“People are extremely angry,” said one former official, adding that a US attack could prompt the Iranians to rise again. “The wall of fear has fallen. There is no fear left.”
Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried that a US strike could break its grip by pushing an already angry public into the streets after a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, according to six current and former officials.
In the high-level meetings, officials told Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that public anger over last month’s crackdown, the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, has reached a point where fear is no longer a deterrent, four current officials briefed on the talks said.
Officials said Khamenei was told that many Iranians were prepared to confront security forces again and that external pressure, such as a limited US strike, could embolden them and cause irreparable damage to the political establishment.
One of the officials told Reuters that Iran’s enemies were looking for more protests to end the Islamic Republic and “unfortunately” there would be more violence if an uprising took place.
“An attack combined with demonstrations by angry people could lead to the collapse (of the government system). That is the main concern among top officials and that is what our enemies want,” said the official, who, like other officials contacted for this story, declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks on during a meeting at the IRGC Aerospace Force achievement exhibition in Tehran, Iran, November 19, 2023. (Credit: Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS)
The reported comments are significant because they suggest private misgivings within the leadership at odds with Tehran’s defiant public stance toward the protesters and the US.
The sources declined to say how Khamenei responded. Iran’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on this account of the meetings.
Multiple sources told Reuters last week that US President Donald Trump was weighing options against Iran, including targeted attacks on security forces and leaders to inspire protesters, even as Israeli and Arab officials said air power alone would not topple the clerical rulers.
People are extremely angry, says the former official
Any such uprising following a US strike would be in contrast to the Iranian response to Israeli and US bombings of Iran’s nuclear program in June, which was not followed by anti-government demonstrations.
But a former moderate official said the situation had changed since the crackdown in early January.
“People are extremely angry,” he said, adding that a US strike could prompt the Iranians to rise again. “The wall of fear has fallen. There is no fear left.”
Tensions between Tehran and Washington are high. The arrival of a US aircraft carrier and supporting warships in the Middle East has expanded Trump’s ability to take military action if he so chooses, after repeatedly threatening to intervene over Iran’s bloody crackdown.
The regime must make major reforms or face wider protests, says former president Rouhani
The Iranian regime must make major reforms or face more protests, former president Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying. telegraph as they say.
“The people have demands and we must answer them with a major reform, not a minor reform,” Rouhani said.
“If you make minor changes, God forbid, we might have problems again in two or three months, or even 10 days,” he added.
Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a hard-line member of the Iranian parliament, denounced Rouhani’s comments, saying “Today is the time for a major reform, which is the arrest and execution of Rouhani.”
“The game is over,” says the former prime minister
Several opposition figures, who were part of the establishment before falling out with it, warned the leadership that “hot public anger” could lead to the collapse of the Islamic system.
“The river of warm blood that was spilled in the cold month of January will not stop boiling until it changes the course of history,” former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest without trial since 2011, said in a statement published by the pro-reform website Kalameh.
“In what language should people say that they don’t want this system and that they don’t believe your lies? That’s enough. The game is over,” Mousavi added in the statement.
The dire situation, the result of Khamenei’s destructive domestic and international interventions and policies, says former parliament speaker Karroubi
Iran’s current situation is the “direct result of Khamenei’s destructive domestic and international interventions and policies,” former parliament speaker and reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi was quoted as saying by telegraph as they say.
“The costly and unnecessary nuclear project and the heavy consequences of the last two decades of sanctions on the country and the people” were examples of failed policies, according to Karroubi.
“The depth of the tragedy [of protester deaths and injuries] it runs so deep that no excuse or justification can be accepted for this horrific and merciless massacre and disrespect for the bodies of the victims,” he added.
The only way out of the crisis, while maintaining peace, is “recognition of the people’s right to self-determination through a free referendum,” he said.
Security forces breaking up demonstrations with lethal force
During protests in early January, witnesses and rights groups said, security forces crushed demonstrations with lethal force, leaving thousands dead and many injured. Tehran blamed the violence on “armed terrorists” linked to Israel and the US.
Trump has stopped short of threats to intervene, but has since called on Iran to make nuclear concessions. Both Tehran and Washington have signaled they are ready to revive diplomacy over a long-running nuclear dispute.
Hot anger, “danger of bloodshed”
Analysts and insiders say that while the streets are quiet for the time being, deep grievances have not gone away.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a public rally in Mashhad, Iran, March 21, 2023. (Credit: Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Manual via REUTERS)
Public frustration has boiled over economic decline, political repression, a widening gap between rich and poor, and entrenched corruption, which leaves many Iranians feeling trapped in a system that offers no relief and no way forward.
“This may not be the end, but it’s not just the beginning,” said Hossein Rassam, a London-based analyst.
If protests resume amid mounting foreign pressure and security forces respond with force, the six current and former officials said they fear demonstrators will be emboldened than in previous unrest, emboldened by experience and motivated by a sense that they have little left to lose.
One of the officials told Reuters that although people were angrier than before, the institution would use tougher methods against protesters if they were under American attack. He said the result would be a bloodbath.
Ordinary Iranians contacted by Reuters said they expected Iran’s leaders to crack down heavily on any further protests.
A Tehran resident whose 15-year-old son was killed in the Jan. 9 protests said the demonstrators only sought a normal life and were met with “bullets.”
“If America attacks, I will return to the streets to avenge my son and the children this regime has killed.”
Iran’s Khamenei compares protesters to Islamic State
Amid ongoing protests, Khamenei compared Iranian protesters to Islamic State terrorists in a post on X/Twitter on Monday.
In one post, the supreme leader claimed that “the seditionists in Iran have burned people alive. They have beheaded people. They have committed the same atrocities that the Islamic State has committed.”
Khamenei, who refers to the protests as “sedition”, said a defining feature of the protests was violence and went on to claim that the protests in Iran were orchestrated by the United States and “Zionists”.