Iran’s supreme leader has now openly acknowledged what the Islamic Republic has spent weeks trying to obscure from the world. In remarks carried by Iranian state media on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted that “several thousand deaths” had occurred during Iran’s latest wave of nationwide protests, while blaming the United States and Israel for the bloodshed.
Protesters, he declared, were “criminals,” “mercenaries,” and mohareb (enemies of God) – a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law. For over four decades, the Islamic Republic has relied on a familiar formula for survival. It begins with repression at home, then blames foreign intervention, and waits for the world to hesitate. When Iranians protest corruption or inflation, the regime’s response is lethal force. And when the death toll mounts, Tehran redirects responsibility outward, confident that international outrage will stop short of any consequential acts. This is one way the regime has firmly held on to power.
The current unrest represents the most serious challenge to the regime since the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, and arguably since the Islamic Republic’s inception in 1979. Human rights organizations estimate that more than 16,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands arrested – the official death rate is currently at 5,000. Internet access has been repeatedly cut to prevent coordination between protesters and to obscure the scale of the crackdown. (Read More)
