Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: As America-based “Crown Prince” Reza Pahlavi and his three daughters prodded the agitators to overthrow the theocratic regime in a turbulent Iran, the Shia-majority nation, surrounded by the Sunnis, was cut off from the outside world on Friday as the Ayatollah-led government blocked the Internet, landline phones, mobile phones, and even cancelled flights.
Because of this communication crackdown, Iran was largely cut off from the outside world after authorities blacked out the internet to curb protests that have, since December 28, 2025, expanded to nearly 150 towns and cities, with phone calls not reaching the country, flights cancelled, and online Iranian news sites only intermittently updating.
Nearly 40 people, including a few policemen, have been reported killed, hundreds wounded, and thousands arrested as officials tried to crush the popular uprising.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Syed Ali Khamenei, 86—amid persistent speculations that he could flee to Russia along with his family and associates, just like his ally Syrian President Bashar al-Asad did in 2024—accused protesters of acting on behalf of US President Donald Trump. He said rioters were attacking public properties and warned that Tehran would not tolerate people acting as “mercenaries for foreigners.”
The protests that began in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar over soaring inflation in the Islamic Republic late last month have spiralled into the biggest for three years, with unrest reported in every province and rights groups documenting dozens of deaths, the media reported.
Iran’s fragmented external opposition factions called for more protests on Friday with Reza Pahlavi, exiled son of the last monarch Muhammed Reza Pahalvi, telling Iranians in a social media post: “The eyes of the world are upon you. Take to the streets.”
Trump, who bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 and who last week warned Tehran the US could come to the protesters’ aid, said on Friday he would not meet Pahlavi and was “not sure that it would be appropriate” to back him.
The images published by state television overnight showed what it said were burning buses, cars and motorbikes as well as fires at metro stations and banks. It accused the People’s Mujahedin Organisation, an opposition faction that splintered off after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and also known as the MKO, of being behind the unrest.
A state television journalist standing in front of the fires on Shariati Street in the Caspian Sea port of Rasht said “this looks like a war zone – all the shops have been destroyed.”
Iran has quelled far bigger bouts of unrest before, but it now faces a graver economic situation and intensifying international pressure with global sanctions over its nuclear programme reimposed since September 2025.
The protests have not yet approached the scale of nationwide demonstrations in late 2022 over women’s rights following the death in custody of a an Iranian-Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, but they pose the biggest internal challenge to the authorities since then because of hyperinflation, crashing Iranian rial, and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, besides acute water crisis.
The authorities have attempted a dual approach – describing protests over the economy as ‘legitimate’ while condemning what they call violent rioters and cracking down with security forces.
‘Manage the US’
“Last night in Tehran, a bunch of vandals and rioters came and destroyed a building that belonged to the state, to the people themselves, just to please the heart of the President of the United States,” Khamenei said, urging Donald Trump to “manage your own country.”
While the initial protests were focused on the economy, with Irianian rial losing half its value against the US dollar last year and inflation topping 40 percent in December 2025, they have morphed to include slogans directly against the authorities, including the Ayatollah.
Protesters have been chanting slogans including “Death to the Dictator”, and “Mullahs Go Back,” and praising the former monarchy that Islamists toppled in 1979. The extent of support inside Iran for the monarchy or for the MKO, the most vocal groups among Iranians, remains unclear. However, Pahalvi has thanked Trump.
Videos showed the “Crown Prince’s” three daughters have also been exhorting the agitators through online campaigning.
Most of the demonstrators seen in videos have been young men.
At least six flights between Dubai and Iranian cities scheduled for Friday were cancelled, the Dubai Airport website showed.