Iran suspends internet access as protests rise across the country
Iran has suspended access to the internet amid growing economic protests across the country due to economic hardship.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio early Saturday doubled down on U.S. aid to Iranian protesters as the current administration cracks down on growing unrest in the country.
The protests in Iran are the largest in years, targeting the theocratic government in place since 1979. Citizens had long endured the economic costs of international sanctions against the regime, but took to the streets in December as inflation exceeded 40%.
At 12:30 a.m., Rubio posted on social media: “The United States stands by the brave people of Iran.”
President Trump said on January 2 that the United States would come to the rescue if “Iran shoots or violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their habit.” In early January 9, President Trump warned Tehran in comments to reporters: “It better not start shooting because we’re going to start shooting too.”
As of January 9, Iranian human rights groups said they had recorded 65 deaths, including 50 protesters and 15 security personnel. Norway-based human rights group Hengau said more than 2,500 people had been arrested in the past two weeks.
Iranian authorities arrested 100 so-called “armed insurgents” in a town near Tehran overnight, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said. In a statement broadcast by state television, security forces known for counter-insurgency condemned terrorists who targeted military and law enforcement bases over the past two nights.
In videos and images that have slipped through Iran’s internet censors, protesters call for the overthrow of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the return of the exiled son of Iran’s last king, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi.
Pahlavi is based in Virginia and supports protesters. “Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. Our goal is to prepare to capture and hold the heart of our cities,” he wrote on social media less than an hour before Rubio’s post.
“I am also preparing to return to my homeland, so that when the national revolution is won, I will be by your side in the great country of Iran,” Pahlavi said. “I think that day is near.”
Khamenei said on January 9 that rioters were attacking public facilities, warned that the Iranian government would not tolerate those who act as “mercenaries for foreigners” and accused the protesters of acting on behalf of President Trump.
The leaders of France, Britain and Germany also issued a joint statement condemning the killing of protesters.
Contributor: Reuters, Kim Helmgaard, Joey Garrison
