Iran Erupts: Massive Protests Grip Nation, Internet Blackout as Crowds Challenge Regime
Tehran is struggling to control the event, which has left dozens of protesters dead and at least four members of the security forces dead since the demonstrations began on December 28.
Aadrika Tayal 
New Delhi (India) January 9: Iran’s government cut off the country’s internet and international phone lines Thursday night as a demonstration organised by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi brought vast crowds to the streets.
Israel Watches in Silence
Israel is watching the protests in Iran closely, even as officials are reluctant to talk frankly about the protests. Israeli sources reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed cabinet ministers to refrain from giving public statements, lest the regime take additional ammunition to charge Israel.
Netanyahu has also tried to talk in the past to the Iranian people, and even during the 12-day-long war between Israel and Hamas in June, tried to speak directly to them. But Israel’s silence now tells me that the government is taking the demonstrations in Iran seriously.
Crown Prince's Call Ignites Streets
The images were published by state television overnight, showing what it said were burning buses, cars and motorbikes and fires at metro stations and banks. It charged the People’s Mujahedin Organisation, an opposition faction that split following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and became known as the MKO, as responsible for the unrest.
Protesters cried out from their windows and emerged on the streets in the first major test of the crown prince’s power, nearly five decades after his father fled Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Deadly Clashes Mount
Iranians staged their largest protests yet in an almost two-week uprising fueled by anger over the escalating cost of living, chanting slogans such as “death to the dictator” and torching official buildings, videos were shown on Friday.
There have been clashes that left at least 42 people dead and over 2,270 detained so far, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said. At the other end of the spectrum, Iranian state television didn’t report on the internet blackout around the clock hitting more than 85 million citizens; only, on Friday's 7:00 am broadcast, on the basis of food subsidy programmes.
Flights Grounded Amid Turmoil
Many flights to Iran were canceled on Friday amid the country’s broad anti-government protests. Dubai’s state-owned airline flydubai said it was closely monitoring the situation after announcing its flights to Iran on Friday would be canceled.
At least 17 flydubai flights on Friday between Dubai and other Iranian cities, including Tehran, Shiraz and Mashhad, will be impacted by the cancellations, sources said.
Turkish Airlines also said that 20 flights to and from Iran from Thursday to Saturday have been canceled, according to a CNN interview.
Echoes of Mahsa Amini's Legacy
The latest demonstrations in Iran are the largest since the large killings which were triggered by the 2022 killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while held by the religious police in Iran. Amini's death would spark large-scale protests about everything from freedom in the Islamic Republic to the crushing economic consequences of sanctions.
This time the bazaaris, in Iran's world history as a powerhouse for change and a country considered loyal to the regime, started to raise their voices.
