Behind the Headlines/December 14

In tonight’s program of Behind the Headlines we will look at the continuation of the workers strike at the Haft Tapeh Sugar Factory and Ahwaz Steel Plan, as the body of the political prisoner Vahid Sayadi is buried after dying on 60 days on hunger strike.

Also, why has the regime begun a new round of crack down on dissidents as it faces numerous challenges at home and abroad?

Could the economic sanctions bring about any change in the regime?

And what is the ultimate aim of the US on the Iranian regime’s future?

Our guests tonight to discuss these issues are Hassan Shariatmadari and Mohammad Nourizad.

Hassan Shariatmadari:
This regime has been ruling Iran by using two tactics. One is spreading ignorance and backwardness and brain washing of the masses, and another is to crack down on any dissent and terrorise its opponents.
It cannot act rationally because then it will have to be accountable to the population for its decisions and actions at home and abroad, which are all nefarious, and against the interests of the majority of the Iranians.
However, it has now reached a point of collapse as a result of decades of following these tactics as the Iranian people have realised that they have lost everything under it and a small minority of thieves and corrupt people have destroyed their lives and the future of their children.

Mohammad Nourizad:
I could not go to the burial service of Vahid Sayadi but have heard that it was very tense and many security agents were there to stop the procession turn into an anti-regime protest.
It is very telling that nowadays there is a large mural on the walls of some buildings in Tehran inwhich Khomeini is quoted as saying that the Islamic republic regime is the result of the martyrs giving their lives.