A timeline of how the protests in Iran unfolded and the crackdown that followed
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Demonstrations broke out in Iran on Dec. 28 and have spread nationwide as protesters vent their increasing discontent over the Islamic Republic’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency. While the initial focus had been on issues like spikes in the prices of food staples and the country’s staggering annual inflation rate, protesters began chanting anti-government statements and directly challenging Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran shut down the internet Jan. 8 and embarked on a major crackdown, reportedly killing thousands of people.
Here is how the protests developed:
Dec. 28: Protests break out in two major markets in downtown Tehran, after the Iranian rial plunged to 1.42 million to the U.S. dollar, a new record low, compounding inflationary pressure and pushing up the prices of food and other daily necessities. The government had raised prices for nationally subsidized gasoline in early December, increasing discontent.
Dec. 29: Central Bank head Mohammad Reza Farzin resigns as the protests in Tehran spread to other cities. Police fire tear gas to disperse protesters in the capital.
Dec. 30: As protests spread to include more cities as well as several university campuses, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian meets with a group of business leaders to listen to their demands and pledges his administration will “not spare any effort for solving problems” with the economy.
Dec. 31: Iran appoints Abdolnasser Hemmati as the country’s new central bank governor. Officials in southern Iran say that protests in the city of Fasa turned violent after crowds broke into the governor’s office and injured police officers.
Jan. 1: The protests’ first fatalities are officially reported, with authorities saying at least seven people have been killed. The most intense violence appears to be in Azna, a city in Iran’s Lorestan province, where videos posted online purport to show objects in the street ablaze and gunfire echoing as people shouted: “Shameless! Shameless!” The semiofficial Fars news agency reports three people were killed. Other protesters are reported killed in Bakhtiari and Isfahan provinces while a 21-year-old volunteer in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force was killed in Lorestan.
Jan. 2: U.S. President Donald Trump raises the stakes, writing on his Truth Social platform that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.” The warning, only months after American forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites, includes the assertion, without elaboration, that: “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.” Protests, meantime, expand to reach more than 100 locations in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Jan. 3: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says “rioters must be put in their place,” in what is seen as a green light for security forces to begin more aggressively putting down the demonstrations. Protests expand to more than 170 locations in 25 provinces, with at least 15 people killed and 580 arrested, HRANA reports.
Jan. 6: Protesters conduct a sit-in at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar until security forces disperse them using tear gas. The death toll rises to 36, including two members of Iranian security forces, according to HRANA. Demonstrations have reached over 280 locations in 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces.
Jan. 8: Following a call from Iran’s exiled crown prince, a mass of people shout from their windows and take to the streets in an overnight protest. The government responds by blocking the internet and international telephone calls, in a bid to cut off the country of 85 million from outside influence.
Jan. 9: Iran signals a crackdown is coming, but protesters again demonstrate. HRANA says violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 65 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained.
Jan. 10: The protests reach the two-week mark as the death toll reaches at least 116 people killed, HRANA says. Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warns that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.
Jan. 11: Trump says that Iran proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown targeting demonstrators there. Activists say the death toll in protests has risen to at least 544.
Jan. 12: Iran holds pro-government demonstrations that draw tens of thousands of people to the streets as the death toll rises to at least 646.
Jan. 13: The death toll the protests surpasses 2,500, activists say, as Iranians make phone calls abroad for the first time in days after authorities severed communications. Trump says he calls off any meetings with the Iranians and promises that unspecified “help is on its way.”
Jan. 14: Iran promises retaliation if the U.S. or Israel intervenes in the domestic unrest, while Iranian officials signal that fast trials and executions lie ahead for suspects detained in the nationwide protests.
Jan. 15: U.S. and Iranian officials face off at the U.N. Security Council, where America’s envoy renewed threats against the Islamic Republic. An Iranian diplomat alleges America had “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran to violence.”
Jan. 20: Hackers disrupt Iranian state television satellite transmissions to air footage supporting the country’s exiled crown prince and calling on security forces to not “point your weapons at the people.” Activists say the death toll has reached at least 4,000 people.
Jan. 26: The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and three accompanying warships arrive in the Middle East amid Trump’s threats to attack.
Jan. 28: The Iranian rial plunges 11% over 48 hours to a new low of 1.6 million to the dollar, according to currency traders.
Jan. 29: Iran issues a warning to ships at sea that it plans to run a drill the following week that will include live firing in the Strait of Hormuz, potentially disrupting traffic through a waterway that sees 20% of all the world’s oil pass through it.
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Rising reported from Bangkok.