Crisis in Iran

OMG, Voldemort has that shit eating grin. I've seen this look before.

Crisis in Iran

by Sam Sifton and Evan Gorelick, NY Times

Jan 13, 2025

Antigovernment protests have engulfed the streets of Iran. And government forces are killing the protesters in droves.

The demonstrations began two weeks ago in the bazaars of Tehran — the historic heart of Iran’s economy — when the Iranian rial plunged to a new low against the U.S. dollar. The fall unleashed a wave of anger against the government: My money’s worth less. The protests have since spiraled into a wholesale revolt against the country’s authoritarian clerical rulers. Protesters are marching in the capital, at universities and in impoverished towns.

Over the past few days, as government forces have tried to quash the protests, the confrontations have gotten bigger and more violent. Although Iran’s government has shut down the internet and frozen phone service, videos transmitted through the blackout and verified by The Times show corpses lined up in body bags outside hospitals. Human rights groups have confirmed the deaths of more than 500 protesters so far — and dozens of government personnel. But the true toll may be much higher, they say, and we won’t know for sure until the internet returns.

President Trump warned over the weekend that the U.S. military might intervene to support the protesters if the violence continued. Iran’s government said yesterday that it was ready for a war but open to negotiating.

On the ground

Iranians have been challenging their theocratic rulers on and off for more than a decade. They protested in 2009, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Each time, government security forces have responded with crackdowns.

Still, some of our colleagues reporting on Iran — among them Erika Solomon, Sanam Mahoozi and Sanjana Varghese — managed to talk to 10 protesters by phone.

The calls did not come easily. As Erika told us yesterday, The Times does not have reporters in Iran right now. “It’s important to be clear that we are still getting a very fragmented picture of what is happening,” she said.

There have been blackouts before, though Erika says this is one of the worst she has seen. “When people get access, which is usually very sporadic,” she continued, “they will send us audio notes sharing what happened to them or answering questions we previously wrote out to them on mobile texting applications like WhatsApp or Telegram.” Everyone proceeds carefully. As Erika noted, “These are sources that we trust and who trust us to keep them safe, often people we’ve spoken to for many years.”

Because people are terrified. The Times’s Farnaz Fassihi and Malachy Browne spoke with Parisa, a 35-year-old Tehran resident who witnessed the violence of the government response on Friday night. From their story:

Four security agents swarmed a middle-aged man and his teenage son who had been standing at a corner, cheering on the crowd and joining in the antigovernment chants. The officers opened fire, killing the father, said Parisa, who asked that her last name not be published out of fear of retribution.

The son screamed, his cries mingling with the crowd’s, as some fled and others began cursing and throwing rocks at the security forces. Parisa said that she had noticed the man bending down to fix his shoe, adding that perhaps the security forces had believed he was reaching for a weapon. But she saw none.

The violence has spread far from Tehran, the capital. Videos verified by The Times show armed men shooting down empty streets in two other Iranian cities, an apparent effort to intimidate residents and would-be protesters. Security forces also fired tear gas at worshipers exiting a mosque.

Iran’s president said on Sunday that he was working to address protesters’ anger over the economy. Earlier, the government said it planned to provide most citizens with a monthly payment equivalent to around $7 in a bid to help. But Iran’s supreme leader vowed that the government would “not back down” from the protests. Tehran’s public prosecutor said that those involved in clashes with security forces could face death by hanging.

Trump weighs in

Over the weekend, Trump said that the U.S. might be ready to intervene.

Asked by reporters whether Iran’s leaders had crossed a red line, he replied: “It looks like it. There seems to be some people killed who weren’t supposed to be killed.” He did not go into detail, but added: “We’re looking at it very seriously, the military’s looking at it. And there’s a couple options.”

Trump has repeatedly threatened to use lethal force against the Iranian government for its efforts to suppress demonstrations. “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” he wrote on social media on Saturday. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”

Yesterday, officials said that Trump was exploring possibilities for diplomacy while considering whether to attack.

Iran is weaker than it used to be. The nation was once the center of a powerful network of anti-Western forces across the Middle East — including in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza — but its regional power has contracted over the past two years as Israel has decimated Hezbollah and Hamas. In June, Israeli missiles rained down on Tehran, killing some of the country’s military leaders and nuclear scientists, and hundreds more civilians. American bombers pounded key nuclear facilities to the south.

Iranian officials blame the U.S. and Israel for the current unrest, claiming that they have supported “terrorist” teams that have infiltrated the protests, killing both protesters and government personnel to stoke more violence.

Some experts call the crisis the most serious challenge to Iran’s clerical rule since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.