Iran death toll rises as crackdown on protests toughens

Iran’s army vowed Saturday to join the crackdown on protesters, one of a number of stepped-up warnings from the country’s security services as demonstrations against the regime continue to grow and the death toll mounts. 

The army said Saturday it would “firmly safeguard national interests, strategic infrastructure and public property,” blaming Israel and what it called terrorist groups for unrest in the country.

The death toll climbed to at least 62, with at least 2,300 arrests during the protests, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei hit out at President Trump and claimed Trump had hands “stained with the blood of Iranians,” while supporters chanted “death to America.”

Iranian state media has referred to the protestors as “terrorists.” Khamenei told supporters that protestors were “ruining their own streets…to please the President of the United States.”

Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei promised punishment for protestors “will be decisive, maximum, and without any legal leniency.” These threats do not seem to have deterred the protestors.

There have been protests in Iran from the people against the regime before, but these seem much more widespread, and the regime seems to have considerably less power to quell these protests than in the past.

This does not mean that the Iranian regime will fall, but there seems to be a better chance that something will change than any time in decades.