Iran’s leadership has “zero answers” to the population’s “very legitimate” demands, and its brutal crackdown on nationwide protests will shape society for years to come, a UK panel has heard.
The regime in Tehran is “perhaps the most insular and least qualified in the history of the Islamic Republic,” Iranian-American Washington Post columnist Jason Rezaian told a webinar organized by London-based international affairs think tank Chatham House.
Thursday’s event, titled “The Islamic Republic at 44” and attended by Arab News, was moderated by Sanam Vakil, Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program deputy director.
It included Rezaian; Azadeh Pourzand, director of the Siamak Pourzand Foundation, which promotes freedom of expression for artists, writers and journalists; and Kian Tajbakhsh, senior adviser for Columbia Global Centers, which are research outposts established by Columbia University in different locations worldwide.
Rezaian and Tajbakhsh, both dual nationals, have faced political persecution and imprisonment in Iran at different times.
Rezaian described the protests that erupted in Iran last year as “unprecedented.” The standard of living and quality of life in the country have “plummeted across the board,” he said.
“There’s no coming back” from the regime’s brutal crackdown, Rezaian added, referring to the killing of innocent people, including children, and the stifling of Internet access nationwide.
Source: IMFAT