{"id":236999,"date":"2026-01-14T06:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/236999\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T06:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T06:03:10","slug":"iran-protests-what-we-know-so-far-about-the-spiralling-anti-government-demonstrations-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/236999\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran protests: what we know so far about the spiralling anti-government demonstrations | Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Escalating protests have swept through Iran<\/a> in recent weeks, sparked by an economic crisis that has evolved into a widespread anti-government movement, and one of the most destabilising episodes of unrest the Iranian regime has faced in years.<\/p>\n

Despite the internet blackout, reports have emerged that at least 2,000 people have been killed during the demonstrations, with hundreds of protesters sustaining gun shot wounds to the head and eyes<\/a>. The Iranian government has accused the US of seeking to manufacture a pretext for military intervention, as US president Donald Trump has pledged that \u201chelp is on its way\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is what we know so far:<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has said the US \u201cwill take very strong action\u201d against Iran if the regime starts to execute people as part of their crackdown on the spiralling protests. Trump told CBS News: \u201cWhen they start killing thousands of people \u2013 and now you\u2019re telling me about hanging. We\u2019ll see how that\u2019s going to work out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old man arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, according to the Iranian Kurdish rights group, Hengaw. Authorities had told the family that the death sentence was final, Hengaw reported, citing a source close to the family.<\/p>\n

The US president has urged the protests to continue, and again suggested US military action could follow. \u201cIranian Patriots, keep protesting \u2013 take over your institutions!!! \u2026 help is on its way,\u201d Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, a day after the White House press secretary said airstrikes were among \u201cmany, many options\u201d the US president was considering.<\/p>\n

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the protests \u2013 more than 90% of whom were demonstrators \u2013 and over 16,700 people have been arrested, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.<\/p>\n

Doctors in Iran have described overwhelmed hospitals and emergency wings overflowing with protesters who had been shot. One ophthalmologist in Tehran has documented more than 400 eye injuries<\/a> from gunshots in a single hospital.<\/p>\n

The US state department has said US citizens should leave Iran<\/a> now and \u201cif safe to do so, consider departing Iran by land to Armenia or T\u00fcrkiye\u201d. The US virtual embassy for Iran<\/a> says citizens should \u201cplan alternative means of communication\u201d due to \u201ccontinued internet outages\u201d and \u201chave a plan for departing that does not rely on US government help\u201d.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump announced that he was cancelling meetings with Iranian officials \u201cuntil the senseless killing\u201d stops, signalling a possible breakdown in de-escalation efforts. Trump is expected to receive a briefing on Tuesday night on the scale of casualties in Iran.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX is offering people in Iran free internet through Starlink\u2019s satellite service, according to Bloomberg News<\/a>, as the internet blackout in the country surpassed the five-day mark.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s envoy Steve Witkoff met in secret with Reza Pahlavi, the exiled former Iranian crown prince, last weekend, Axios reported. A senior US official told the outlet the pair discussed the protests. In previous messages that have been blocked by the Iranian government internet shutdown, he has said that he is ready to lead a transition.<\/p>\n

In response to Trump\u2019s social media post that \u201chelp is on the way,\u201d Iran\u2019s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said the US president was inciting violence, threatening the country\u2019s sovereignty and security and seeking to destabilise the government. \u201cThe United States and the Israeli regime bear direct and undeniable legal responsibility for the resulting loss of innocent civilian lives, particularly among the youth,\u201d he wrote in a letter to the UN security council.<\/p>\n

Russia on Tuesday condemned \u201csubversive external interference\u201d in Iran\u2019s internal politics, saying any repeat of last year\u2019s US strikes would have \u201cdisastrous consequences\u201d for the Middle East and international security.<\/p>\n

Britain, France, Germany and Italy all summoned Iranian ambassadors in protest over the crackdown. \u201cThe rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,\u201d European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen posted on X. Underscoring international uncertainty over what comes next in Iran, which has been one of the dominant powers across the Middle East for decades, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believed the government would fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Escalating protests have swept through Iran in recent weeks, sparked by an economic crisis that has evolved into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-236999","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}