The protest movement that has been sweeping Iran for the past twenty days has taken a particularly bloody turn. According to several NGOs, the crackdown has already claimed 2,500 victims. The regime has also initiated tens of thousands of summary trials, which in many cases may result in hangings.

Donald Trump’s United States is threatening to get involved, while the Gulf countries are trying to dissuade them. The son of the Shah, who was exiled in 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who is close to the United States, is trying to embody the protest movement and is offering to take over if the mullahs’ regime falls. It is to be feared that the religious dictatorship, although weakened by several protest movements and by the 12-day war with Israel last June, has not yet had its final say and will make the Iranian people pay for its long and violent agony.

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