Iran on the Brink?

By
Richard C. Young
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By Lila Patel @ Adobe Stock

Massive protests are underway in Iran. Is the country’s Islamic regime about to crack, or will it successfully navigate another flare-up as it has so many times before? The Daily Mail describes what’s happening on the ground in Iran, writing:

Iran is facing its biggest protests in years as videos shared on social media show huge demonstrations against the hardline Islamic regime in Tehran and other cities around the country.

The movement, which began in Tehran in late December after the value of the Iranian rial plunged to record lows, has rapidly advanced across the country and is now being marked by larger-scale demonstrations in 348 towns and cities across all 31 of Iran’s provinces.

The widespread protests have left Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, already battling an economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering from the June war against Israel, deeply rattled as they are the biggest and most sustained the country has seen in years.

Trump threatened yesterday to take severe action against Iran if its authorities ‘start killing people’, warning Washington would ‘hit them very hard’.

But a defiant Khamenei said he would ‘not back down’ from his government’s crackdown on protesters, who he described as ‘vandals’ and ‘saboteurs’, in a speech broadcast on state TV.

According to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, Iran’s security forces had murdered at least 45 people, including eight children, since protests began.

It added that Wednesday was the bloodiest day of demonstrations, with 13 protesters confirmed to have been killed in a single day.

‘The evidence shows that the scope of the crackdown is becoming more violent and more extensive every day,’ said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding that hundreds more have been wounded and more than 2,000 arrested.

Iranian media and official statements have reported at least 21 people, including security forces, killed since the unrest began.

Read more here.

Trump addressed Iran in an interview with Sean Hannity last night:

Iranians have been on the streets in great numbers, sometimes in violent clashes with regime forces.