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.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has affirmed that several countries have initiated mediation efforts to halt the brutal, imposed war waged against the Islamic Republic by the United States and the Israeli regime.
In a post on the social media platform X on Friday, President Pezeshkian said, “Some countries have begun mediation efforts and our response to them is clear.”
He stressed that these efforts must target the true aggressors, the US and Israel, who launched this unprovoked aggression.
He reiterated Iran’s unwavering commitment to “lasting” peace in the region, declaring, “Yet we have no hesitation in defending our nation’s dignity, sovereignty, and the rights of our great people.”
The president emphasized that any genuine mediation must confront those who underestimated the resilience of the Iranian nation and deliberately ignited this war through their criminal attacks.
The US and the Israeli regime unleashed a new wave of savage aerial aggression against Iran on February 28, barely eight months after their previous unprovoked assaults on the country.
These barbaric strikes resulted in the martyrdom of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei—a profound loss for the Islamic Ummah and a heinous crime against humanity.
In response, the Iranian government declared 40 days of national public mourning and seven days of official holidays to honor the Supreme Leader’s martyrdom and rally the nation in unity and resolve.
These latest aggressions came even as Tehran and Washington had engaged in three rounds of indirect negotiations in the Omani capital of Muscat and the Swiss city of Geneva, with plans underway for technical talks in Vienna, Austria—demonstrating Iran’s consistent pursuit of diplomacy despite relentless hostility.
Unyielding in the face of this aggression, Iran has launched powerful and precise retaliatory barrages of missiles and drones targeting military sites in the Israeli-occupied territories and US bases across the region, exercising its legitimate right to self-defense and sending a clear message that the Iranian nation will never submit to bullying or occupation.
Satellite images show that several US military radars in the UAE and Jordan have been successfully hit by Iranian missiles and drones as the Iranian Armed Forces continue a retaliatory campaign against American and Israeli aggression.
New images from several military installations across the Arabian Peninsula suggest that Iran has focused on disabling the radar infrastructure that forms the backbone of US-supplied missile systems.
One such radar, supporting an American THAAD missile battery at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, appears to have been hit and destroyed in the opening days of the war, according to satellite imagery captured Monday.
The base lies more than 500 miles from Iran, underscoring the reach of Tehran’s retaliatory operations.
Similar damage has also been detected in the United Arab Emirates.
Satellite analysis shows that buildings housing radar-related infrastructure were struck at two locations—near Ruwais and Sader—between February 28 and March 1.At least three structures in Ruwais and four in Sader sustained visible damage, including pull-through vehicle sheds typically used to store radar systems linked to THAAD batteries.
The radar component is considered a critical element of the high-end missile interceptor system, enabling the detection and tracking of incoming ballistic missiles and drones. Without it, the interceptor batteries’ ability to respond to threats is significantly degraded.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) earlier said such strikes were part of its expanding Operation True Promise 4, a campaign launched in retaliation for the unprovoked US-Israeli aggression.
“With the successful destruction of more than seven advanced radars, the eyes of the US and the usurping Zionist regime in the region have been blinded,” the IRGC said in a statement on Wednesday, announcing the 17th stage of the operation.
The latest developments come after the United States and Israel launched a new round of aggression against Iran on February 28, eight months after earlier unprovoked attacks against the country.
The strikes has led to the martyrdom of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and more than 1,200 civilians, including women, children and senior military commanders.
Iran responded swiftly, unleashing waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli-occupied territories and US bases across the region.
Iranian officials insist the war was imposed on the country and say their ongoing military campaign is a legitimate act of self-defense aimed at neutralizing the infrastructure used to sustain further aggression.
- US refrains from commenting on alleged Russian support.
- Officials say information includes locations of US warships.
- Russia says it was in dialogue with representatives of Iran.
Russia is providing Iran with targeting information that includes locations of US warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing three officials familiar with the intelligence.
The extent of Russia’s support to Iran was not entirely clear, but the Iranian military’s own ability to locate US forces has been degraded since the US and Israel launched strikes against Tehran last week, the Washington Post reported.
The war has since escalated, triggering retaliatory strikes by Iran, and ensnared its neighbours as it seeks to impose a high cost on the US, Israel and their allies.
The US military has identified six reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait when a drone slammed into a US military facility in Port Shuaiba. Trump and other senior officials have warned the conflict will likely result in more US military deaths.
A White House spokesperson did not directly comment on the alleged Russian support to Iran.
“The Iranian regime is being absolutely crushed. Their ballistic missile retaliation is decreasing every day, their navy is being wiped out, their production capacity is being demolished, and proxies are hardly putting up a fight,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement, responding to questions from Reuters.
Russia was in dialogue with representatives of Iran’s leadership, the Kremlin said on Friday. It declined to provide details when asked by reporters whether Moscow was helping Tehran.
The conflict has been an unexpected shot in the arm for Russia, with a significant bump in demand for its oil and gas, boosting exports battered in recent years by sanctions linked to its war in Ukraine. The United States has given Ukraine intelligence information during its war with Russia.
The Russian Embassy in Washington and Russia’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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