Iran's Inflation Protests Turned Into an Uprising. Will Trump Get Involved? |
Iran
Matthew Petti | 1.12.2026 1:57 PM
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who made Iran an Islamic republic in 1979, famously said that revolution was "not about the price of watermelons." He held economics in contempt as the science of feeding donkeys. As his successor, Ali Khamenei, is learning, people will make a revolution about the price of watermelons. Demonstrations against inflation in late December have become some of the most violent unrest in Iran since the 1979 revolution.
The country has been under a total communications blackout since January 8, but the information that has emerged from Iran indicates that there has been a massive, bloody crackdown. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a nonprofit in Virginia, has verified 483 civilian deaths and 47 deaths of police and military personnel. On Sunday, Iranian state television broadcast video from a morgue in Tehran overflowing with bodies; authorities claim that the situation is now under control and hosted a