Large protests held in Iranian cities after plea from exiled crown prince
Violence around the demonstrations has left 42 people dead while more than 2,270 others have been detained, experts said.
Iranian protesters have shouted and marched through the streets after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for demonstrations despite Iran’s government cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls.
Short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s theocracy around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas.
Iranian state media broke its silence on Friday over the protests, alleging “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties”.
Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a brief address aired by state television, signalled authorities would crack down on demonstrators as an audience shouted “death to America!”.
Protesters are “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy”, Mr Khamenei said, referring to US leader Donald Trump.
The full scope of the demonstrations could not be immediately determined due to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy and that has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years.
The protests have intensified steadily since beginning on December 28.
They also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fuelling the protests.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 42 people while more than 2,270 others have been detained, said the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Mr Pahlavi, who called for protests on Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8pm on Friday.
“What turned the tide of the protests was former crown prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8pm on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.
“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”
When the clock struck 8pm on Thursday, neighbourhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said.
The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!”.
Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!”. Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,” Mr Pahlavi said. “It has shut down the internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.”
He went on to call for European leaders to join US President Donald Trump in promising to “hold the regime to account”.
“I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,” he added. “Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”
Mr Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call.
His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it is not clear whether that is support for Mr Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semi-official news agencies offline as well. The state TV acknowledgment at 8am on Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations.
State TV claimed the protests saw violence that caused casualties but did not elaborate. It also said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire”.
