JERUSALEM, Israel – As Iran’s uprising enters its third week, the Islamic Republic is trying to smother the protests through a sweeping campaign of mass arrests and intimidation. The war of words also continues between Washington, Jerusalem, and Tehran.
Iran’s top police official issued an ultimatum on Monday, demanding that the protesters hand themselves over or face the full force of the law.
Tens of thousands of protesters have been apprehended in a nationwide manhunt, while regime forces patrolling the streets are threatening to shoot anyone who comes outside.
Despite the Internet shutdown, some reports indicate that the killing continues. One doctor reportedly described the crackdown as “genocide under digital darkness.”
Yet, one Iranian woman told a radio talk show that many remain defiant.
“Don’t think everything is over here,” she insisted, and added, “We are not finished. Don’t leave us here alone at all. Don’t be silent at all.”
She continued, “They killed 20,000 of my beautiful compatriots. Can I sit at home and not talk? I can’t stand them anymore. We started this path ourselves. We are moving forward ourselves, and we must finish it ourselves.”
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned on Sunday that any U.S. strike on the country would provoke a “harsh response,” and that any attack on its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei would be “tantamount to a full-scale war on the Iranian nation.”
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In a Knesset speech in Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning to Iran.
He announced, “If Iran makes a mistake and attacks us, we will act with a force that Iran has not yet experienced. No one can predict what the future holds for Iran, but one thing is clear: whatever happens, Iran will not return to what it was.”
Exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi issued a direct message to Ayatollah Khamenei, charging, “You are an anti-Iranian criminal. You have neither honor nor humanity. Your hands are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of Iranians; the blood of children; the blood of youth; the blood of the innocent. You, your regime, and all your mercenaries will be held accountable for every single drop of blood you have spilled; without exception.”
The key question now is whether some in the military will begin to turn against the regime and side with the protesters. Another question concerns what answer President Trump will take once the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and its strike force are positioned in the region.
In the meantime, the Syrian Army has advanced against Kurdish forces in the northeastern part of the country.
Jonathan Spyer of the Middle East Forum told CBN News, “What happened in the recent days is that the government of Syria essentially has sought to reconquer the east of Syria, to take the east of Syria from Syrian Democratic Forces and to bring about the dissolution. And yesterday, a ceasefire was announced, which basically gives the Syrian government everything that it wants.”
As the army did against the minority Alawites and Druze, reports are emerging that jihadists are committing acts of rape, murder, and torture.
“It is a Sunni jihadi force,” Spyer explained. “The fact that these Sunni jihadi commanders have now been sort of officially rebadged as division commanders of the new Syrian Army is all very nice. But in reality, what they remain is the same Sunni jihadi fighters that we’ve known so well in the course of the Syrian civil war.”
The Syrians have also released thousands of ISIS prisoners, whom many believe pose a deadly threat to the region, especially to the creation of a true democracy in Syria.
