Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 01/19/2026 10:19:40 AM PST by MtnClimber
Iran’s supreme leader has now openly acknowledged what the Islamic Republic has spent weeks trying to obscure from the world.
In remarks carried by Iranian state media on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted that “several thousand deaths” had occurred during Iran’s latest wave of nationwide protests, while blaming the United States and Israel for the bloodshed.
Protesters, he declared, were “criminals,” “mercenaries,” and mohareb (enemies of God) – a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law.
For over four decades, the Islamic Republic has relied on a familiar formula for survival. It begins with repression at home, then blames foreign intervention, and waits for the world to hesitate.
When Iranians protest corruption or inflation, the regime’s response is lethal force. And when the death toll mounts, Tehran redirects responsibility outward, confident that international outrage will stop short of any consequential acts. This is one way the regime has firmly held on to power.
The current unrest represents the most serious challenge to the regime since the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, and arguably since the Islamic Republic’s inception in 1979.
Human rights organizations estimate that more than 16,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands arrested – the official death rate is currently at 5,000. Internet access has been repeatedly cut to prevent coordination between protesters and to obscure the scale of the crackdown.
Iranian officials have publicly warned that detainees will face “severe punishment.” Yet the international response to the crackdown has followed a familiar, and frankly inadequate, pattern. Expressions of concern and carefully worded condemnations are followed by little action.
No Iranian embassies have been closed. Nor have any ambassadors been recalled. Diplomatic relations continue largely uninterrupted, even as the regime openly threatens mass executions. Tehran remains seated at international forums, its representatives treated as normal partners in conversation, while protesters are labeled terrorists at home.
The United Nations, for its part, has offered statements and procedural gestures, but no decisive action. There has been no binding resolution, no meaningful investigative mechanism, and no coordinated international response that signals real cost. It is something the regime must be thriving on.
In recent weeks, Iranian protesters have appealed directly to outside powers, particularly the United States and Israel. Handwritten signs addressed to US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have appeared at demonstrations. Video messages circulate online calling for help.
Streets have reportedly been renamed in honor of foreign leaders seen as potential protectors. The two leaders have been specifically targeted because they have expressed the most support for Iranians, and Trump even explicitly warned that killing protesters would carry consequences.
Expectations have been raised among people in Iran risking their lives, while the regime learns once again that threats fade faster than repression.
The regime has responded to Trump’s threats, adding that any Israeli incursion to help the protesters will be met with force. It appears that a dying regime in its last death throes is regarded as more dangerous than has been the case in the past.
Meanwhile, time is on the regime’s side for the moment. Time allows security forces to regroup, prisons to fill, and the regime to continue spreading fear to reassert itself. Every pause from the outside world extends the Islamic Republic’s lifeline.
Blaming foreign interference serves another purpose. It frames the reality of what is taking place on the ground – genuine grievances in the face of the country’s economy and repression – as “foreign warfare.” This is not a legitimate claim, but it gives the regime the excuse it needs for mass violence.
Why is the world letting Khamenei get away with it?
Khamenei himself bears the responsibility for this bloodshed. In previous rounds of demonstrations, he has had no qualms directing security forces to take blood in order to keep the ayatollahs in power. The real question is why the world is still allowing him to get away with it.
The supreme leader can acknowledge thousands of deaths, threaten more, and still expect delay, division, and indecisiveness from abroad.
Khamenei is not surviving because he is in a uniquely strong position as a leader. Rather, he is surviving because he takes the chance to crack down on any dissent, firm in the belief that outsiders will not call him to account for his crimes.
After three and a half decades in power, he knows how to play the game. But this time, the rules should be different, and his gamble should not be allowed to pay off.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
The leftists in media and in politics instinctively side with evil. Also, there are few conservatives with backbone in government except DJT.
America is also in a fight for survival from within and without.
Khamenei needs to be Solemanied
I standby for the hit to take out the Ayatollah Netanyahu got his nuke ready to go? Trump already talks the need for new leadership in Iran.
Are the Minnesota leftists backing Trump for his support of the Iranian people?
The Minnesota leftists think that civilians submitting to the rule of the mullahs is the natural order of things. It is what they want for us too.
Tampon Tim must be their mulla. How pathetic.
Anything from the World Court or is it CRICKETS as usual ?
Down with the mass-murderer Khamenei and all other ayatollahs and mullahs!
Victory for the Iranian people and the Church in Iran! No more “islamic republic”!!
All Saints of Persia, pray for the Iranian people—and for us American Christians! Amen!
IMHO, because they are being paid off. The dictators are not Christian, after all.
Already, the occurrence of these horrific deaths is being downplayed. It’s remarkable. Khameni is now a hero for STOPPING the killings, if that’s the actual truth, which very few think it is.
30-60 days from now, these deaths will be 95% forgotten.
That’s why I’m cautious with the now-popular assertion that Iran is on the brink of collapse. In the first place, nobody knows what “collapse” means. If this MF’er would kill 50,000 protestors, and we all know he would, he may very well quash this insurrection and remain in power.
More saliently, there is no successor, because being a successor up until a month ago was an offense punishable by death. There is talk of the son of the old Shah. This is only a choice bcause the Iranians have no other alternative. The elder Shah was despised by the Iranians.
Like every other GD thing that happens in the Mideast, I am on the other hand very confident that this will turn into a multi-decade infected running sore on the rump of mankind.
The people killed by the regime were various dissident groups like the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). And the Kurds. The Iranian people themselves are still in full support of the regime. This article is propaganda and total nonsense.
And so far they are right, Trump and the world have looked away.
The world is “letting” Khameni because, honestly, it’s none of the world’s damn business. And worse it’s in the Middle East, monkeying around in the Middle East never works out. Half the time the people that replace the guy you overthrew are worse, and then everybody blames you for overthrowing the other guy. In the end it’s the Iranian people’s revolution, they need to fight it.
Remove Khamenai.
Remove government buildings at the same time. Kill the bureaucracy.
Leaflets - “Behave or we’ll be back”.
Seen reports the fleet is moving. Takes a while to get halfway around the world.
Do you, or would you voluntarily live there? I certainly would not.
Uhhhhhhh....because other world leaders wish they had the balls to do the same thing?
Just spitballin'.
I’m an American why on earth would I want to live there? My point is the Iranian people themselves are not rising up against the regime those were outside agitators paid for and controlled by Mossad/CIA/MI6. 53 Mosques were firebombed do you actually think Iranians did that? Turkey and Russia killed off the 400 Kurds we sent in from Syria. That and disabling satellite communications were what stopped this attempted coup. Apparently we are going in again and I expect this to turn out very badly for both the US and Israel particularly Israel. But that’s what Netanyahu wants so he can take full responsibility for it.
What I think too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.