The protest movement in Iran has subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands under an internet blackout, monitors said Friday, one week after the start of the biggest protests in years challenging the Islamic republic’s theocratic system. The repression has “likely suppressed the protest movement for now”, said the US-based Institute for the Study of War, which has monitored the protest activity. Attention had focused on the fate of a single protester, Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old who rights activists and Washington said was set to be executed as early as Wednesday. At the UN Security Council in New York, Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, invited to address the body by Washington, said “all Iranians are united” against the clerical system in Iran. Iran’s representative at the meeting Gholamhossein Darzi accused Washington of “exploitation of peaceful protests for geopolitical purposes.”

Source: Dhaka Tribune January 16, 2026 12:21 UTC