Iranian authorities are moving quickly to launch a new project designed to make it possible to cut the country off from the global internet completely and for extended periods, according to information obtained by Iran International.
Some personnel at the US military’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar were advised to leave by Wednesday evening, Reuters reported, as Iran warned regional countries that it would strike US bases on their soil if Washington attacks Iran.
The events of the past two weeks in Iran point toward an openly regime-change movement, with protesters calling for the end of the Islamic Republic itself.
What is unfolding in Iran is a clash between a state that treats isolation and sacrifice as strategic virtues, and a society no longer willing to bear the economic and human cost of the Islamic Republic’s ideological and regional ambitions.
I am writing this from Tehran after three days of trying to find a way to send it: things may get a lot worse before they get any better.
Armed security forces surrounded hospitals and government buildings in the city of Karaj after several days of deadly unrest and, in some cases, shot wounded protesters who could not move, witnesses and medical workers said.
At least 12,000 people have been killed in Iran in the largest killing in the country's contemporary history, much of it carried out on January 8 and 9 during an ongoing internet shutdown, according to senior government and security sources speaking to Iran International.
A video circulated by Iran’s state media to promote pro-government rallies has gained wide traction online, with social media users questioning its authenticity and pointing to apparent inconsistencies, reflecting broader public mistrust of official messaging.
Several foreign influencers supportive of the Islamic Republic have published content portraying life in Tehran as calm despite an escalating deadly crackdown on protests across the country amid an internet blackout.
Tehran on Monday conducted large pro-government rallies in several cities intended to counter the nationwide protests challenging its rule, in a strategy it has deployed against previous bouts of mass unrest ultimately crushed by deadly force.
As Iran steps up a deadly crackdown on nationwide demonstrations, some analysts warned that if US President Donald Trump does not act on his vow to protect protestors, the unrest he helped galvanize may be stamped out.
As Tehran faces its sharpest internal challenge since the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests, the ruling elite’s ability to withstand sustained popular protests now rests not only on domestic coercion but increasingly on backing from Moscow.
Iran International
Institute for National Security Studies
Iran International
International Security and Law Analyst
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
Iran International
There is a cruel ritual in Iranian opposition politics: some voices abroad constantly interrogate the “purity” of activists inside—why they did not speak more sharply or endorse maximalist slogans, why survival itself looks insufficiently heroic.
The Iran projected on social media these days—brunch parties, rooftop concerts, fashion shows—is real, but only as a tiny fragment of the country’s reality, where most ordinary people struggle to make ends meet.
