Over the weekend, as the world watched Trump’s Venezuela intervention unfold, the Iran protests reached a full week. While AFP and others have reported in some locales clashes between demonstrators and police, which have, after entering day nine, left 12 people dead, including members of security forces, it is clear that this wave of largely economic-driven protests has yet to reach the size of the 2022 ‘anti-hijab’ protests.
Protests have hit 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces, leading to around 1,000 arrests – and there have been some signs of the usual mayhem: in some instances, cars or buildings burned, governors’ offices broken into, and sporadic reports of live fire. Still mainstream Western press has admitted the following in reference to the prior 2022 ‘anti-hijab’ protests: “While smaller in scale, the latest protests pose a fresh challenge to the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following a brief war with Israel in June that damaged nuclear facilities.”
Deutsche Welle cites Norway-based rights groups Hengaw and Iran Human Rights, who recently reported that four Kurdish protesters were killed on Saturday in Malekshahi county (in Ilam province), with dozens more injured.
Iranian media has been focused on the killing of at least one member of the security forces by “rioters” – and details surrounding the deaths and injuries of other protesters remain murky. While there have clearly been some isolated instances of violence, it must be remembered that the Islamic Republic is geographically large for the region and has 90+ million people.
The lingering big question of whether the protests will be sustained or spread, amid a collapsing currency and soaring prices, has not stopped President Trump from reiterating tough threats directed at Tehran leaders. He told reporters aboard Air Force One that Iran will get “hit very hard” by the United States if further protesters were killed.
“We’re watching it very closely. 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,” he said without providing further details.
This time, the warning hinted more strongly in the direction of a military response, after last week he said something similar but somewhat vague – that he would come to the protesters’ “rescue” if they start being killed. Big on everyone’s mind following Venezuelan President Maduro’s capture is: will Iran be next?
There’s little question that Israel’s Netanyahu hopes so, after reports that in last month’s Mar-a-Lago meeting, the Israeli prime minister lobbied Trump to go after Iran’s ballistic missile program. For this reason and others, Tehran authorities continue to allege a foreign hidden hand which seeks to exploit the current crisis.
Iran’s head of the judiciary has released a fresh statement warning of no leniency to “rioters” while saying that peaceful individuals have a right to air their grievances in public.
“I instruct the attorney general and prosecutors across the country to act in accordance with the law and with resolve against the rioters and those who support them… and to show no leniency or indulgence,” Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei was cited in the judiciary’s Mizan news agency as saying.
At the same time authorities have cast a cloud of suspicion over the protests, linking them to the US and Israel
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