Month: January 2026

Colchester, UK – 30 January 2026 – The University of Essex hosted a private lecture on Friday examining pathways to accountability for serious human rights violations and alleged international crimes attributed to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and in light of ongoing events where it is clear the IRGC is the main perpetrator and where the Pasdaran Documentation Project (PDP) database has already established a preliminary assessment qualifying the IRGC as complicit in crimes against humanity. The lecture also drew on HRA’s and UpRights’ work on the Pasdaran Documentation Project and its Pathways to Accountability memo.

The event, titled “Pursuing Accountability for Serious Human Rights Violations and International Crimes Implicating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” was held at the Colchester Campus and organized by HRA in collaboration with Essex Law School and the Human Rights Centre. It brought together legal experts, human rights practitioners, and members of the academic community to discuss documentation, legal strategies, and international mechanisms for justice.

The panel was chaired and moderated by Dr. Matthew Gillett, Senior Lecturer at the University of Essex Law School and United Nations Special Mandate Holder, serving as Vice-Chair and Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. In his opening remarks, Dr. Gillett emphasized the central role of credible, structured documentation in pursuing accountability where domestic remedies are unavailable. He noted that international legal processes increasingly depend on high-quality evidence and rigorous methodological standards.

Skylar Thompson, Deputy Director of Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRA), introduced the Pasdaran Documentation Project (PDP), a long-term initiative developed by HRA with legal support from the organization UpRights. Thompson explained that PDP maps the IRGC’s institutional structure, operational units, and chains of command, and links this architecture to documented incidents of human rights abuses in Iran and abroad.

According to Thompson, the project is already being used by national jurisdictions to better understand the IRGC in support of prosecutorial processes, and it is designed to support investigations, legal analysis, and informed policy responses. “Accountability requires a sustained focus on grassroots documentation at the early stage,” she said, adding that PDP seeks to transform fragmented information into an integrated framework of institutional responsibility.

Valérie Gabard, Co-Director of UpRights, addressed the legal and practical challenges of pursuing accountability in the Iranian context. She outlined how international legal avenues, such as universal jurisdiction, targeted sanctions regimes, and UN mechanisms, can be activated when supported by systematic documentation. Gabard stressed that while accountability within Iran remains unrealistic under current conditions, external legal processes offer meaningful opportunities to advance justice for victims, while also noting their inherent difficulties.

Participants raised questions about data verification and the ethical challenges of documenting abuses in highly repressive environments.

The event concluded with reflections on the long-term nature of accountability work and the need for sustained international engagement. Speakers underscored that structured documentation initiatives such as PDP can play a critical role in ensuring that allegations of abuse are preserved and made usable for future legal and policy processes.

The gathering demonstrated interest in practical, evidence-based approaches to addressing alleged international crimes linked to the IRGC and reinforced the role of universities as key spaces for advancing research, dialogue, and accountability initiatives.

Learn more about the project and read the memo at iranpdp.org

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The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which verifies each death with a network on the ground in Iran, says the 6,159 dead include at least 5,804 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 92 children and 49 civilians who weren’t part of the demonstrations.

Freedom, democracy and integrity were the themes of the memorial, held to honor all the protestors that sacrificed their lives in Iran.

With protests happening the last several Sundays in San Francisco at Harry Bridges Plaza, there’s been requests for residents in nearby communities to take action, as well.

Therefore, the candlelight vigil was organized here for participants in the Los Gatos and the South Bay area. Los Gatos-based artist Firouzeh Jahanshahi posted on social media to get the word out about the gathering.

As seen in many of the images and videos from the event, fake blood and body bags were used to depict what is happening in Iran now, an effort to extend compassion and solidarity through visibility.

This coming Sunday, there will be a “Human Chain” on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco from 11am-2pm, which is expected to draw more than 5,000 participants.

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Fox News – President Donald Trump said Iran appears to be looking to negotiate with the U.S. amid a growing military buildup in the Middle East.

In a Monday interview with Axios, Trump suggested that Tehran had reached out on “numerous occasions” and “want[s] to make a deal.”

“They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions. They want to talk,” the president told the outlet.

According to U.S. officials, also cited by Axios, any potential agreement would need Tehran to remove all enriched uranium, cap its long-range missile stockpile, a change in support for regional proxy forces, and cease independent uranium enrichment, terms Iranian leaders have not agreed to.

Trump also described the situation with Iran as “in flux,” and pointed to the arrival of what he called “a big armada next to Iran. Bigger than Venezuela,” referencing the recent deployment of U.S. naval assets.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier entered CENTCOM waters in the Indian Ocean on Monday amid increasing threats from Iran, a senior U.S. official said.

Trump had told reporters Jan. 21, “We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens. We have a big force going towards Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen, but we’re watching them very closely.”

The U.S. military buildup comes amid widespread unrest inside Iran following protests that began Dec. 28.

According to a recent report from Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), the confirmed death toll from the protests has reached 5,848, with an additional 17,091 deaths under investigation.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been sheltering in a fortified underground facility, according to Iran International.

Trump is expected to hold further consultations this week, Axios said, before adding that White House officials said an attack is still on the table.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

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ABC News – Iranian military forces are prepared to “immediately” retaliate against any U.S. attack, Tehran’s top diplomat warned on Wednesday, as more American military assets arrived in the region and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to launch a new attack on the country.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post to X on Wednesday that Iran’s “brave Armed Forces are prepared — with their fingers on the trigger — to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air and sea.”

“Valuable lessons learned” during the 12-day conflict with Israel and the U.S. in June “have enabled us to respond even more strongly, rapidly and profoundly,” Araghchi wrote.

“At the same time, Iran has always welcomed a mutually beneficial, fair and equitable NUCLEAR DEAL — on equal footing, and free from coercion, threats, and intimidation — which ensures Iran’s rights to PEACEFUL nuclear technology, and guarantees NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS,” the foreign minister added.

“Such weapons have no place in our security calculations and we have NEVER sought to acquire them,” he wrote.

Araghchi issued the warning after Trump touted what he called a “massive armada” heading toward Iran, which he said was “ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”

Trump urged Iran to make “a fair and equitable deal” regarding its nuclear program, key facilities and personnel of which were among the targets attacked by Israel and the U.S. in June.

“Hopefully Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS — one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!,” Trump said a social media post.

Trump referred to the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites last summer. “As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again,” Trump added.

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by three destroyers, arrived in the Middle East earlier this week, bolstering the U.S. military presence in the region.

The carrier is carrying a complement of strike aircraft, while the accompanying destroyers are armed with Tomahawk missiles.

The naval buildup adds some 5,000 American troops to the region, swelling an already robust American military footprint spread across multiple bases across the Middle East, such as Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

In total, more than 30,000 U.S. troops are deployed across the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln is the first U.S. aircraft carrier to operate in the region since last summer.

Araghchi on Wednesday denied any request for new talks Tehran and Washington, D.C., though said Iran was in touch with “various intermediaries.”

“Our position is clear. Negotiations cannot take place under threats, and any talks must be conducted in conditions where threats and excessive demands are set aside,” Araghchi said.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Thursday that Iran is “ready for sincere and genuine negotiations with America,” as quoted by the state-aligned Tasnim News Agency. Ghalibaf warned that though Trump “may be able to start a war,” he cannot foresee how it will end.

Trump’s Wednesday social media post did not mention Tehran’s bloody suppression of nationwide anti-government protests over the past month. The demonstrations began in late December in response to the collapsing value of the national currency — the rial — before morphing into a wider anti-regime movement which drew backing from dissidents abroad and Western governments.

Trump lent his support to protesters in mid-January, urging them to “KEEP PROTESTING — TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” He added, “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

The president then appeared to back off the prospect of imminent U.S. strikes on Iran, saying Tehran had informed him that the killing of protesters and executions of those arrested had stopped.

The major security crackdown appears to have suppressed the massed demonstrations. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) — which relies on a network of activists in Iran for its reporting and has been accurate during previous unrest — said Wednesday that at least 6,373 people had been killed in the protests.

The dead included 5,993 protesters, 113 people under the age of 18, 214 government-affiliated personnel and 53 non-protesting civilians, HRANA said. The organization said it is still reviewing 17,091 reports of other deaths.

A total of 42,486 people have been arrested in the demonstrations since they began on Dec. 28, including 11,018 injured protesters with serious wounds, according to HRANA.

ABC News cannot independently verify HRANA’s numbers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that the U.S. regional buildup represents a “baseline” for defense.

“We have to have enough force and power in the region just on a baseline to defend against that possibility that at some point, as a result of something, the Iranian regime decides to strike at our troop presence in the region,” Rubio said.

Rubio also said that it was an “open question” and “no one knows” who would fill a leadership void in Iran if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was removed from power.

Rubio asserted that protests across Iran due to a free-falling economy show “that [the] regime is probably weaker than it has ever been.”

If the regime were to fall, he said the U.S. could “hope” for a “transition” like the one it is attempting to facilitate in Venezuela.

But Rubio added that he “would imagine it would be far more complex … because you’re talking about a regime that’s been in place for a very long time.”

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The Guardian – Doctors are being arrested in Iran for helping save the lives of some of the tens of thousands injured during Iran’s brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests, with at least one surgeon now at risk of being sentenced to death.

The arrests and death sentence are part of a campaign of “revenge”, say human rights groups, after healthcare workers and doctors refused to ignore the plight of badly injured protesters shot or stabbed at close range, and in some cases set up makeshift treatment centres.

An Iranian surgeon, Alireza Golchini, 52, from the central city of Qazvin, has been charged with “moharebeh” (waging war against God), which can carry the death penalty, according to the Norway-based rights group Hengaw. The US state department yesterday called for his release.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, whose figures have been reliable during previous crackdowns, says it has verified more than 6,000 dead and has more than 17,000 more recorded deaths under investigation.

Speaking to the Guardian, his cousin, Nima Golchini, who is based in Canada, said that Golchini was taken from his home on 10 January. “He was arrested in a violent manner in front of his wife and son, who is only 11. They beat him up so badly during arrest, they broke his arm, ribs and dragged him out of his home. My family is terrified.”

A few days before his arrest Golchini, who also treated protesters during the 2022 Woman, life, freedom protests, had posted a note on his social media, says Nima, sharing his number and asking injured patients to contact him for treatment.

“All he did was his duty of saving lives as a medical doctor. He had sworn to save people’s lives. How can any doctor not stand by his oath? I am worried not only for him, but also for other healthcare workers who have been arrested for simply standing by their sworn oath.”

Iranian authorities have not publicly commented on Golchini’s detention, nor have they confirmed any charges against him. But Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, has urged authorities not to show any leniency towards protesters. “We should not remain silent in the face of those who seek to exploit the situation and disrupt the security and calm of the people,” he said.

Golchini is one of at least nine doctors and healthcare volunteers arrested over the past week, say rights groups and medics. According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), security forces raided makeshift medical shelters as well as the homes of doctors and volunteers who treated injured protesters. It said there is no information now on the whereabouts or condition of those detained.

“This appears to be a deliberate revenge campaign against doctors and medical staff who refuse to abandon the wounded,” said Hossein Raeesi, an Iranian human rights lawyer living in exile.

IHRNGO also reported the arrest of a volunteer first responder who had turned his home into an improvised medical shelter. According to the source, he was detained on 14 January after security forces raided his house, where he had provided care to more than 20 injured protesters, two of whom later died.

“He was taken away in an extremely brutal manner and was severely beaten,” a source told IHRNGO, adding that security forces smashed the windows of the house, destroyed the interior and severely damaged his car during the raid.

At least 42,324 arrests have been made across the country with limited information on their fate, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran, which says the regime is putting pressure on medical networks as a means of reducing support for the injured.

“This persecution of medical personnel is yet another dimension of the regime’s crimes against humanity,” said Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, IHRNGO director.

A statement published yesterday by the US state department on X demanded the release of Golchini and “all the brave doctors who have helped their fellow countrymen”. It continued: “President Trump has clearly stated that no executions should take place in Iran and that there will be consequences if the government takes such actions.”

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Mezha News – HRANA on the 30th day since the start of anti-government protests in Iran documented 6,126 confirmed deaths, including 86 children, and 5,777 protesters. Also 17,091 people are under verification and investigation. A network of local activists helps verify each death.

11,009 wounded, 41,880 arrests at protests, and 245 cases of forced confessions of detainees. 11,024 people were summoned by security authorities. In 200 cities across 31 provinces, 651 incidents related to the protests were recorded.

Information about the dead cannot yet be fully verified due to the near-total shutdown of communications and the Internet across the country.

On January 26, a US aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, and three ships accompanying it arrived in the region. According to news agencies, US President Donald Trump last week said that the ships were dispatched “just in case”.

The US Central Command stressed that the aircraft carrier strike group is now deployed in the region “to ensure regional security and stability”.

What is known about the protests in Iran

The protests in Iran began on December 28 amid rapidly rising prices and the devaluation of the national currency, and later grew into demands for reform and greater freedom regarding the country’s political leadership.

According to Trump, the United States supports the protesters and is ready to provide assistance in case of further pressure; he also noted that the United States “will be in combat readiness”. Khamenei replied that Iran “will not yield to the enemy”. The United States imposed new sanctions and moved the aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East amid the escalation.

Reza Pahlavi, son of the last shah, called on Iranians to seize government institutions, the diaspora to replace the flags of the Islamic Republic with national ones at embassies, and Iran’s security forces to join the protesters. He also stated that after a regime change they would consider opening new avenues in interstate relations, including regarding Israel.

Poland, the United States and Sweden urged their citizens to leave Iran; France evacuated part of its diplomats, the United Kingdom imposed new sanctions and temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran. Ukraine also closed its embassy.

The Iranian authorities confirmed the death of about 5,000 people during the protests. The human rights group HRANA reported 3,308 confirmed deaths and more than 24,000 arrests; another 4,382 deaths are under investigation. At the same time, unverified estimates range from 2,000 to 20,000 deaths. Verification is hampered by a full nationwide Internet shutdown: according to monitoring services, 99 percent of Internet connections were unavailable.

The situation around the protests in Iran remains tense: data from various sources vary, information control is tightening, and the global community is closely watching the developments.

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NPR News – Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests killed at least 6,126 people while many others still are feared dead, activists said Tuesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier group arrived in the Mideast to lead any American military response to the crisis.

The arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and guided missile destroyers accompanying it provide the U.S. the ability to strike Iran, particularly as Gulf Arab states have signaled they want to stay out of any attack despite hosting American military personnel.

Two Iranian-backed militias in the Mideast have signaled their willingness to launch new attacks, likely trying to back Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened military action over the killing of peaceful protesters or Tehran launching mass executions in the wake of the demonstrations.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to drag the entire Mideast into a war, though its air defenses and military are still reeling after the June war launched by Israel against the country.

Both the Houthis and Kataib Hezbollah sat out from Israel’s 12-day war on Iran that saw the United States bomb Iranian nuclear sites. The hesitancy to get involved shows the disarray still affecting Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” after facing attacks from Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Activists offer new death toll

The new figures Tuesday came from the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in multiple rounds of unrest in Iran. The group verifies each death with a network of activists on the ground in Iran.

It identified the dead as including at least 5,777 protesters, 214 government-affiliated forces, 86 children and 49 civilians who weren’t demonstrating. The crackdown has seen over 41,800 arrests, it added.

The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll given authorities cutting off the internet and disrupting calls into the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s government has put the death toll at a far lower 3,117, saying 2,427 were civilians and security forces, and labeled the rest “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.

That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest there in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests in Iran began on Dec. 28, sparked by the fall of the Iranian currency, the rial, and quickly spread across the country. They were met by a violent crackdown by Iran’s theocracy, the scale of which is only starting to become clear as the country has faced more than two weeks of internet blackout — the most comprehensive in its history.

Iran’s U.N. ambassador told a U.N. Security Council meeting late Monday that Trump’s repeated threats to use military force against the country “are neither ambiguous nor misinterpreted.” Amir Saeid Iravani also repeated allegations that the U.S. leader incited violence by “armed terrorist groups” supported by the United States and Israel, but gave no evidence to support his claims.

Iranian state media has tried to accuse forces abroad for the protests as the theocracy remains broadly unable to address the country’s ailing economy, which is still squeezed by international sanctions, particularly over its nuclear program.

Some Iranian-backed militias suggest willingness to fight

Iran projected its power across the Mideast through the “Axis of Resistance,” a network of proxy militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and other places. It was also seen as a defensive buffer, intended to keep conflict away from Iranian borders. But it has collapsed after Israel targeted Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others during the Gaza war. Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 overthrew Syria’s Bashar Assad after a yearslong, bloody war in which Iran backed his rule.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have repeatedly warned they could resume fire if needed on shipping in the Red Sea, releasing old footage of a previous attack Monday. Ahmad “Abu Hussein” al-Hamidawi, the leader of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah militia, warned “the enemies that the war on the (Islamic) Republic will not be a picnic; rather, you will taste the bitterest forms of death, and nothing will remain of you in our region.”

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, one of Iran’s staunchest allies, refused to say how it planned to react in the case of a possible attack.

“During the past two months, several parties have asked me a clear and frank question: If Israel and America go to war against Iran, will Hezbollah intervene or not?” Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Kassem said in a video address.

He said the group is preparing for “possible aggression and is determined to defend” against it. But as to how it would act, he said, “these details will be determined by the battle and we will determine them according to the interests that are present.”

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ABC News – As the internet blackout in Iran appears to be easing after weeks of protests across the country, the scale of the Islamic Republic regime’s bloodiest crackdown in decades is now being made public, according to activist groups.

More than 5,700 protesters have been killed since Jan. 8, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, an Iran-focused activist group based in the U.S.

More than 17,000 other related death cases are still under review, the group said. That U.S.-based group relies on a network of activists in Iran for its reporting and has been known to be accurate during previous unrest. While ABC News cannot confirm the number independently, the true toll might be even higher, according to other sources.

What began in Tehran late December in response to the collapse in currency and economic conditions quickly took on a political character — with crowds on the streets openly calling for regime change.

In response, the Iranian authorities launched a brutal crackdown on protests, according to observers.

Those protests intensified on Jan. 8 after a public call for protests from exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the U.S.-based son of the former shah of Iran.

Internet and telephone access across Iran was cut on Jan. 8, and the country went through its longest digital blackout in its history, isolating protesters from the rest of the world. NetBlocks, an independent tracking company, said on Sunday that the general outages had stretched past 400 hours. The company said service had been intermittently restored for some users in recent days.

With the partial restoration of internet access, people inside the country and others who have left in recent days shared videos and stories with ABC News that shows the horrific nature of the regime’s suppression of the protests.

Eyewitnesses from other cities also described what they had seen as a “war situation,” with some using terms such as “massacre,” “bloodbath” and “apocalypse,” in accounts shared with ABC News.

Saman, who asked ABC News not to use his full name for fear of his safety, was in Rasht — the largest city on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast — when the major protests formed.

As tens of thousands of protesters were taking over streets of the city on Jan. 8, the regime’s forces set the iconic bazaar of the city on fire after shop owners refused to end their strikes and had joined protesters, Saman told ABC News in a telephone interview.

While many protesters and non-protesters were still inside the bazaar area, the flames spread, he said. As people fled, government forces closed off the main exits of the market toward the street and directly shot at people trying to flee the flames, Saman said.

“There was smoke everywhere, a huge fire was there,” Saman said. “As people were going to leave, they shot them all. Maybe some of them were not even protesters. And some were normal people who had raised their hands up.”

Satellite images reviewed by ABC News show visible fire damage at the site of Rasht’s bazaar after Jan 8.

Saman said some of the wounded who were hospitalized, including one of his friends who was shot in his calf, were then taken into custody by the regime’s forces. It’s unclear where they’re being held or whether they’re still alive, he said.

While the deadly crackdown appeared to have quelled the protests and the streets now appear to have been emptied of people, families of the dead and missing, as well as families of the injured protesters, have been left in a state of confusion — scouring morgues, hospitals and prisons in a desperate attempt to find their loved ones, according to people who’ve spoken with ABC News.

Some of the people who were protesting on Jan. 8 have not returned, Saman said.

Saman said the regime’s forces gunned down two of his friend’s sons. He said his friend described an unimaginable scene when he went to collect the bodies from a street corner of the city’s cemetery.

The regime’s forces “had loaded bodies in freight trucks,” Saman said. “Corpses all stripped, corpses of all the girls and boys had been dumped at one corner of Rasht’s Bagh-e Rezvan [the city’s cemetery] where bodies were handed over to the families.”

Martial law remains in force across Iran, according to people ABC News spoke with. Families of victims have told ABC News they have been warned by the regime’s authorities not to hold funerals for their loved ones because those events have proved to be lightning rods for further protests in the past.

“Everyone has either lost someone in their circle, or knows someone who has,” Hadi, who also did not want to use his full name for security concerns, told ABC News. He said he left the country on Wednesday.

“There is fear and pain in the air,” he said. “Anti-riot vehicles at the junctions and anti-riot police in all streets.”

With journalists and international observers denied access to Iran during the wave of protests, the reported estimates of the death toll have varied. But the numbers have been steadily climbing as a network of international nongovernmental organizations has worked to verify the scale of the crackdown. The regime’s forces “are very strict in returning corpses,” Saman told ABC News. “Some people have really disappeared.” Some families have reportedly been asked to pay for their loved ones’ bodies when they’ve attempted to retrieve them from the morgue.

Though Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, described on Friday the protests as a “terrorist operation,” saying the death toll amounted to 3,117 civilians, 2,427 members of the security forces and 690 “terrorists.”

The Iranian regime has been accusing American and Israeli agents of killing protestors and warned the U.S. of any intervention.

However, President Donald Trump said the United States has an aircraft carrier “armada” heading toward Iran, adding that he hopes he would not need to use it. His remarks come after he had warned the Iranian regime not to kill protestors.

“Iran’s message to President Trump is clear: The U.S. has tried every conceivable hostile act, from sanctions and cyber assaults to outright military attack — and, most recently, it clearly fanned a major terrorist operation — all of which failed,” Araghchi said on social media. “It is time to think differently. Try respect.”

Amid the rising tensions between the political authorities of the two countries, many Iranians express on their social media that they feel there is no option left for them to get free from the brutality of the autocratic regime except for foreign intervention. They openly say the only way out of the deadlock is a U.S. military intervention to take the regime down.

However, still some others doubt the idea, saying foreign intervention might push the country towards more chaos in long term.

“For the Iranian government, confronting an external enemy is far easier than confronting its own people,” Omid Memarian, a journalist and analyst, wrote in The Atlantic. “Domestic protests threaten internal cohesion; war produces unity.”

Memarian added that, if Trump “follows through” with his threats “but still fails to fracture Iran’s machinery of repression, then he should expect to perversely strengthen the regime’s base, which will believe it is justified in even greater violence against the country’s civilians.”

Regardless of one’s stance on foreign intervention, most Iranians are still reeling from the terror and despair they have experienced since late December.

“It was a war,” Saman said. “The regime’s war against its own people. People were unarmed, but they came with their machine guns.”

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