Iran has once again entered a familiar and dangerous moment. Since late December, protests that began over soaring prices, unpaid wages and deepening economic despair have turned into the most widespread and politically explicit uprising the country has seen since 2022.

What started as anger at empty refrigerators and collapsing livelihoods has transformed into open calls for the end of the Islamic Republic itself. Demonstrations have spread far beyond Tehran, cutting across provinces, ethnic lines and social classes, while the Iranian diaspora has poured into the streets of cities from Lyon to Los Angeles. Slogans are no longer cautious or coded — they are direct, angry and revolutionary.

This time, the regime looks weaker than it has in years. Western sanctions have tightened further, oil revenues are constrained, inflation is punishing ordinary households and the currency has lost much of its value. Israeli airstrikes in June 2025, aimed at military and strategic targets, have added to a sense of vulnerability that the leadership has struggled to conceal.

Iran’s regional posture of strength is also under severe strain. Allies and proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine are either severely weakened or fighting for survival, exposing the limits of Tehran’s influence and draining resources at home. For many Iranians, the promise that regional power would translate into dignity and prosperity has long since collapsed.

The regime’s response has followed a grimly predictable script. Internet shutdowns, mass arrests and live ammunition are once again being used to terrorise the streets into silence. Some human rights organisations are estimating that more than 500 protesters have already been killed. State television beams images of hundreds of thousands of regime loyalists chanting rehearsed slogans, while the Supreme Leader dismisses the protesters as foreign agents.

Beneath this performance of defiance lies a system under real........

© National Herald