Iran Politics & Protests Watch

The 2026 protest suppression has inflicted a stark cultural toll, with musicians, actors, and other artists among those killed by security forces.

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• Trump's condemnation: The US president called Iran's unpaid military segments and unprecedented protester killings a "humanitarian crisis of epic...

• Tehran telecom retirees rallied outside the Communications Ministry, demanding wage adjustments and 2019 regulations while targeting major...

• Pressure advocates see economic warfare plus military strikes as uniquely timed to spark uprisings amid regime weakness.
• Skeptics argue the...

Fresh US sanctions triggered long fuel queues across Tehran on Tuesday, with residents voicing fears of renewed economic pain and possible protests. Officials announced reduced petrol quotas while the public braced for tighter living costs.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched an "economic D-Day" campaign targeting Iran's oil, shipping and financial networks to sever regime...

Iranian authorities are expanding their crackdown toolkit with mosques as command centers and armed teenage biker gangs as enforcers.

• Tehran...

Iran's approach to hijab enforcement reveals deep strategic tensions between crackdowns and caution.

• Police have shuttered dozens of cafes for...

US Treasury Secretary Bessent launched “Operation Economic Outcast,” sanctioning over 60 entities across digital assets, technology, gold, aviation,...

Treasury Secretary Bessent unveiled Operation Economic Outcast, threatening secondary sanctions on countries supporting Iran as the war approaches its...

• Economic hardship deepens: Inflation hits nearly 90% as ordinary Iranians resort to credit for food and face unaffordable insulin amid power cuts.
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President Pezeshkian defended the US memorandum as the best path beyond "neither war nor peace," while security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned that...

France's expulsion of Iran's cultural adviser Niloufar Shadmehri has drawn sharp criticism from Tehran as an unjustifiable move that harms bilateral...

Iran executed Majid Adineh at dawn in Karaj, the 29th January protester killed since March, after accusing him of "operational action" for the US,...

• Rezaei's pledge: Top security chief Mohsen Rezaei vowed to “neutralize the economic war” with the US while signaling an offensive shift
• Economic...

Iran executed another man detained during January protests near Karaj, accused of acting for Israel, the US and hostile groups while allegedly firing...

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defends the June 2026 US-Iran MOU as a major win, claiming all binding commitments fall on Washington and accusing...

Former Yarsani political prisoner Pouya Naderi was shot dead by Iranian police in Kermanshah just months after his 2019 protest-related release,...

IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi's public praise for state broadcaster IRIB amid its clashes with President Pezeshkian and Speaker Ghalibaf underscores...

• Iranian women have defied mandatory hijab since the 1979 revolution, with protests intensifying after 2017 and Mahsa Amini's death.
• Regime...