Iran

The Iranian regime has gone on the offensive, threatening anyone who supported the recent protests in any way, after a crackdown that News themezone sources say may have killed. about 12,000 peopleand possibly many more. Thousands of people were arrested and are now faces possible death sentences for participating in the demonstrations.

Post-protest retaliation is aimed at scaring people into silence. They include going after companies, money and financial assets linked to anyone deemed to have supported anti-regime protests.

Mohammad Saedinia is a particularly notable example.

He is famous in Iran as the owner of a chain of sweet shops and lively cafes loved by residents of the capital, Tehran, especially young liberals. He also established a popular trading center near the holy city of Qom.

The Qom regional justice department announced on Wednesday that Saedinia had been arrested, accusing him of “calling people to riot and causing chaos.”

Saedinia’s only crime appears to have been closing its cafes at the very beginning of the protests in late December, and making clear in a social media post that it was in solidarity with businessmen – including many vendors in Tehran’s main bazaar – who closed their shops to express their anger at a catastrophic drop in the value of the Iranian currency.

Those demonstrations against the regime’s economic difficulties and dire financial record quickly multiplied into nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic’s own leadership.

Tasnim, a semi-official news agency associated with the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, said on Wednesday that Saedinia’s operating licenses and permits had been canceled and its businesses closed.

Tasnim also quoted Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, as saying that officials in the country’s judiciary were “obliged to identify the properties of ‘terrorists’ and report them to prosecutors.”

It is a powerful warning to all businesses in the country that they must open their doors to trade as normal and keep quiet about the last two weeks of unrest.

The financial threat extends beyond Iran’s business community. The attorney general, who like other Iranian officials refers to the protesters as “terrorists,” demands the confiscation of the assets of anyone linked to the demonstrations, to “teach them a lesson.”

President Trump’s threat taking some yet unspecified measures against the regime hangs on the leaders. On the one hand, they have responded by threatening retaliation against US military installations in the region. On the other hand, this week they seek to show that they are overcoming the riots.

A pro-regime source inside Iran told News themezone on Wednesday that the regime’s public position (repeated on state television) is that the protests were an attempt by the United States and Israel to overthrow the government, “which failed miserably.”

The source called estimates of the death toll “fabricated and false” and insisted that “the situation is now calm and under control for the third day in a row.”