WASHINGTON, DC – A series of new protests could occur throughout Iran if millions of citizens feel empowered by President Donald Trump’s decision to walk out of the Iran nuclear deal, according to Mideast experts.
“I think it will result in more protests against the regime, which is the objective,” Barak Seener, the CEO of Strategic Intelligentia, told Breitbart News.
However, he added, “It makes no difference,” if these protests take place “because it’s the regime that’s squeezing the people because millions of dollars that were released to the regime never went to the people. The economy developed dramatically when money was available. But the regime had other priorities, which were not in the favor its people.”
“Instead,” he concluded, “they chose to foster their proxies and bolster their military.”
The protests that took place throughout over 100 cities in Iran on December 28 resulted in the arrest of thousands of civilians and dozens of deaths. The uprising began in protest against inflation and lack of work opportunities but quickly turned into calls from a disgruntled population for the regime to end its funding of foreign proxy wars abroad at the expense of its civilian population.
“Half the population is in support of us pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal because they know the Iranian regime squandered the $150 billion they received,” Michael Pregent, an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Breitbart News. “And as you look at targeted sanctions against the regime, the goal is to try to shield the Iranian people as much as possible.”
Pregent said the sanctions will focus on the supreme leader’s assets, and specifically the shell company Setad holdings, which the supreme leader controls, and the Central Bank of Iran, which funds the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC): “We delisted it under the Iran deal and it allowed Europe to benefit from it. The Iranian people aren’t benefiting from it anyway.” READ MORE
