Israelis and Iranians have been cast as enemies for so long, but during Iran’s uprisings their voices tell a different story as Iranians drew a line between themselves and the Islamic Republic.
President Donald Trump on Thursday delivered a characteristically ambiguous message on Iran, pairing talk of overwhelming military force with renewed signals that he may still favor a negotiated deal.
Reza Bahmani Alijanvand, a 34-year-old Iranian protester, disappeared after attending protests in the central Iranian city of Shahin Shahr on January 8, and was later found dead in the cold storage of a cemetery, people familiar with the matter told Iran International.
Rights groups and activists are sounding the alarm over what they describe as a widening campaign of pressure, arrests and intimidation against Iranian doctors and nurses who treated injured protesters.
As Iranians mourn those killed in the nationwide crackdown, state-aligned voices are falling back on familiar defenses: downplaying the toll, casting the protests as a foreign plot, and stripping victims of civic status by branding them religious enemies.
Iran International has documented the deaths of more than six thousands people during recent protests in Iran whose names do not appear on an official government list published over the weekend.
Iran International has recorded more than 6,000 names that have not been included on the list published by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Britain on Monday imposed a new round of sanctions on Iranian officials and a state security body, targeting those it said were responsible for violent crackdowns on peaceful protests.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that Tehran was ready for diplomacy and said he hoped there would be results soon, as Iran weighs possible talks with the United States.
A leaked Tasnim memo seen by Iran International shows the IRGC media apparatus sought to manipulate narratives around the protests and crackdown, undermine exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi, and frame the uprising as foreign-driven – not rooted in public anger at the Islamic Republic.
Detainees in Iran are being forcibly injected with unknown substances inside detention facilities, according to eyewitness testimonies, informed sources and human rights monitors who warn of a growing pattern of deaths among current and former prisoners.
A mocking segment aired on Iran’s state television about the bodies of protesters killed in January has sparked public outrage and renewed calls, including from Islamic Republic loyalists, for the removal of the head of the national broadcaster.
Accounts from grieving families, medics and rights groups point to a grim pattern in Iran’s crackdown: wounded protesters were not just denied care but deliberately shot again in hospitals or removed alive and later killed.
When Iran cuts off internet access, millions are plunged into more than digital silence. Mental health experts say the blackouts intensify anxiety, isolation, and trauma in a society already under extreme strain.
Iran’s central bank has begun distributing the country’s largest banknote, a 5 million-rial (about $3.10) Iran-cheque, as the national currency continues to weaken and cash transactions require ever-higher denominations.
Iran’s currency has lost half its value in just six months and is now at risk of losing its role as both a store of value and a functioning currency, as households and businesses increasingly shift prices, savings, and expectations toward the US dollar.
Two explosions in southern Iran killed at least seven people and injured more than a dozen on Saturday, with officials blaming gas leaks, residents questioning the claim, and Israel denying any involvement.
Security forces were given free rein to use lethal force during the January 8–9 crackdown to spread fear and deter further protests in Iran, a senior government official said in a closed-door meeting, according to a source familiar with the talks.
Tehran appears to have taken the US military buildup near Iran seriously, but shows no sign of softening its rhetoric or accepting Washington’s terms while it explores limited diplomatic channels.
With US military assets building up across the Middle East and Washington warning Tehran that “time is running out,” a former Israeli military spokesperson says US strikes on Iran now appear increasingly likely.
Decision-making circles in the United States and Israel have moved past diplomacy with Iran, viewing military action as effectively decided, with only the timing still under debate, a Western source familiar with coordination talks told Iran International.