INTELBRIEF

Intelbrief / IntelBrief: The Promise and Perils of the Iranian Protests

January 17, 2020

IntelBrief: The Promise and Perils of the Iranian Protests

In this photograph taken Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020, protesters hold flowers as tear gas fired by police rises at a demonstration in front of Amir Kabir University in Tehran, Iran, to remember victims of a Ukrainian airplane shot down by an Iranian missile. On Monday, Jan. 13, 2020 (AP Photo).
  • Iran has experienced intermittent periods of unrest in the decades since its Islamic Revolution of 1979, but the situation unfolding in early 2020 is exceptional.
  • Dispatches from the protests suggest that Iranians believe that the highest levels of the government are responsible and must be held accountable.
  • Chants from the protesters have included ‘Death to the liars’ and ‘Clerics, get lost!’
  • The U.S. government needs to balance its imperative to support pro-democratic reform with the reality that such support can easily backfire if it is perceived as meddling in Iran’s internal affairs.

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