For more than two weeks now, anti-government protests have been taking place in various cities across Iran. The demonstrations began in protest against the rapid depreciation of Iran’s national currency, the rial, against the US dollar over the course of December. It should be recalled that on December 10, 2025, the dollar exchange rate reached one million Iranian rials for the first time, and by December 31 it had risen to 1.4 million rials. The sudden and sharp decline in the currency’s value has caused serious difficulties in the banking sector and the broader economy, as well as panic among the population.
Reports indicate that as a result of the use of force by Iranian authorities against demonstrators, at least around 200 protesters have been killed. At the same time, several members of law enforcement agencies are also reported to have been killed, including the prosecutor of the city of Esfarayen in Khorasan Province. In addition to the police and the Basij paramilitary militia, the Iranian leadership has deployed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to suppress the protests. It should be noted that the use of IRGC forces indicates that the protests have reached a serious scale.
Internet access and telephone communications have been significantly restricted across the country.
In general, Iran experiences mass protest movements every few years under various slogans. However, the current demonstrations have a somewhat different character due to international factors. In particular, Israel and the United States state that following the strikes they carried out against Iran in June 2025, Iran has been attempting to rebuild its military capabilities, especially its missile potential, and that they will not allow this to happen. US President Donald Trump has declared that the United States would strike Iran if government forces use force against demonstrators. The operation conducted by the United States against Venezuela—one of Iran’s key allies—and the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro lend additional credibility to Trump’s threats. However, for now, there is no information in open sources about the United States deploying additional forces to the region.
In a statement made yesterday, Iran’s 86-year-old leader Ali Khamenei said that the authorities would not back down and would take all necessary steps to defend the political system they had built “at the cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of people.”
The Daily Baku editorial team
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