Iran’s protests crushed by state violence, leaving opposition fractured

Iran’s security forces responded to recent protests with overwhelming repression, leaving the country’s opposition grieving, disarrayed and bitterly divided. The reformist president Masoud Pezeshkian initially promised to listen to protesters, but that pledge was quickly superseded as the state moved to silence dissent.

State television has portrayed protesters as drug‑crazed or pawns of foreign powers, while a weeklong communications blackout has left opposition groups cut off and struggling to process the scale of the crackdown. Arash Azizi, author of What Iranians Want, said the response was “the most brutal actions by the Islamic Republic since the 1980s” and that “we almost all knew someone who was killed.” The role of the exiled opposition figure Reza Pahlavi has prompted particular scrutiny.

Critics and commentators say chants for the return of the shah have featured, even as analysts such as Mehrdad Khamenei call it “a paradox of the opposition.” Rouzbeh Parsi said Pahlavi can appear to many Iranians as “little more than a convenient blank page.” Pahlavi presents himself as a cautious, centrist broker and has family ties and a public profile abroad, but opponents say he lacked a realistic plan after urging strikes and promising foreign intervention that did not materialise; some Israeli officials have also expressed scepticism, the reporting says.

Key Topics

World, Iran, Reza Pahlavi, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iranian Security Forces, Communications Blackout