Islamic Republic in ‘survival mode’ amid protests, Iranian officials said to believe

At least 17 killed in week of demonstrations, according to rights group; reports say Khamenei planning to flee to Russia if security forces fail to quell unrest

Senior officials in Iran have acknowledged that the country has reportedly been “thrust into survival mode” amid growing and increasingly violent protests against the Islamic Republic’s regime.

At least 17 people have been killed during a week of unrest in Iran, a rights group said on Sunday, as protests spread across the country, sparking violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

Deaths and arrests have been reported throughout the week, both by state media and rights groups, though the figures differed.

The protests are the biggest in three years. Some senior figures have struck a softer tone than in some previous bouts of unrest, at a moment of vulnerability for Iran with the economy in tatters and international pressure building.

After US President Donald Trump threatened to intervene if Iran killed peaceful protesters on Friday, the country’s Supreme National Security Council held a meeting to discuss how to temper the protests without reacting violently and avoid fueling the rage toward the regime, three Iranian officials familiar with government deliberations told The New York Times on Sunday.

The council also prepared for a scenario where Iran would be hit with military strikes, the report said.

Amid the protests, senior officials have acknowledged the Islamic Republic, which came to power in the revolution of 1979, has now been “thrust into survival mode,” the three officials told the Times.

Trump reiterated his threats on Sunday.

“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

According to an intelligence report shared with the British daily The Times, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, will flee Tehran to Moscow with his aides and family members if his security forces fail to halt the growing demonstrations or desert his side amid the unrest.

“The ‘plan B’ is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba,” an intelligence source told the British newspaper.

In December 2024, then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, an ally of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Khamenei, fled a rebel takeover to the Russian capital.

Supreme leader says Iran will not yield to enemy

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian told the Interior Ministry to take a “kind and responsible” approach toward the protesters, according to remarks published by state media, saying “society cannot be convinced or calmed by forceful approaches.”

That language is the most conciliatory yet adopted by Iranian authorities, which have acknowledged economic pain and promised dialogue even as security forces cracked down on public dissent in the streets.

Trump on Friday threatened to come to the protesters’ aid if they face violence, saying, “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” without specifying what actions he was considering.

That warning prompted threats of retaliation against US forces in the region from senior Iranian officials. Khamenei said Iran “will not yield to the enemy.”

Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw reported that at least 17 people had been killed since the start of the protests. HRANA, a network of rights activists, said at least 16 people had been killed and 582 arrested.

Iran’s police chief, Ahmad-Reza Radan, told state media that security forces had been targeting protest leaders for arrest over the previous two days, saying “a big number of leaders on the virtual space have been detained.”

Police said 40 people had been arrested in the capital Tehran alone over what they called “fake posts” on protests aimed at disturbing public opinion.

The most intense clashes have been reported in western parts of Iran, but there have also been protests and clashes between demonstrators and police in Tehran, in central areas, and in the southern Baluchistan province.

Deadly clashes

The protests have taken place in 23 out of 31 provinces and affected, to varying degrees, at least 40 different cities, most of them small and medium-sized, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements and media reports.

Hengaw said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps opened fire on protesters in the Malekshahi county of the western Ilam province on Saturday, killing four members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.

The group said it was checking reports that two other people had been killed, adding that dozens more were wounded. It also accused the authorities of raiding the main hospital in the city of Ilam to seize the bodies of the protesters.

The Iran Human Rights NGO, also based in Norway, gave an identical toll of four dead, as well as 30 wounded, after “security forces attacked the protests” in Malekshahi.

It said funerals for the dead took place on Sunday with mourners chanting slogans against the government and Khamenei.

Both organizations posted footage of what appeared to be bloodied corpses on the ground, in videos verified by AFP.

Iranian media said a member of the security forces was killed in a clash with “rioters” who attempted to storm a police office, with “two assailants” killed.

In Tehran, sporadic demonstrations on Saturday night were reported in districts in the east, west, and south, the Fars news agency said.

On Sunday, the vast majority of shops were open in the capital, although the streets appeared less crowded than usual, with riot police and security forces deployed at major intersections, AFP observed.

Images verified by AFP showed Iranian security forces using tear gas to disperse a group of protesters who gathered in central Tehran during the day on Sunday.

Late on Saturday, the governor of Qom, the conservative center of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim clerical establishment, said two people had been killed there in unrest — one of them when an explosive device he made blew up prematurely.

HRANA and the state-affiliated Tasnim news agency reported that authorities had detained the administrator of online accounts urging protests.

Local media’s accounting of the protests is not exhaustive, and state-run outlets have downplayed the demonstrations in their coverage, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.

Currency lost around half its value

Protests began a week ago among bazaar traders and shopkeepers before spreading to university students and then provincial cities, where some protesters have been chanting against Iran’s clerical rulers.

Iran has faced inflation above 36 percent since March 2025, and the rial currency has lost around half its value against the dollar, causing hardship for many people.

International sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program have been reimposed, the government has struggled to provide water and electricity across the country throughout the year, and global financial bodies predict a recession in 2026.

Khamenei said on Saturday that although authorities would talk to protesters, “rioters should be put in their place.”

Speaking on Sunday, Vice President Mohammadreza Aref said the government acknowledged the country faced shortcomings while warning that some people were seeking to exploit the protests.

“We expect the youth not to fall into the trap of the enemies,” Aref said in comments carried by state media.