Iran Insights

Iranian officials have begun publicly blaming one another and foreign foes for ongoing unrest across the country, exposing sharp divisions in Tehran on one of the greatest challenges yet to the Islamic Republic.

The Western Iranian province of Ilam has emerged as one of the epicenters of nationwide protests, with some of the deadliest confrontations yet between demonstrators and security forces.

Iran may not be Venezuela, but the Islamic Republic may at its most vulnerable point in its near 50-year existence as pressure builds from the streets, foreign intelligence services and inside the clerical establishment, analysts told Iran International.

State media in Iran are portraying the country as calm, even as rights groups and videos emerging from streets point to expanding protests and intensifying repression.

Tehran’s plan to distribute cash handouts to nearly the entire population appears aimed at calming protests driven by relentless price increases. Whether it will work remains an open question.

A new photo of US President Donald Trump posing with a “Make Iran Great Again” hat is ramping up suspense over US intentions as protests there which Trump vowed to protect are being met with deadly force.

The seizing of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro by US forces over the weekend has sharpened debates in Tehran about President Donald Trump’s endgame in Iran, as anti-government protests across the country enter a second week.

As protests once again ripple across Iran, the country’s political establishment is moving quickly to revive an economic reform agenda that many Iranians say no longer speaks to the core of their anger.

Tehran’s response to the protests this week has looked markedly different, whether out of calculation or necessity, with Iranian media reporting on the unrest, the government striking a conciliatory tone and the internet remaining largely accessible.

Iran’s theocracy exits 2025 battered yet still standing, with analysts telling Eye for Iran that Tehran is interpreting survival after a punishing war with Israel, regional losses and domestic strain as grounds for taking greater risks in 2026.

A series of rare viral videos by Iranian police officers describing severe financial hardship has triggered widespread reaction, with retractions by officers involved fueling allegations of pressure.

Cafés—and the social life that has grown around them—have become the latest battleground for Iran’s hardliners, who increasingly see their control over everyday behavior slipping out of reach.

A cluster of former officials and pundits in Tehran has sought to downplay the likelihood of a US-backed Israeli strike on Iran, arguing that Washington has little appetite for such military action.

A rare on-air admission of economic collapse by a senior Iranian official this week briefly pierced the state’s carefully managed narrative—only to be reinforced hours later by leaked budget talks revealing how little financial room the government actually has.

President Massoud Pezeshkian’s call for “unity” and “national reconciliation” has collided with Iran’s power structure, becoming a one-way street in which concessions flow to hardliners while the president gains little in return.

Tehran’s recent gestures of apparent flexibility—from looser enforcement of the hijab to an embrace of nationalist symbolism—recall moments in Communist history when a brief opening exposed risks the system ultimately moved to contain.

As Tehran grapples with a mounting mix of economic strain and public disillusionment, talk of constitutional reform is resurfacing among political insiders who say they have not entirely abandoned the idea that change from within is still possible.

Changes to how YouTube presents ads has dealt a sharp blow to Iranian content creator revenues while bringing mercifully fewer ads to ordinary viewers of the banned but wildly popular video app.