Iranians gather to protest unannounced electrical outages across Iran on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 (Via iranintl.com).
Iranians suffered a second day of widespread, unannounced power outages on Tuesday, as temperatures soared into triple digits. Thousands took to the streets in cities across Iran, including near the capital of Tehran, in protest against the regime.
Chanting slogans such as, “Down with [Supreme Ayatollah] Khamenei,” “Death to Khamenei,” and “Down with [President} Raisi,” demonstrators gathered in front of government-run utility buildings on Tuesday, as the outages disrupted payment systems used by businesses, home air conditioning and refrigeration, and even medical equipment used at hospitals, resulting in reports of patient deaths. Running water was also impacted by the outages, as water pumps were unpowered, causing a health crisis for Iranians with no air conditioning and no access to stores in sweltering heat. Video footage was uploaded to social media showing the arrest and assault of unarmed demonstrators by state security forces.
A Wire source in the Iranian underground church reported that the outages were at least partly caused by hundreds of thousands of computers imported into Iran from China to mine cryptocurrency, which is used as a means to circumvent economic sanctions. Instead, the massive scale of crypto mining created a heavy strain on the Iranian power grid, which was unable to accommodate the increased demand during times of peak electrical usage.
We would ask the global Maranatha family to continue in prayer with us for the people of Iran. The combined effects of government repression, economic sanctions, state mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now widespread power outages, have all combined to create a firestorm of despair and discontent. We pray for God to use every trial that the Iranian people are facing for His glory in the salvation of Iranians, and that His Spirit would embolden the underground churches to minister among the harassed and helpless across Iran
Maranatha.
