Behnam Ben Taleblu

Western militaries and Iranian domestic dissidents, the more successful they are in buying time to stay in power.

Right after the 12-day war, they arrested 21,000 Iranians.

During the protests in June, they arrested over 50,000 Iranians after killing over 40,000 in just a matter of days, just in early 2026.

And the thinking here is the same.

They're trying to disconnect the dots.

They fear the contagion effect.

I think it should be up to us, Israel, the exiled opposition, internal Iranian dissidents to connect the dots for them because I fear we are in a no way out but through situation.

I'm so glad you called it a story.

And I'm so glad you mentioned it because we at FTD just put out a map about the water crisis, not in the past 47 years, but measuring all the reported instances from the end of the 12-day war in June 2025 to the start of the protests in late December 2025.

We found over 60 instances.

And the solution to even one of these 60 instances did not come in January, February, March.

The regime has not addressed any of those things.

So, they are all operating in the background and we actually chose to publish this in the month of January as the protests were going on just so that the world saw how many different variables were going into the grievances of your average Iranian.

And as again, whenever the fighting stops, whatever that looks like or whatever timeline that comes,

And whenever the fog of war dissipates, all of those things, social, political, religious, economic, and again, as you mentioned, environmental, will again raise their heads.

And let me tell you something that I heard in 2025 from someone in Iran, not during the protests, but between the end of the 12-day war, when the internet was restored after that, to the beginning of 2020.

the protests in December.

So, think like late summer, early fall 2025.

And I actually cited a pro-regime reformist individual, former Tehran University professor, in the conversation with this, you can say, disgruntled youth in Iran.

And I said, you know, this individual, this Tehran professor, Sadegh Ziba-Kyalam, has always said that if America and Israel really go to war against you guys,