{"id":492718,"date":"2026-01-04T22:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/492718\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T22:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T22:31:16","slug":"what-to-know-about-protests-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/492718\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about protests in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Widening protests in Iran sparked by the Islamic Republic\u2019s ailing economy<\/a> are putting new pressure on its theocracy. <\/p>\n

Tehran is still reeling from a 12-day war launched by Israel<\/a> in June that saw the United States bomb nuclear sites<\/a> in Iran. Economic pressure, which has intensified since September when the United Nations reimposed sanctions<\/a> on the country over its atomic program, has put Iran\u2019s rial currency into a free fall, now trading at some 1.4 million to $1. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s self-described \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d<\/a> \u2014 a coalition of countries and militant groups backed by Tehran \u2014 has been decimated in the years since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023. <\/p>\n

A threat by U.S. President Donald Trump warning Iran<\/a> that if Tehran \u201cviolently kills peaceful protesters\u201d the U.S. \u201cwill come to their rescue,\u201d has taken on new meaning after American troops captured Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, a longtime ally of Tehran. Iran has installed a banner in Tehran warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take military action there.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about the protests and the challenges facing Iran\u2019s government. <\/p>\n

How widespread the protests are <\/p>\n

Demonstrations have reached over 170 locations in 25 of Iran\u2019s 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early Sunday. The death toll had reached at least 15 killed, it added, with more than 580 arrests. The group, which relies on an activist network inside of Iran for its reporting, has been accurate in past unrest. <\/p>\n

Understanding the scale of the protests has been difficult. Iranian state media has provided little information about the demonstrations. Online videos offer only brief, shaky glimpses of people in the streets or the sound of gunfire. Journalists in general in Iran also face limits on reporting such as requiring permission to travel around the country, as well as the threat of harassment or arrest by authorities. <\/p>\n

But the protests do not appear to be stopping, even after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> on Saturday said \u201crioters must be put in their place.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Protesters<\/p>\n

Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP, File)<\/p>\n

Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP, File)<\/p>\n

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Why the demonstrations started<\/p>\n

The collapse of the rial has led to a widening economic crisis in Iran. Prices are up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table. The nation has been struggling with an annual inflation rate of some 40%.<\/p>\n

In December, Iran introduced a new pricing tier for its nationally subsidized gasoline<\/a>, raising the price of some of the world\u2019s cheapest gas and further pressuring the population. Tehran may seek steeper price increases in the future, as the government now will review prices every three months.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A man fills his car at a gas station in Tehran, Iran, Dec. 13, 2025. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi, File)<\/p>\n

A man fills his car at a gas station in Tehran, Iran, Dec. 13, 2025. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi, File)<\/p>\n

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The protests began first with merchants in Tehran before spreading. While initially focused on economic issues, the demonstrations soon saw protesters chanting anti-government statements as well. Anger has been simmering over the years, particularly after the 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini<\/a> in police custody that triggered nationwide demonstrations.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s alliances are weakened <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s \u201cAxis of Resistance,\u201d which grew in prominence in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, is reeling. <\/p>\n

Israel has crushed Hamas in the devastating war in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group in Lebanon, has seen its top leadership killed by Israel<\/a> and has been struggling since. A lightning offensive in December 2024 overthrew Iran\u2019s longtime stalwart ally and client in Syria, President Bashar Assad<\/a>, after years of war there. Yemen\u2019s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels also have been pounded by Israeli and U.S. airstrikes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Venezuelan ally Maduro is in U.S. custody. Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry has condemned the \u201cillegal U.S. attack against Venezuela.\u201d U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth likened the attack to the U.S. strikes in Iran last year, saying that \u201cMaduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance.\u201d He added that adversaries of the U.S. should \u201cremain on notice\u201d that \u201cAmerica can project our will anywhere, anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n

China meanwhile has remained a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, but hasn\u2019t provided overt military support. Neither has Russia, which has relied on Iranian drones in its war on Ukraine. <\/p>\n

The West worries about Iran\u2019s nuclear program<\/p>\n

Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials have increasingly threatened to pursue a nuclear weapon<\/a>. Iran had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels prior to the U.S. attack in June, making it the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so. <\/p>\n

Tehran also increasingly cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, as tensions increased over its nuclear program in recent years. The IAEA\u2019s director-general has warned Iran could build as many as 10 nuclear bombs<\/a>, should it decide to weaponize its program. <\/p>\n

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has \u201cundertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An Iranian security official in protective clothing walks through part of the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan, on March 30, 2005. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi, File)<\/p>\n

An Iranian security official in protective clothing walks through part of the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan, on March 30, 2005. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi, File)<\/p>\n

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Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium<\/a> at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. But there\u2019s been no significant talks in the months since the June war.<\/p>\n

Why relations between Iran and the US are so tense<\/p>\n

Iran decades ago was one of the United States\u2019 top allies in the Mideast under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi<\/a>, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah\u2019s rule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule. Then came the Islamic Revolution<\/a> led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which created Iran\u2019s theocratic government.<\/p>\n

Later that year, university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran<\/a>, seeking the shah\u2019s extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed.<\/p>\n

During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s<\/a>, the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein. During that conflict, the U.S. launched a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea as part of the so-called \u201cTanker War,\u201d<\/a> and later shot down an Iranian commercial airliner<\/a> that the U.S. military said it mistook for a warplane.<\/p>\n

Iran and the U.S. have seesawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, and relations peaked with the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran greatly limit its program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord<\/a> in 2018, sparking tensions in the Mideast that intensified after Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Widening protests in Iran sparked by the Islamic Republic\u2019s ailing economy are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":492719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[97,3881,13224,396,64,69,79,57,4527,83,3461,99,3462,15123,92550,6986,402,367,23929,15122,16816,618,2053,1206,67,132,68,96,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-492718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-ap-top-news","10":"tag-bashar-assad","11":"tag-bombings","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-hamas","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-iran-government","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-israel-government","21":"tag-mohammad-reza-pahlavi","22":"tag-nicolas-maduro","23":"tag-pete-hegseth","24":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","25":"tag-religion-and-politics","26":"tag-ruhollah-khomeini","27":"tag-saddam-hussein","28":"tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","29":"tag-taxes","30":"tag-tehran","31":"tag-united-nations","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-war-and-unrest","36":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115839204753864189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}