Hezbollah, Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi helping Iran quash protests
Arabic-speaking men have been filmed violently beating protesters in Iran.
By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Updated: OCTOBER 16, 2022 14:07
Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraq’s Has’d al-Shaabi have been seen helping Iran’s Basiji forces crackdown on protesters across the country.
According to sources, plain-clothes men with Lebanese-accented Arabic were seen trying to suppress riots in various cities in Iran, including in the capital of Tehran. They are in addition to the hundreds of troops belonging to the police, Basiji, and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps who have been central in trying to quash the protests.
Iran has been engulfed in widespread protests against the regime since mid-September after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was killed in police custody after she was detained by the country’s morality police for not properly wearing a hijab.
Hezbollah on the Iran protests
In early October, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah referred to Amini’s death as a “vague incident” and that the protests rocking the country are not reflective of the true will of Iranians.
“The Iranian state is a target and so any incident is exploited… to incite against this state,” he said. “This vague incident was exploited and people took to the streets.”
Ongoing protests in Iran
While it is unclear exactly how many protesters have died since the protest broke out, its believed that over 200 people have been killed. Videos and pictures on social media show security forces firing live fire into crowds as well as violently beating protesters.
According to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights organization, some 20 people who were killed were minors.
Several Basiji forces have also been killed in the protests and dozens more injured.
Past use of proxies in Iran
Though rare, Iran used Hezbollah and other Arabic-speaking proxies to help quash protests.
According to a report in BBC Persian, during protests in 2009 riot police and plain-clothes officers with Arabic accents were seen cracking down on Iranians who were demonstrating against the results of the presidential election.
The report said that the men were believed to be from Hezbollah or Palestinian terror groups like Hamas. Both groups rely heavily on Tehran for funding and weapons.
Despite economic hardships facing its own citizens, Iran sends over $1 billion USD to its proxy groups, including over $500 million USD to Hezbollah in Lebanon, hundreds of millions to the Houthis in Yemen, over $100 million USD to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and tens of millions of dollars to pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.
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