Behnam Ben Taleblu: Iran's Mass Protests Are A 'Social Revolution' Against Clerical Rulers
Iran has witnessed the biggest protests against the country’s clerical rulers since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In response, the authorities have waged their deadliest-ever crackdown on street protests, killing thousands of people, according to human rights groups.
The widespread killing of protesters has led to the United States threatening possible military action against the Islamic republic.
RFE/RL’s Kian Sharifi interviewed Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, about whether Iran’s clerical rulers will survive this latest round of protests and Washington’s possible response to the unrest.
RFE/RL: You’ve said these protests are different. What makes them stand out?
Behnam Ben Taleblu: It’s the latest incarnation of anti-regime protests that are trying to push past the paradigm of the Islamic republic in its entirety, but very acutely different: The nationalism in them has grown significantly, with crowds calling for exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi by name; these are the first multiday, multicity nationwide uprisings months after the [Israel-Iran] 12-day war, when external observers predicted [that Iranians would] rally around the flag. Instead, you see regime flags taken down and even burned, alongside other symbols.
Protester resiliency persists despite violent crackdowns after the [2022] Woman, Life, Freedom movement and the inability of the diaspora to organize. Many thought this combination would have a chilling effect on the will of Iranian protesters to risk coming out onto the streets again for years to come.
I think the level of discontent coupled with the failures of the government on the economic front and on the environment front across 2025 plus the military defeat in the 12-day war really was a cocktail of forces that made the current round of protests qualitatively different. And I think we can analytically say [this is] the most potent challenge from the street against the state in the past four decades [since] the Islamic Revolution.
RFE/RL: This round of protests has seen the deadliest crackdown yet on street protesters. Do you see the Islamic republic surviving this, or is this it?
Taleblu: No doubt there's been boom-and-bust cycles of protests in years past, but it's still too soon to tell. The situation on the ground is very fluid, and much rides on the nature, if any, of external intervention and how it's read as dampening or driving future rounds.
But make no mistake. The social revolution has already happened against the Islamic republic. All that Iranians are waiting for is commensurate political change in Tehran. When and how [that happens] remains unclear. What is clear is the bravery of the Iranian people and their willingness to bear high levels of violence from this state, including at rates never before seen in four-plus decades of protests against this regime.
Read the rest of the interview here.
800 Executions 'Halted' Yesterday, Says Trump Spokeswoman
Up to 800 executions scheduled by Iranian authorities on January 14 were halted, a White House spokeswoman said, as she declined to rule out US intervention.
Karoline Leavitt told reporters on January 15 that Donald Trump “understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted”, adding that the Trump administration was “closely monitoring the situation”.
She said the US president had warned the Iranian regime there would be "grave consequences" if the killing of protesters continued.
“All options remain open,” she added.
Reuters: 4 Arab States Worked To Avoid US-Iran Escalation
Reuters is reporting that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, and Egypt engaged in intense, behind-the-scenes diplomacy with Washington and Tehran this week to avert a threatened US military strike on Iran over its use of force against protesters, which Gulf officials feared could destabilize the wider region.
The efforts took place over roughly 48 hours before US President Donald Trump Trump appeared to signal on January 14 that he was holding off on military strikes for now, saying he had been told the killings in Iran’s protest crackdown were easing, but he did not rule out future action.
According to a Gulf official speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, the four Arab states warned Washington that any strike on Iran would carry serious security and economic repercussions across the region, ultimately affecting US interests as well.
They also cautioned Tehran that retaliation against US facilities in the Gulf would damage Iran’s relations with neighboring countries, the official said.
Iranians Around The World Protest Mass Killings In Iran
Protests have been held in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and in other cities around the world to denounce the mass killing of protesters in Iran. Exiled Iranians and supporters have demonstrated outside their country's' embassies following a brutal crackdown on anti-government rallies. (RFE/RL's Georgian Service, Tea Topuria, Will Tizard)
Beheadings And Industrial Drugs: The Bizarre Reasons Iranian Officials Are Giving For The Deaths Of Protesters
Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh has claimed that the protesters were given "industrial drugs" and that some of those killed "had consumed so many drugs that they died without any complications."
Nasirzadeh also said that most of the victims "were killed by stabbing and strangulation" and that "nearly 60 percent of them were killed by blows close to the head."
The claims echo the statements -- many of them bizarre -- that other Iranian officials have given to explain how so many protesters died. For example, Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have claimed, without providing any evidence, that Islamic State methods such as "beheading" were being used during the protests -- although it is unclear by whom. Other officials attributed the violence and killings of protesters to "terrorists."
These claims contradict the abundance of footage that shows security officers shooting protesters, plus postmortem images showing gunshot wounds to victims' bodies.
In comments carried by state media, the defense minister also attributed the violence to US and Israeli agents, adding: "We are monitoring the enemy's supply lines for equipment and are ready to confront them. We will not allow this threat to reemerge in a new form."
They've 'Killed A Mountain Of People': Iranians Leaving Country Describe Scale Of Crackdown
Iranians leaving their country spoke to RFE/RL about the scale of the deadly crackdown on protests. The death toll is at more than 2,600 demonstrators, according to the US-based human rights monitor HRANA. But many groups fear the number is far higher. The interviewees, who remain anonymous for safety reasons, have recently traveled outside Iran, where a digital blackout continues to block access to the Internet. (RFE/RL's Radio Farda, RFE/RL's Armenian Service, RFE/RL's Tajik Service)
It's now been a week since the Internet blackout began in Iran, according to the NetBlocks digital rights monitor.
US Sanctions Iranian Officials Over Brutal Crackdown
On January 15, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States had imposed sanctions on Iranian officials and banking networks, accusing them of violently cracking down on protests and laundering oil revenues.
"At the direction of President Trump, the Treasury Department is sanctioning key Iranian leaders involved in the brutal crackdown against the Iranian people," Bessent said in a statement.
"Treasury will use every tool to target those behind the regime's tyrannical oppression of human rights."
Iranian authorities have waged one of the most brutal crackdowns ever after people across the country took to the streets in anti-government protests seen as one of the biggest challenges to clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Read more here.
Canada's foreign minister has announced the death of one of the country's citizens in the Iran protests.
Mourners Chant 'Death To Khamenei' At Funeral Of 16-Year-Old Protester
Video footage from the funeral of Alireza Seydi, a 16-year-old boy who was killed in the nationwide protests, shows a large crowd chanting slogans against Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to reports, Seydi, who is from Abdanan, a city in southwestern Iran, was shot dead on January 9 during protests in Tehran.
At Seydi's funeral, which was reportedly held on January 11, mourners are heard on the video chanting "Death to Khamenei."
RFE/RL has verified that the footage was captured in Abdanan at the Martyrs of Abdanan cemetery. However, the exact date on which the footage was recorded could not be independently confirmed.
Due to the internet and telecommunications blackouts, as well as the government's refusal to provide statistics, the exact number of deaths is still unknown. As of January 14, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights organization had confirmed 3,428 deaths, while the US-based HRANA rights group verified 2,435 so far.