Iran protest movement subsides in the face of 'brutal' crackdown

The protest movement in Iran has subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands under an internet blackout, monitors said Friday, one week after the start of the biggest protests in years challenging the Islamic Republic's theocratic system.

The threat of new military action by the United States against Iran has also appeared to have receded for the time being, with a Saudi official saying Gulf allies have persuaded President Donald Trump to give the Iranian leadership a "chance."

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 clerical 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, and activists say is aimed at masking the scale of the crackdown.

The repression has "likely suppressed the protest movement for now,” said the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, which has monitored the protest activity.

But it added: "The regime's widespread mobilisation of security forces is unsustainable, however, which makes it possible that protests could resume."

Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) says 3,428 protesters have been verified to have been killed by security forces, but warns this could be a fraction of the actual toll.

Its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said authorities under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have "committed one of the gravest crimes of our time".

He cited "horrifying eyewitness accounts" received by IHR of "protesters being shot dead while trying to flee, the use of military-grade weapons and the street execution of wounded protesters."

Lama Fakih, programme director at Human Rights Watch, said the killings since last week "are unprecedented in the country."

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.

AFP