Name: Do Iranians want US intervention in the protest movement? | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T16:54:07.000Z
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Anti government protesters have again flooded the streets of Iran, despite the authorities resorting to lethal force against them.

Human rights groups are reporting hundreds of deaths in nationwide protests.

The Islamic regime has ordered counter rallies in an attempt to regain the initiative.

And the government is warning the US not to intervene in the biggest challenge to its rule in years.

Corpses in black bags left on a street and grieving relatives who've come to identify the remains.

The location of this video outside a morgue south of Tehran has been verified.

Its date has not, but rights groups agreed that it documents people killed during Iran's nationwide protests.

This, it seems, is the bitter consequence of the crackdown that the regime signalled was coming.

Iran's chief of police warned on Sunday that protesters would be dealt with swiftly and forcefully.

Authorities have cut off the Internet for more than three days now.

Reliable information is scarce, but there's evidence of the crackdown across the country.

This footage from a hospital in Shiraz, which has been verified by DW's Farsi service, appears to show beds full of injured protesters.

The protests in Iran are in their third week.

A key question now, what help can they still receive with the regime's security apparatus having them in its sights?

Well, for more on this, we can speak now with Siva Shakib.

She's an Iranian German writer and journalist who was born in Tehran and grew up there.

Siva, what's the latest you've been hearing from people in Iran?

We understand that the Internet is still shut down there, Harry.

You just broadcasted the voice of the doctor.

And that pretty much symbolizes how people feel in Iran.

This doctor couldn't even call other colleagues of himself in Iran to ask them to come to the hospital and help save lives of protesters, of demonstrators traitors having been shot and injured by the government.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in response to the violent crackdown on the protesters.

Do those demonstrating in Iran want US help?

The population in Iran is not uniquely speaking in one direction, of course, like all populations and, and

that's already an expression of democracy, that they have different opinions, Some say.

So where is the US now taking out Khamenei, for example, or other key figures from the regime and from the government.

And other people say, please keep your hands off the country.

Just support us and don't support the government anymore and be our voice because we have made very bad experiences in the past with foreign governments and countries intervening in the affairs of our country.

Well, given the brutality of the security crackdown that we're seeing right now, do you think the protest movement has a chance of succeeding without support from outside?

I think so, Terry, because think of the Revolution 47 years ago when the Shah was ousted of Iran.

Nobody would have thought that the strongest army in the region, supported by the Western governments, being supported by the US in those days, also militarily, and

also the secret police was trained, the army was trained by the US that they could be driven out of the country by the population.

And the population was a lot less educated.

We had about 90% educated people, 10%, sorry, 10% educated people, 90% non educated.

Now the number has reversed and everybody knows what the world looks like.

And I'm pretty sure that if the west stops supporting the government but supports the population morally and does what is permitted on international level, but

not entering militarily, the population in Iran will topple this regime as well.

His exiled son is now raising his voice in this whole discussion.

What role do you see the exiled son of the Shah playing in the protests?

How much support does he have among the Iranian people?

So, again, it's a very democratic situation.

Some people in Iran think he should be the next leader.

Others think he should never be the next leader.

And a lot of people think he could be a transitional force because in Iran, the opposition did not have the opportunity to, to build an organization, to build structures.

And he, the son of the Shah, is an opposition force who has people around him, who has the structure around him.

And maybe he could come and initiate a new beginning in Iran, but definitely not stay for long.

That was writer, filmmaker, journalist Siba Shakib.

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Do Iranians want US intervention in the protest movement? | DW News

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