IN SPITE of an almost complete news blackout from the British legacy media, it is still possible to stay in touch with events in Iran via social media as the protests there continue uninterrupted.
In the absence of coherent, structured coverage, impressions count as much as anything, and it seems to me that as I watch the videos day-on-day, the crowds are getting larger and new locations keep popping up.
Here is a video posted from Bojnord, a small city in Iran close to the northern border with Turkmenistan. The people, I am told, are shouting to take back their Iran.
After a break of several days, the BBC has finally deigned to publish a piece on the protests, taking in events up to the end of Wednesday, citing a report from the US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) which has the unrest spreading to 111 cities and towns across all 31 provinces in the country.
That seems to be an increase on the number I reported on Monday, when I had a source talking of 78 cities in 26 provinces. A different source, also citing HRANA, has protests and labour strikes spreading to 285 locations across 92 cities in 27 provinces by the tenth day, so the indications are that the protests are spreading.
With no reporters on the ground, the BBC is having to dip into the same pool as the rest of us, and is therefore no better informed, but it’s useful to have its material to augment my own tracking. In particular, the BBC refers to footage from the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas showing protesters chanting ‘police force, support, support’ before security forces disperse them.
The security response is hardly surprising as Bandar Abbas is a new port developed with Chinese money. It is a key hub for discounted Iranian oil flowing to China in exchange for Chinese investment, infrastructure and goods. With the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) main naval base also sited there, one would expect a sharp response.
To the east, on the border with Iraq, lies the oil town of Abadan. A video shows a large crowd in the street. Later, security forces are shown shooting directly into the protesters – not an uncommon sight, replicated in many other videos in different locations – with 35 deaths confirmed to date. The real number of deaths is probably higher.
However, in Iran’s second-largest city, Mashhad, security forces are said to have lost control of some districts, with police, IRGC and intelligence agents fleeing the scene.
Some videos show hesitation and passivity among regular police forces when confronting protesters. However, IRGC, intelligence and Basij units (IRGC volunteers) continue the crackdown. Analysts say defections and passivity within repression forces could play a significant role in the expansion of protests.
Overall, a summary report confirms that protests are increasing and, significantly, demonstrations are increasingly taking place during daylight hours. Videos show greater organisation and larger crowds.
Part of the protests include a shopkeepers’ strike, and the eleventh day saw bazaar merchants going on strike in 28 cities. For the first time the Tabriz bazaar, the second-largest in the country, joined the strikes. The trend suggests that bazaar strikes may expand further in the coming days. In addition, workers at the South Pars gas refinery – a vital source of regime revenue – walked off the job. It remains to be seen whether strikes will spread to Iran’s oil and gas sectors more broadly, but if they do it will cause the regime considerable economic damage.
To keep the momentum going, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah, has called for nationwide protests. While the Wall Street Journal thinks that the protests aren’t yet large enough to topple the regime, the combination of the regime’s undeniable failures and new American pressure raises the chances. This isn’t 2009, the paper says, when Barack Obama stayed mute to appease the Ayatollah.
American help, without going as far as direct military intervention, can include providing strike funds and secure communications for protesters, while severing communications of regime thugs and encouraging defections. US cyber and intelligence can help with ‘levelling the battlefield’ for unarmed civilians facing an armed regime.
On the other hand, days after I reported it, the Times has confirmed the presence of US military aircraft at RAF Fairford, as well as at the US bases in Suffolk of RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath. These assets may not be idle for long.
Aware of the possibility of a US strike, Iran’s army chief, Major General Amir Hata, is reported to be threatening pre-emptive military action. In response to Trump’s threats to intervene, he said: ‘I can say with confidence that today the readiness of Iran’s armed forces is far greater than before the war. If the enemy commits an error, it will face a more decisive response, and we will cut off the hand of any aggressor.’
Despite the rhetoric, intelligence sources suggest that there have been no immediate public signs of Iran preparing for an attack. What the regime has done is to pay citizens the equivalent of £5 a month to subsidise rising costs for food essentials such as rice, meat and pastas. Nevertheless, shopkeepers warn prices for basic items such as cooking oil will probably triple under pressure from the collapse of Iran’s rial currency and the end of a preferential subsidised dollar-rial exchange rate for importers and manufacturers. This is likely to fuel further popular anger.
According to the Washington Post, citing the New York-based Soufan Center think tank, ‘more than a week of protests in Iran reflects not only worsening economic conditions, but longstanding anger at government repression and regime policies that have led to Iran’s global isolation’.
If this is a statement of the obvious, it also underlines the deep-rooted causes of the unrest, confirming the general view that the protests are not likely to end soon.
In a rare offering two days ago, the Daily Telegraph ran a piece by Iran dissident Maryam Rajavi, leader of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran and the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Under the heading ‘Tehran’s brutal regime will be overthrown’, she asserts that ‘Iran has reached an exceptional moment’ and declares: ‘There is no way for the clerical regime to return to its previous state and equilibrium or to escape uprising and overthrow.’ She says the resistance network is expanding across the provinces, and the younger generation are joining the movement in growing numbers.
In previous uprisings, she remarks, the West merely watched, which benefited the regime. This time, she says, it must stand with the people of Iran and explicitly recognise the right of the people and the organised resistance to confront the crimes of the IRGC and to overthrow the regime.
Given the silence of the British media, and the absence of comment from Sir Keir Starmer, the signs are not good this side of the Atlantic, but if US President Donald Trump is prepared to do another Venezuela, things could change very rapidly. With the temperature rising, things must surely be coming to a head.
This article appeared in Turbulent Times on January 8, 2026, and is republished by kind permission.
