"Death To Dictator, Death To Islamic Republic": Fresh Protests In Iran

The protests against Iran's Islamic regime, led by Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, have intensified in Tehran, with Iranians, angered by a soaring cost of living amid a flailing economy and crackdowns by security forces, taking to the streets, shouting slogans against the ruling theocratic regime. Iran's government under President Masoud Pezeshkian cut off the country from the internet and international telephone calls as the nighttime demonstration intensified, and the head of the country's judiciary and its security forces warned of a harsh response amid calls for "freedom, freedom." At least some of the protesters appeared to be heeding a protest call by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could have brought a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fuelling the protests that began over Iran's ailing economy.