Iran regime has failed citizens, US, France say
GOVERNMENT POLICIES ARE MAKING COST OF LIVING IN IRAN UNBEARABLE, EXPATS SAY
Trump, Macron agree demonstrations were a sign of Tehran’s failure to serve its people’s needs |
U S President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke about Iran on Saturday, the White House said yesterday.
“The Presidents also agreed that the widespread demonstrations in Iran were a sign of the Iranian regime’s failure to serve its people’s needs by instead diverting the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism and militancy abroad,” the White House said in a statement.
Trump’s sentiments were echoed by Iranian expatriates in Los Angeles who took to the streets in droves Sunday.
Kevin Hoor emigrated from Iran a decade ago, and told the
Los Angeles Times that the price of groceries, housing and gas in his home country has sharply increased. Young people there are facing a dearth of economic opportunities and many residents are living in poverty.
‘It’s not habitable’
“People cannot live over there — it’s not habitable,” said Hoor, a 38-year-old resident of the Los Angeles district of Encino. “You cannot afford your basic needs, like food, like housing.”
Hoor was one of about 2,000 demonstrators who descended on the district of Westwood on Sunday afternoon to show support for anti-regime protests that erupted in Iran late last month.
Some waved or wrapped their bodies with Iranian flags, while others held up signs that read ‘Free Iran’.
They chanted in Farsi and English as they marched past the federal building on Wilshire and through surrounding neighbourhoods in west Los Angeles, home to a large Iranian expatriate community commonly referred to as ‘Tehrangeles’.
The uprising in Iran began December 28 in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, and spread quickly to more than 30 other cities, showing the deep frustration among workingclass Iranians coping with high unemployment, rising prices and official corruption.
“They’re suffering from poverty, absolute poverty, that exists in Iran because of the not appropriate policies of the government,” Hoor said.
“We are living in a very different, very safe country — we cannot feel their suffering. This is the least we can do to show we’re with them.”
Demonstrators gathered at the federal building about 1pm. Los Angeles police had expected a crowd of about 2,000, and officers at the event said it appeared about that many people showed up. Some protesters followed the group with plastic bags, picking up trash as officers guided traffic.
Also demonstrating was Nanaz Baghai, a doctor who said she left Iran in 1976. She said she was marching on Sunday for women’s rights and education for all in Iran, and against government corruption.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to help democracy,” she said.
We are living in a very different, very safe country — we cannot feel their suffering. This is the least we can do.” Kevin Hoor | Iranian expatriate