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The US State Department on Monday posted a video of students at the University of Tehran chanting at night while surrounded by intelligence motorcycles, saying the students are shouting for freedom.
“Students at the University of Tehran are showing extraordinary courage, and even while security forces have besieged their dormitories, they are shouting for freedom and dignity,” the State Department’s Persian account on X said.
“Their slogans echo the determination of a generation that will not be silent, a generation that is the future of Iran,” the post added.
In the video, one speaker can be heard saying: “We all tell each other and promise each other that we expect nothing from any of the students who spoke. Take care of yourselves, know that there is such a risk, stay calm, and stand firm for freedom and for the ideals of the university."
“Do not be afraid, do not be afraid, we are all together. Students may die, but they will not accept humiliation,” the students’ chant.
Gila Gamliel, Israel’s minister of innovation, science and technology, posted a selfie on X on Monday wearing a “Make Iran Great Again” cap, tagging Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, with the caption “Soon.”
Gamliel told Iran International in September that Israel supports exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi as Iranians “trust and back him,” in the first explicit endorsement by an Israeli cabinet member of the exiled prince’s push for regime change.
US Ambassador to the UN Michael Waltz voiced support for protesters in Iran on Monday, saying people there want freedom and that “we stand with them."
“The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the ayatollahs for too long,” Waltz wrote on X.
“We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war,” he added.
An Iranian human rights lawyer has shared a text message sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence as evidence of state control, responding with a defense of the right to protest.
“When there is no longer any way left for democratic change, when in less than a year the value of people's money is halved and people are at risk of becoming homeless, when in summer and winter we have neither electricity nor gas nor water nor clean air, then protests against the country's politics, economy and management are the nation’s right,” Amir Raeisian wrote on X on Monday.
Raeisian posted a surveillance warning from the IRGC, although it is not clear whether he received the message himself or whether it was forwarded to him by one of the protesters, as he does not clarify who the original recipient was.
“Your presence in connection with the illegal gatherings on December 29 has come under intelligence monitoring, so it is advised that you strictly refrain from taking part yourself, and from the participation of your relatives, in such illegal gatherings, which serve the enemy’s aims,” the IRGC Intelligence text read.
“These are not illegal gatherings,” Raeisian said.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday issued his first official response to the latest protests over worsening economic conditions, saying he has instructed his interior minister to hold talks with demonstrators.
In a post on X, Pezeshkian said he had ordered Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi to “listen to the legitimate demands of protesters” and help the government “respond responsibly.”
Pezeshkian said improving people’s livelihoods remains his “daily concern,” and that reforms to the banking and monetary system are on the agenda.
But it remains unclear how the dialogue he has proposed will work or whether it can contain protests that are increasingly political in tone.
The unrest began with anger over the surging price of the US dollar and the collapse of the rial but quickly broadened.
Strikes and demonstrations spread nationwide on Monday, turning violent in several cities as nighttime crowds chanted against the ruling system and bazaar merchants vowed to continue their shutdowns.
In Tehran, large parts of the Grand Bazaar were shuttered, while clashes were reported in central streets.
While the slogans were mainly focused on economic issues on the first day, the second day's chants underscored a transition from economic frustration to more explicit political dissent.
Chants in several cities targeted Iran's political authority, with crowds shouting slogans such as "death to the dictator" and "Seyyed Ali (Khamenei) will be toppled this year".
The turmoil has been fueled by a currency crisis that pushed the dollar to roughly 144,000 tomans over the weekend. The head of Iran’s central bank resigned amid the turmoil, and Pezeshkian appointed former chief Abdolnaser Hemmati in a move seen as aimed at calming markets.
