Siavash Ardalan

Sivash, to you first of all. As I say, we're into the third straight week of this. From the fragments of information that's coming in, what can you tell us? The main fragment of information that came out was a video clip, a very heart-wrenching and horrific image of people at a mortuary outside Tehran, the capital, where hundreds of bodies were piled upon each other and relatives or families of these people searching for their loved ones. Now, we hadn't

known the scale of the killings until this video had come out. And then from the fragments of information we're getting from people via Starlink sending us messages telling us the grim atmosphere right now prevailing in Tehran and other cities after that massive crackdown. Everyone knows someone who has been killed. So the situation is one that you would associate with the serious civil war or with Gaza today in Iran for the authorities to quell one of the biggest protests that took place over the past years.

Well, on the first day of the protest he had the government saying that they recognize this protest because it was a strike by shopkeepers that come out in the streets protesting against inflation and the way that the currency market works, which is really to their detriment. And then, as the pattern usually is, it morphed into something different.

Kiitos, että katsoitte.

The crackdown turned very violent and the protests turned very massive. The rioters became armed terrorists trained by the Mossad and by the CIA to sow discord inside the country. And now with these high numbers of deaths that have emerged ever since this crackdown, what the government is saying that most of these people who have been killed are the security forces and innocent private citizens killed by the protesters, which the government calls terrorists.

President Trump warned that he will intervene if the regime starts killing protesters. Now, some protesters were trusting that warning, thinking that if they go out to the street, they will be protected by the United States, somehow believing that the US has an actionable plan to prevent a crackdown.

Tämä ei todennäköisesti tapahtunut. Regime ei kuitenkaan välttämättä huomannut presidentin huolta ja meni eteenpäin ja käsitteli yksi suurimmista taitoista viime vuonna. Eli paljon ihmisiä voi olla vahvistunut presidentin huolta. Nyt, kun taitoja on tapahtunut, kysymys on, onko protesterit vaikuttaneet joillekin regime-muutokseen.

Presidentin puheenjohtaja sanoi, että iranilaiset haluavat meidät keskustella. Me voimme keskustella niiden kanssa, mutta myös heidät. Hän ei kuitenkaan sano, että hän on menossa regime-muutokseen. Hän ei kuitenkaan sano, että hän ei käy Iraniin. Monet protesterit toivovat, että se liittyy regime-muutokseen. Toiset ovat vain miettineet prospektin, että se on yksi kriisi ja sitten toinen.

Absolutt. They have their own scenarios in mind. They initially had warned that Iran might even carry out preemptive strikes in anticipation of an Israeli or a U.S. attack. But today Iran's foreign minister ruled that out, yet said we're very ready for a war, even more ready than we were back in June when Israel attacked Iran.

Well, the issue of the Iranian opposition is very complex. At the moment, if you want to divide them into categories, you have the monarchists led by Reza Pahlavi and you have the non-monarchists, the Republicans. The Republicans are very fractured, composed of various groups, but the monarchists, owing to a very powerful campaign, not just against the regime in Iran, but against also the Republicans and the opposition, other opposition forces, they have managed to rally the people together

The protesters in fact, in a way that surprised really many observers in Iran, providing a positive vision, not just something against a dictatorship, but really through AI images that have proliferated inside the country with social media, that people have a vision.

and that vision is becoming a powerful country, economically prosperous, something like Iran's neighbors in the south, like UAE and Saudi Arabia. And that kind of image is what the young people are yearning for. So the more support he has gained, that kind of seemed to spread out more, because people are seeing that he is the only person who managed to inspire enough people to come out in such huge numbers out on the street. But whether to give you a percentage-wise...

Sivac, let's loop back around to the scale of what we're seeing, because it is not just Tehran and a few other cities. It is in so many different places now, isn't it? Well, let's be careful in using the present tense, because we don't know whether the protests are still ongoing. They may have completely been put out after this crackdown. But what we did see on the 8th of 9th of January, which was historical, is people...

This is people from all age categories, all walks of life coming out to the street and challenging the system. This is what it takes to start a revolution and we were in the initial phases of that. So this protest was historically very important.

It's really important, isn't it, not to underestimate. You have the supreme leader, you have the revolutionary guard, you have decades of the tightest grip from this regime over its people. People simplify the overthrow of this regime. There are so many layers of security. The security apparatus is so powerful. So much investment has gone into consolidating this. It's not as if people come out in the streets and the revolutionary guards will suddenly melt away.

More killings, according to the estimates that we're getting, have taken place in such a short span of time that even during Syria's civil war. So we have a very powerful force that is prepared to fight to the end. And if it feels cornered, it might even take risks or do things that might seem suicidal.

Sivash, just 20 seconds. What are you looking out for in the next couple of days? I don't think given the severity of the crackdown, more protests will be taking place or they'll expand. I think what we have to look for is the possibility of a US attack, where it will hit and how the Iranians will take it, whether that might embolden some Iranians to go back out on the street.