Understanding the Latest Protests in Iran: Key Insights

A deadly crackdown by Iran’s government appeared to have largely suppressed protests that began in late December over economic woes but broadened into a mass movement challenging the country’s authoritarian clerical rulers. A communication blackout and a flow of disinformation have made it hard to independently assess what is going on inside Iran. But on Sunday, state media reported plans for a limited, gradual return of internet services. Protests on the streets of Tehran, the capital, have been largely stamped out in recent days, according to several witnesses and a human rights group. Thousands of people have been killed, including security forces, according to a senior Iranian health ministry official, as the demonstrations were brutally repressed by Iranian authorities. Eyewitnesses and human rights groups say government forces fired on protesters in cities across the country. President Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily in Iran to stop the killing of protesters, and on Saturday said the country needed “new leadership.” But he has also expressed willingness to negotiate with the Iranian government, and there is little clarity on what the United States might do next. On Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, alleged that the United States had “launched” the protests “to serve their own objectives.”