People took to the streets of Tehran on Thursday night, witnesses said, marking a new escalation of protests in Iran after exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi called for mass demonstrations. Iran’s internet and phone lines have been cut since the protests began.
The protests represent the first test of whether the Iranian people can be swayed by Pahlavi, whose dying father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, fled the country before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and died in exile in 1980.
The protests included chants in support of the Shah, who previously carried a death sentence but is now fueling anger over Iran’s ailing economy.
On Thursday, Wednesday’s protests continued across Iran’s cities and towns. More markets and bazaars were closed to support the protest.
According to the United States-based Human Rights Watch, 41 people have been killed and more than 2,270 people have been arrested in the violence surrounding the peaceful protests.
The growing protests will increase pressure on Iran’s civilian government and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Cloudflare, an Internet organization, and advocacy group NetBlocks have reported Internet outages, both attributed to Iranian government interference. Attempts to call landlines and mobiles from Dubai to Iran could not be connected.
Such a period of discontinuance has already occurred due to major measures taken by the government.
Meanwhile, the demonstrations themselves continue to be leaderless. It is not yet clear what impact Pahlavi’s call will have on future demonstrations.
Nate Swanson of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who studies Iran, wrote that “the lack of a viable alternative has undermined the popular protests in Iran.”
“There may be a thousand Iranian opposition activists who, when given the chance, would emerge as respected leaders, as labor leader Lech Wassa did in Poland at the end of the Cold War. But so far, Iran’s security forces have arrested, persecuted, exiled all leaders who could bring about change in the country.”
Thursday’s rally in the country and on the street
“Great people of Iran, the eyes of the world are on you. Take to the streets and, as one front, shout your demands,” Pahlavi said in a statement. I have warned the Islamic Republic, the leader and the (Revolutionary Guard) that the world and (President Donald Trump) will be watching you closely, the suppression of the people will not go unanswered.
Pahlavi had called for peaceful demonstrations at 8 pm on Thursday and Friday. As the clock struck, neighborhoods around Tehran erupted in chants, witnesses said.
The chants were “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others said, “This is the final battle! Pahlavi is coming back!” They shouted and praised Shah. Thousands are seen on the streets.
Pahlavi had said that he would present more plans based on the response to the call. Israel’s support and criticism have been mixed in the past – especially after Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June.
Demonstrators have chanted in support of the Shah in some protests, but it is unclear whether this is in support of Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to the pre-1979 Islamic revolution.
Iranian authorities seem to be taking the planned demonstrations seriously. The hard-line Kaihan newspaper posted an online video saying security forces were using drones to identify those involved.
Iranian authorities did not give any indication of the size of the general protests that took place in various locations before the peaceful demonstration before 8 a.m. Thursday. However, there were reports of security officials being injured or killed.
Militants killed two security forces and wounded 30 in shootings in Chaharmahal and the Bakhtiari province of Lordgan, the Fars News Agency reported, citing a police colonel fatally wounded in a stabbing attack in a town outside Tehran, the Judiciary’s Meezan news agency reported.
The deputy governor of Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province told Iranian state television that five people were killed in an attack on a police station in Chenaran, 700 kilometers northeast of Tehran, on Wednesday night.
Late Thursday, the Revolutionary Guards said two members of the army had been killed in Kermanshah.
Iran weighs Trump threat.
Iran has faced nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran grappled with the aftermath of the 12-day war, the rial depreciated in December, with $1 now worth 1.4 million rials. Protests soon began, with protesters chanting against Iran’s theocracy.
It is not clear why the Iranian authorities have not yet taken strong action against the peaceful demonstrators. Trump warned last week that America would “come to the rescue” if Tehran “brutally kills peaceful protesters”.
US President Donald Trump has warned Iran that the United States will “help” Iran if it “kills peaceful protesters”. An Iranian official accused the United States of inciting the protests, which were partly responsible for the collapse of the Iranian currency.
Trump’s comments prompted a fresh rebuke from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, which described a “long history of criminal interference” by US administrations in Iran’s affairs.
“The Foreign Ministry’s claim of caring for the great nation of Iran is a hypocrisy aimed at misleading public opinion and covering up the many crimes committed against Iranians,” he said.
But those comments didn’t stop the US State Department from highlighting images on its social media platform X of protesters straddling the streets displaying Trump stickers or throwing government-sponsored rice.
“Everybody loses when prices go up where consumers can’t buy or farmers can’t sell,” the State Department said in a message. “It doesn’t matter if this rice is thrown away.”
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narjes Mohammadi has been detained by authorities since her arrest in December.
In the year From December 28, 2025, the people of Iran will They took to the streets like they did in 2009, 2019,” said her son Ali Rahmani.
“Each time the same demands came up: End the Islamic Republic, this is patriarchal, dictatorial and religious rule, the end of the clerics, the end of the mullahs’ rule.”