

During Sundays vote, opponents criticized Fatemi Amin for "skyrocketing prices of automobiles and the rising costs of industrial production and considered him unqualified to continue in his position.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi defended Fatemi Amin and urged lawmakers to reinstate the minister, saying, "The point is that stability in the ministry is important."

Fatemi Amin defended his job, saying, "The automobile industry is based on assembly and domestication, so it has problems with the ups and downs of sanctions."

Iran's economy has been battered by Western sanctions, rampant inflation and record depreciation of the rial against the dollar since 2018 when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran and reimposed severe sanctions.

In 2015, the rial was trading at 32,000 to the U.S. dollar when the country signed the nuclear accord, which lifted international sanctions in return for strict limits on, and surveillance of, its nuclear activities. Because of the breadth of global sanctions, the rial is trading at 545,000 to the U.S. dollar.

Some material for this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.

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Iran Parliament Dismisses Industries Minister Amid Rising Prices, Allegations of Mismanagement - Voice of America - VOA News

Irans rial hit its lowest point in one month on Monday, falling by 10 percent against the US dollar, as sanctions remain in place and the economy is in crisis.

The rial hit a low of 550,000 against the US dollar for the first time since April 1, when an apparent intervention by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) had brought the rate down to around 500,000 rial for each dollar.

In early 2018, the rial was trading at around 40,000 when former US President Donald Trump decided to pull out of the JCPOA nuclear agreement and impose crippling sanctions on Iran. Since then, the rial has fallen by almost 14-fold.

A series of worker strikes have been underway since April 22, affecting energy, petrochemical, steel and other sectors, as the rial falls and inflation spikes.

Monthly salaries for ordinary workers that were equivalent to $220 one year ago are now around $120 in purchasing power.

An Iranian official said Sunday that workers pay covers expenses for just nine days of the month for a small family.

Negotiations in 2021 and 2022 to reach a new nuclear agreement reached a deadline last September, prompting markets to sell off rials. Since then, the currency has lost half its value.

In addition to the nuclear issue, Irans supply of weapons to Russia and its brutal and deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters in recent months have made further talks more difficult as the United States demands Iranian policy changes at multiple levels.

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Irans Currency Falls By 10% In One Month Amid Strikes -

Iran International can reveal that political prisoners in Ward 15 of Karaj Central Prison are in dire conditions.

Insiders say political prisoners are being deprived of the minimum rights and have not been able to contact their families for two weeks.

In addition, prisoners do not have beds to sleep in and no place to heat their food. The inmates have access to just one telephone line which is tied up most of the time.

Informed sources say there is no canteen for them to buy snacks or essential items.

The prison food is of a very low quality and as a result inmates suffered stomachache and many other problems, the source said.

Sources say there are no training courses and gyms, and the detainees routinely take pills to fall asleep.

Political prisoners have been threatened that if they protest, they will be sent to other wards where prisoners of crimes related to drugs, robbery, or murder are locked up. All phone conversations are also being tapped to exert more pressure.

The reason for these pressure tactics can be of a deterrent nature, to intimidate activists and would be protesters from engaging in anti-regime activities. It could also have coercive purpose to extract confessions or cooperation from prisoners.

Prison authorities refuse to provide medicine and proper treatment to political prisoners and seek to make the conditions more difficult by creating psychological stress.

They also harass the political prisoners of Ward 15 refusing to allow them to have face-to-face visits, and the inmates can visit their families every two to three months.

Some of the prisoners in the ward are those arrested in the case of the killing of Basij agent Ruhollah Ajamian in November.

Some prisoners arrested in the case of the killing of Basij agent Ruhollah Ajamian

Ruhollah Ajamian was killed in Karaj, near Tehran, a group of men the regime called rioters. The member of the Basij militia of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) was stabbed, beaten, and stripped naked by a group of men and died of his injuries later.

The Islamic Republic has already executed Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hossein over Ajamians death.

14 protesters were also jailedin connection with the killing, with five of them receiving long-term prison terms of 10 and 15 years earlier this month.

Jurists and human rights activists have described the trials as unfair and questioned the verdicts.

The judiciary of Alborz provinceclaimed that the charges leading to the verdict were not "intentional murder" but "corruption of the earth" and "moharebeh", or waging war against God.

Among the defendants, Hamid Qarahasanlou, who was previously sentenced to death, received the longest prison term and was given 15 years in prison. He and his wife Farzaneh Qarahasanlou are set to serve their sentence in the religious city of Mashhad in the northeast.

These are only some of the lengthy sentences handed down by the Iranian regime to countless protesters in the widespread demonstrations that followed the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September.

Protests broke out in scores of cities across Iran, with crowds demanding justice for Mahsa and calling for an end to the regimes oppressive policies.

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Political Detainees In Irans Karaj Prison In 'Dire' Conditions: Exclusive -