Alex Winston

“The Islamic Republic turned the streets into rivers of blood. No one has been able to show the depth of the crimes, because the regime shut down the internet," one anonymous citizen wrote.

"You are an anti-Iranian criminal,” the crown prince said. “You have neither honor nor humanity. Your hands are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of Iranians."

Trump claims to have called off strikes on Iran's supreme leader back in June 2025. Now the protesters in Iran hang in the balance as he appears to give Khamenei another lifeline.

IRAN AFFAIRS: The Islamic Republic no longer commands moral authority, historical superiority, or generational loyalty to the Iranian people, and its founding narrative is collapsing.

When Iranians themselves are beaten, imprisoned, and brutally murdered as they stand in the streets, they do not look to Brussels or Paris. They look to the two actors the regime itself fears most.

"This cycle of horrific violence cannot continue. The Iranian people and their demands for fairness, equality and justice must be heard," Volker Turk said.

Major demonstrations began on December 28, when Tehran's bazaar merchants closed their shops and took to the streets in anger over the country's growing financial difficulties.

He asserted that he had received “reliable reports” indicating the authorities were facing “a severe shortage of mercenaries to confront the millions of people in the streets.”

Iran condemns “the ongoing, unlawful, and irresponsible conduct of the United States of America, in coordination with the Israeli regime," Iran’s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani wrote.

The demonstrations, which began in Tehran last month, have spread to all of Iran's 31 provinces but have yet to reach the scale of the 2022-3 unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.