Tehran has been plunged into violence as nationwide protests swept across Iran, leaving buildings, buses and shops burned to the ground and turning parts of the capital into what witnesses described as a “war zone.” Demonstrators are demanding the downfall of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, marking one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic in years.
At least 38 people have been killed and more than 2,200 arrested during clashes with security forces, according to human rights groups monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities have not released comprehensive casualty figures.
The turmoil comes as Iran continues to reel from a brief but intense 12-day conflict in June, initiated by Israel, during which US forces bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, further straining an already battered economy and inflaming public anger.
“This looks like a war zone – all the shops have been destroyed,” an Iranian journalist said while reporting from fires on Shariati Street in the northern city of Rasht, a Caspian Sea port.
More than 340 protests have been recorded across all 31 of Iran’s provinces, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The group said the death toll had climbed to at least 41, with arrests surpassing 2,270. HRANA relies on an activist network inside Iran and has a record of accurate reporting during previous unrest.
Assessing the full scale of the demonstrations remains difficult. Iranian state media has largely downplayed or ignored the protests, while journalists face severe restrictions on movement and reporting. Online videos circulating on social media show only brief, often chaotic scenes of crowds, fires and gunfire.
Despite warnings from the country’s leadership, the protests show no sign of abating. Last Saturday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei declared that “rioters must be put in their place.”
The unrest was initially sparked by economic grievances, particularly the collapse of Iran’s currency. The rial has lost significant value, driving up prices for staple foods such as meat and rice. Inflation is running at around 40 per cent annually, squeezing households across the country.
In December, the government introduced a new pricing tier for subsidised gasoline, raising fuel costs in a country long accustomed to some of the cheapest petrol in the world. Authorities have said fuel prices will now be reviewed every three months, raising fears of further increases.
Food prices are also expected to rise after Iran’s central bank ended a preferential exchange rate for most imports, retaining subsidies only for medicine and wheat.
The protests began with demonstrations by merchants and traders in Tehran before spreading nationwide. While initially focused on economic hardship, chants soon turned overtly political, echoing years of simmering anger, particularly since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Iranian authorities imposed a nationwide internet blackout on Thursday, according to monitoring group NetBlocks. Connectivity dropped to about 1 per cent of normal levels, leaving Iranians inside the country largely cut off from the outside world.
“Live metrics show Iran is now in the midst of a nationwide internet blackout,” NetBlocks said, describing it as part of “escalating digital censorship measures” aimed at suppressing protests and obscuring reports of violence. Iranians living abroad said they were unable to contact family members amid the shutdown.
In his first address since the unrest began, Ayatollah Khamenei said the Islamic Republic would not “back down,” accusing protesters of acting on behalf of foreign powers. “The Islamic Republic will not tolerate mercenaries working for foreign enemies,” he said. Addressing the United States, he added: “Focus on the problems in your own country.”
Khamenei insisted the state was founded on sacrifice and would not yield to what he called “saboteurs.”
The unrest comes at a precarious moment for Iran’s regional influence. Its so-called “Axis of Resistance” has been weakened in recent months. Hamas has been battered in Gaza, Hezbollah’s leadership has been decimated by Israeli strikes, and a December 2024 offensive toppled Iran’s longtime ally in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad. Iranian-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have also come under sustained Israeli and US attacks.
Meanwhile, Iran’s nuclear programme remains a major point of international concern. Tehran had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels prior to the June US strikes, prompting warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran could rapidly build multiple nuclear weapons if it chose to do so.
Iran insists its programme is peaceful and recently claimed it had halted uranium enrichment at all sites, signaling openness to renewed negotiations. However, no significant talks have followed the June conflict.
Iranian officials have blamed the unrest on “terrorist agents” backed by the United States and Israel. Khamenei accused protesters of destroying their own cities to “please foreign leaders.”
US President Donald Trump warned that Washington was “watching very closely” and said the US would respond if Iranian authorities violently suppressed demonstrators. “If they start killing people like they have in the past,” Trump said, “they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States.”
Iran’s confrontation with the US stretches back decades. Once a close American ally under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s monarchy collapsed in the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Later that year, the US embassy in Tehran was seized, triggering a 444-day hostage crisis and a permanent rupture in diplomatic ties.
Relations have oscillated between hostility and limited diplomacy ever since, peaking with the 2015 nuclear deal before Washington’s withdrawal in 2018 reignited tensions. Now, amid economic collapse, international isolation and mounting internal unrest, Iran’s leadership faces one of its gravest tests in decades.
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