The Islamic Republic of Iran has been rocked by large widespread protests. They began on 28 December 2025 and continue raging till the time of writing this article, with no sign of abating. Iran is braving cruel international sanctions for insisting on continuing with its nuclear programme despite a sustained campaign to label it as a threat to regional peace. Sanctions have restricted Iran’s access to global financial markets, limited its oil exports, and frozen foreign assets. Its excessive reliance on oil revenue and lack of diversification and industrial growth has not helped, and despite support from China, Iran is nowhere it could have been in terms of the size of its economy and per capita GDP.
This economic distress has led to soaring inflation, sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial, and rising food and essential-goods prices. So, protests that began with bazaari merchants and shopkeepers in Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar soon spread across the nation’s 31 provinces. Millions of citizens from diverse walks of life, from students and labour groups to retirees and civil society activists also joined and it is difficult for the government to deny that the protests have taken the form of a popular, organic and anti-government movement if not uprising. Protesters across Iran’s major cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Mashhad, Shiraz, and Qom voiced their frustration over everyday hardships and see little hope in the manner in which the government would resolve this grave economic crisis.
Naturally, there are calls for systemic change that challenge the legitimacy of the current ruling structure, adding fuel to fire to an already surcharged atmosphere. It is being widely reported by the Western media that more than 2000 protestors have been killed by the Iranian law enforcement agencies and thousands more arrested. These reports cannot be verified independently. However, there appears to be a brutal crackdown on the protests.
President Trump Threatens Military Action
The real cause of worry, however is that President Trump is talking of regime change in Iran. On various posts on Truth Social, Trump said, “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” Following this signal of military intervention, he announced, “Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This Order is final and conclusive.”
Asking the people of Iran to press for regime change, he said, “Iranian Patriots, keep protesting – take over your institutions!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
Talking to a reporter on the news that Iran is now allegedly threatening to hang protestors, President Trump said, “We will take very strong action. It’s not going to work out good (for Iran)”.
Iran isn’t Venezuela
In a programme on Iran by Middle East Eye, human rights activist Huda Katabi explained the American “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran. Calling it’s “suffocating sanctions” as designed to cynically “starve people into revolution”, Katabi asserts that sanctions have actually strengthened the regime’s domestic grip by enabling isolation and strengthening the anti-West sentiment in the Iranian people.
Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute warned that the US leadership operates with a “skewed risk assessment” born of hubris and misinformation and may lead to disastrous military escalations. The experts also suggested that American officials bragging in the media regarding their intelligence operations with claims of Mossad infiltration, again allows the Iranian government to justify violent crackdowns by showing how these domestic protesters are foreign collaborators or working for US and Israel. Political scientist Vali Nasr notes that the US has a historical track record of destroying countries via economic sanctions and military intervention.
Parsi describes the current US approach as a “self-fulfilling prophecy”, where American intervention is described as “saving” the nation from conditions created by America in the first place. Without going into the details, it is obvious that Iran is no pushover. Speaking in an interview with an international broadcaster, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “Communication channels with Washington remain active despite heightened tensions. He stressed that Iran now possesses broader and stronger military preparedness compared to the brief war experienced last year. Any attempt to pressure Iran through force would face a firm response.”
The current regime is well-entrenched and cannot be overthrown so easily and America knows that. Yes, the US can try to bomb Iran to show off its brute, unchallenged power, but it will further complicate the already precarious situation in the Middle East.
Why Greenland?
After Venezuela and Iran, the American President is obsessed with Greenland. He said that America needs to own Greenland to prevent Russia and China from doing so. He insisted that the US would do it the soft way or the hard way (implying Denmark accede Greenland to it or else the US may invade and take over Greenland). Not many know that Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the largest of Denmark’s three constituent parts by land area, the other two are Denmark proper and the Faroe Islands. Thus, the citizens of Greenland are citizens of Denmark and also EU citizens. Greenland has great strategic benefits to offer America besides having lots of rare earth metals, uranium, iron and possibly large oil and gas reserves. If the US invades Greenland, it would be a terrible day for NATO. BBC reports, “Denmark’s defence ministry has announced it will conduct military exercises in Greenland. At least three NATO member nations, Germany, France and Sweden stated that they would participate in this endeavour.”
The problem with imperialists is their fickle memory. They do not remember their ignominy in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq. Intoxicated by their notion of invincibility, they feel that might is right and that they have a job to finish the evil guys and bring peace to the world.
Unfortunately, the reality is not the same as their skewed vision of the world and there are real people who will resist this neo-imperialism with all their might, even though they appear weak and their numbers may be small. The way forces of evil meet their end is summarised in these lines, “The shadow builds a tower tall and steep, to hide the broken vows it could not keep; Yet evil eats itself within the night, And crumbles into dust before the light. The wicked plan, in darkness sown and bred, falls by the very path it sought to tread.”