Name: Iranian regime defiant as protests grow and world reacts | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-01-11T16:56:23.000Z
Duration: 15 min 46 s
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We begin in Iran where huge demonstrations against the regime show no signs of slowing down and the government crackdown on protesters has left dozens of people injured and dead.

There are fears hundreds have been killed, if not more.

Adverbs of manner

Real numbers are difficult to confirm because international media are largely blocked from reporting in Iran.

Plus, there's been no Internet for 60 hours after Iranian authorities shut it down in an attempt to contain the demonstrations.

The world is now waiting to see if US President Donald Trump will follow up on his threat to strike Iran's regime if it kills protesters, especially since it already has killed protesters.

Iran's parliament speaker has said that any U.S.

attack would lead to Iran striking Israel or U.S. military bases in the region.

We'll look at that more closely in a moment, but

first let's take you to the streets of Tehran.

Despite fear of a deadly crackdown by Iranian authorities, these protesters are not backing down.

This footage authenticated by the Associated Press shows protesters marching along a street and chanting, quote, this country will not be a real homeland until the clerics are laid to rest.

The protests, spurred by the sharp decline in Iran's currency and growing economic suffering have brought many thousands of people onto the streets and the regime is struggling to contain the unrest.

The leaders showed some sympathy, initially acknowledging the genuine anger, but then carried out a brutal crackdown.

There are reports that dozens of protesters have been killed.

The state imposed Internet blackout continues, making it difficult to assess the full extent of unrest.

Iranian regime has accused the protesters of aligning with what they say are foreign enemies.

On Friday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused that the protesters were ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy.

Referring to the US President Donald Trump.

Trump has threatened Iran to not use excessive force on protesters and offered his help again.

On Saturday on his Truth Social post, Trump Iran is looking at freedom perhaps like never before.

Iranians are calling it a genuine grassroots movement that has brought widespread anger to the surface.

Protesters are claiming the streets, openly defying the regime.

Ben Mbenteleblu is a senior director of the Iran Program at the foundation for Defense of Democracies, which focuses on US national security.

Here is his take on what Washington's options.

That really is the million dollar question right now.

Given the fact that President Trump has significantly reiterated and underscored his threat to hold the regime accountable if protesters are killed.

And as the package correctly mentioned, scores have been killed.

President Trump here really does have all the cards it's really his choice.

Diplomatic, informational, intelligence, military, economic.

Something that I have been advocating for would be to replicate the oil sanctions enforcement model that was done with Venezuela.

Meaning if the Islamic Republic is greasing the wheels of its security apparatus by continuing to sell oil to China, while those tankers should also be confiscated.

You know, one of the most impactful pictures I've seen the 14 days of protest now has been Iranians disabling surveillance cameras.

I would say on the cyber side, another option for the US Would be to disable command and control, to blind the regime's security forces without needing to have to go kinetic.

The news wire agency Reuters is reporting that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday to discuss the possibility of U.S.

Reuters is citing three Israeli sources who are present during Israeli security consultations, describing them as saying Israel was on high alert.

The public response from international leaders to what's happening in Iran has been muted this weekend.

One of those who has spoken out is European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen, who condemned the Iranian regime's crackdown on social media on Saturday.

She called for the immediate release of all imprisoned demonstrators and said Europe stood, quote, fully behind them.

Nilou Farah Ghalami joins us from DW's Farsi service.

What are you hearing about the protests and people being killed?

Yeah, Iran has now been offline for over 60 hours now.

Despite this, news and videos from yesterday have continued to emerge via Starlink connections.

The protests are continuing with large crowds across many major and small cities.

At the same time, the crackdown by security forces has become extremely violent and bloody.

Reports coming in from different cities speak of dozens of deaths, but

under the current condition, verification is really hard.

The regime is using every possible means to deter people from taking to the streets.

This includes the use of drone patrols for the first time yesterday and explicit threats to identify protesters through aerial surveillance.

A significant number of payment terminals and also bank ATMs are offline, not working.

And as a result, many shops, even those that did not intend to strike, are forced to close their shops.

So conditions in other cities are also similar.

And based on experience, I can say that the crackdown there appeared to be even more severe.

There is a video from Tehran last night showing that they tried to shut down the protests in Tehran by cutting the electricity so that people turned on their Phone flashlights and lit it up to the streets.

Reports have reached us indicate unprecedented threats being broadcast on state television.

So authorities are using every possible warning to pressure people into staying at home.

Yet despite this, it seems the protesters intend to stay in the streets.

There are also reports of strike by bus and truck drivers all over Iran.

I mean, with no electricity, no Internet, every attempt, it seems from the government.

This might be hard for you to tell us, but

we're hearing that hospitals have been overwhelmed with victims.

Yeah, as you mentioned, hospitals are totally overwhelmed with those injured and bodies of those killed.

There are a high number of eye injuries by pellets.

I've heard from hospitals in Tehran that there are facing a severe shortage of blood supplies.

Unfortunately, the risk of wounded people being abducted by security forces is also high.

So even hospitals are not safe for people.

We saw a similar thing happen during the first week of protests in Malik Shahi in Ilom province when security forces attacked hospital at least twice to take wounded people with them.

In many cases, security forces have also refused to return the bodies of those killed to their families.

Another report from Tehran indicates that families were asked to pay huge amount of money for the bullets used to kill their loved ones, claiming that, yeah, the bullets were funded with public funds.

Nilafar, I'm wondering what this could mean.

And I been checking in every 24 hours on this.

We've seen so many movements over the years in Iran and then the government responds with a crackdown and hope is lost.

Does this time feel different from the scale of crackdown?

The threatening statements by official and state media coverage this clear that the situation is completely different.

Different and it was unexpected for them.

So you can see the statements of some officials that they are unsettled.

They are trying hard to manipulate, for example religious people and their own supporters to turn them against the protesters.

I've even seen some government clerics, some that with past corruption allegations telling people that yeah, this is not the right way to protest and that they should go home and wait for a designated time and place to demonstrate.

But I believe hearing such a statements from these figures only fuels public anger further.

Now Iran says US military bases in the Middle east as well as Israel are legitimate targets if it is attacked.

How seriously should we take this warning?

I think the reason for such threats is fear of a potential attack by US or Israel and the regime may hope that these warnings will prevent such an outcome.

However, in a critical situation I think they could also decide to take extreme actions to push the country into a wartime scenario, for example, attacking Israel or maybe US Military bases.

Such a move would be extremely costly for the regime itself, I guess, because the consequences are uncertain and it is not clear how the other side would respond because President Trump also threatened.

Moreover, right now, the government is main focusing on the bigger problem at home, so the situation inside Iran.

But yet things could change at any moment.

Mulaffar Golami of DW Farsi Service, thank you very much.

Meanwhile, there has been strong support for the protests from Iranians in exile.