Politics
Iran protest movement subsides after waves of unrest
- Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s late shah, says govt will fall.
- Netblocks says internet blackout lasted over 180 hours.
- Tasnim reports rioters torched education office in Isfahan.
Tensions in Iran have subsided after three weeks of protests under an internet blackout, monitors said on Friday, a week after the start of the largest demonstrations in years challenging the country’s rulers.
The son of Iran’s late shah, however, said he was confident the government would fall and called for intervention, though the threat of new military action by the United States against Iran has appeared to have receded for the time being.
Protests sparked by economic grievances started with a shutdown in the Tehran bazaar on December 28 but turned into a mass movement demanding the removal of the system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.
People started pouring into the streets in big cities from January 8, but authorities immediately enforced a shutdown of the internet that has lasted over a week.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s late shah, told a news conference in Washington that the government “will fall — not if, but when.”
“I will return to Iran,” he said.
Monitor Netblocks said that the “total internet blackout” in Iran had now lasted over 180 hours, longer than a similar measure that was imposed during the 2019 protests.
Amnesty International said this was being backed up by the use of heavily armed patrols and checkpoints to counter nationwide protests, with security forces visible in the streets.
‘Give Iran a chance’
Trump, who backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June, had not ruled out new military action against Tehran and made clear he was keeping a close eye on if any protesters were executed.
But a senior Saudi official told AFP on Thursday that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman led “a long, frantic, diplomatic last-minute effort to convince President Trump to give Iran a chance to show good intention”.
While Washington appeared to have stepped back, the White House said on Thursday that “all options remain on the table for the president”.
Attention had focused on the fate of a single protester, Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old who rights activists and Washington said was set to be executed as early as Wednesday.
The Iranian judiciary, however, said Soltani had not been sentenced to death, and his charges meant he did not risk capital punishment.
Rights groups have estimated that up to 20,000 people have been arrested. Security officials cited by the Tasnim news agency on Friday said around 3,000 people were arrested.
‘All Iranians united’
The US Treasury on Thursday announced new sanctions targeting Iranian officials including Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, held telephone talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in what the Kremlin described as “efforts to facilitate de-escalation”.
At the UN Security Council in New York, Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, invited to address the body by Washington, said “all Iranians are united” against the government in Iran.
Iran’s representative at the meeting Gholamhossein Darzi accused Washington of “exploitation of peaceful protests for geopolitical purposes.”
There were, however, indications of unrest in some areas.
The state-affiliated Tasnim news outlet reported that rioters set fire to a local education office in Falavarjan County, in central Isfahan Province, on Thursday.
An elderly resident of a town in Iran’s northwestern region, where many Kurdish Iranians live and which has been the focus for many of the biggest flare-ups, said sporadic protests had continued, though not as intensely.
Describing violence earlier in the protests, she said: “I have not seen scenes like that before.”
The state-owned Press TV cited Iran’s police chief as saying calm had been restored across the country.
Tasnim news also reported what it described as the arrest of a large number of leaders of recent riots in the western province of Kermanshah, and the arrest of five people accused of vandalising a gas station and a base belonging to the Basij in the southeastern city of Kerman.
GENEVA: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has said that killings such as the reported death of Ali Khamenei raise serious concerns under international human rights law.
Speaking to reporters, Turk said that from a human rights perspective, any form of killing is unacceptable.
“From a human rights perspective, any killing of anyone is not in the interest of international human rights law,” he said.
Strike on Girls’ School Raises Concern
Turk also addressed reports of a strike on a girls’ school in Minab, a city in southern Iran, during the first day of US and Israeli attacks.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, claimed that the attack killed around 150 students, although the figure has not been independently verified.
The UN rights chief stressed that schools are civilian institutions and should never be targeted during armed conflicts.
Call for Independent Investigation
Turk called for an impartial investigation into the incident to determine the circumstances surrounding the strike, including the type of weapon used and the timing of the attack.
He said responsibility now lies with those who carried out the strikes to ensure a transparent inquiry.
Meanwhile, US officials told media that military investigators are examining the possibility that American forces were responsible, though the investigation has not yet reached a final conclusion.
The incident has intensified international concern about civilian casualties and humanitarian law violations as the conflict in the region continues to escalate.
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department published additional FBI documents describing interviews with a woman who said President Donald Trump sexually assaulted her after she was introduced to him by Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents had not been made public under previous congressionally-mandated file releases related to the late convicted sex offender because they were mistakenly marked “duplicative,” the department said.
Democrats are investigating the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
The documents released include descriptions of multiple 2019 interviews the FBI held with the woman, who alleged she was assaulted by both Epstein and Trump while she was between 13 and 15 years old.
In one interview, the woman said Epstein took her to “either New York or New Jersey” and introduced her to Trump.
The woman said she and people close to her received threatening calls over the years demanding she keep quiet that she believed were related to Epstein.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to the Epstein allegations, and the Justice Department previously said some of the documents it has released “contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump.”
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of covering up details of the Epstein investigation that could negatively impact Trump.
On Wednesday, a House committee voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions about the Justice Department´s handling of the documents.
- Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashes during training.
- Jet went missing after taking off from Jorhat airbase.
- Dead pilots identified as Sq Ldr Anuj, Flight Lieutenant Duragkar.
Two pilots from the Indian Air Force (IAF) were killed after a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet crashed in India’s northeastern state of Assam, NDTV reported, citing officials.
The Indian Air Force said on Friday that a fighter jet, which was on a training mission, crashed in the northeast Indian state of Assam.
“The Su-30MKI, which was on a training mission, crashed in the area of Karbi Anglong, Assam, approx 60 km from Jorhat,” the Indian Air Force said on X.
The aircraft had gone missing shortly after taking off from the Jorhat airbase. Communication with the Russian-origin fighter jet was lost at 7:42pm, according to officials.
The crash occurred in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, around 60 kilometres from the airbase. The aircraft reportedly went down in a remote hilly area.
The IAF identified the deceased pilots as Squadron Leader Anuj and Flight Lieutenant Purvesh Duragkar.
“All personnel of the IAF express sincere condolences, and stand firmly with the bereaved family in this time of grief,” the Air Force said in a post on X.
Local residents in the area said they heard a loud explosion from a nearby hill and saw a ball of fire shortly afterwards.
India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said he was “deeply saddened” by the loss of the two pilots in the “tragic” crash.
The Sukhoi Su-30MKI is a two-seater, long-range fighter aircraft developed by Russian manufacturer Sukhoi. It is produced under licence in India by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the IAF.
The aircraft was first inducted into the Indian Air Force in 1997, and the service currently operates a fleet of more than 260 Su-30MKI jets.
Similar incidents have occurred in recent years. A Sukhoi fighter jet crashed in Nashik, Maharashtra, in June 2024, while another Su-30 aircraft crashed in January 2023 shortly after taking off from the Gwalior airbase in Madhya Pradesh.
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