The deadly protests gripping Iran may not be the final battle between the Islamic republic’s hard-line government and its fed-up populace, but it shows the mullahs are running out of time, according to an expert who helps advise Congress.
Tehran has moved swiftly to quell the most serious protests since 2009’s “Green Movement,” cutting off social media and mobilizing police and military forces to deal with spreading demonstrations. But the demographics of the protests and the heavy-handed approach to them bode poorly for the brutal regime, according to Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst of Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Persian Gulf Affairs at the Congressional Research Service.
“[The demostrations have] morphed into basically a youth protest against the system writ large, and it all goes back to the clerics’ monopoly on power,” said Katzman, whose group provides research and analysis to Congress.
So far, at least 21 people have been killed and more than 450 arrested in widespread demonstrations.