What to know about Iran’s deadly protests as government cuts off internet
Global News
Economic pressure, which has intensified since September when the United Nations reimposed sanctions, has sent Iran's rial currency into a free fall.
Nationwide protests in Iran sparked by the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy are putting new pressure on its theocracy, which has responded with a deadly crackdown and shutting down the internet.
Tehran is still reeling from a 12-day war launched by Israel in June that saw the United States bomb nuclear sites in Iran. Economic pressure, which has intensified since September when the United Nations reimposed sanctions on the country over its atomic program, has sent Iran’s rial currency into a free fall, now trading at over 1.4 million to US$1.
Meanwhile, Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” — a coalition of countries and militant groups backed by Tehran — has been decimated since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters” the U.S. “will come to their rescue” — a threat that has taken on new meaning after American troops captured Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
“We’re watching it very closely,” Trump has warned. “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.”
Here’s what to know about the protests and the challenges facing Iran’s government.
More than 600 protests have taken place across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported Tuesday. The death toll has reached at least 646, it said, with more than 10,700 arrests. The group relies on an activist network inside of Iran for its reporting and has been accurate in past unrest.
The Iranian government has not offered overall casualty figures for the demonstrations. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll, given that the internet is blocked in Iran. Iranians could dial abroad with their mobile phones Tuesday after restrictions were lifted.
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Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after authorities blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as video showed buildings and vehicles ablaze in anti-government protests raging through the streets of several cities. In a televised address, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to back down, accusing demonstrators of acting on behalf of...
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The protest represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father fled Iran just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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