US conservative commentator Mark Levin told Iran International on Thursday that Iran has effectively become a “concentration camp” amid a deadly crackdown on protests, urging the United States to act to help topple the Islamic Republic.
“I can only speak for myself. I don’t need any more reminding about how bad this regime is and that somebody better do something about it, because if it’s not us, nobody’s going to do anything about it,” Levin said.
Levin said recent reports of increased US military deployments to the region suggested Washington was keeping its options open, although he said he had no insight into whether military action was being considered.
“Most revolutions, including America’s own, needed outside help,” he said. “What is happening in Iran is a counter-revolution against a regime that rules by force and fear.”
Levin also criticized decades of US engagement with Tehran, arguing that successive administrations believed the Islamic Republic could be managed through negotiations.
“This is an ideological regime,” he said. “They talk, they negotiate, but they have no intention of abandoning their mission, and that is why they so brutally suppress their own people.”
Iran has faced widespread internet disruptions during renewed unrest, with only limited information reaching the outside world through satellite connections and virtual private networks.
“I can tell you that tens of millions of Americans stand with the people of Persia. There’s no question about it,” Levin said. “We know the regime there is Hitleresque, Nazi-like. The regime is slaughtering innocent people, especially young people, raping them, and pillaging towns. We know that regime is the enemy of the American people. They’ve made that abundantly clear.”
Iran International has reported that at least 12,000 people have been killed since the protests began, while CBS News has cited estimates placing the death toll as high as 20,000.
Sources told Iran International on Wednesday that hospitals and morgues are facing shortages of body bags, forcing authorities to store bodies in corridors and other areas.
“We know they still want to build nuclear weapons. They back terrorism in our country, throughout Europe, and across the Middle East, but the people they terrorize the most are the Persian people,” Levin said. “I feel horrible about what’s taking place, and all I can do is use my platforms to draw as much attention to this as I can.”
Levin said Iranians possess a long civilizational history distinct from other countries in the region and said those who emigrate to the United States often integrate successfully and contribute to American society.
“If the people of Iran were free, the contributions they could make to science, culture, and technology would be extraordinary,” he said. “Instead, they are focused on survival under repression.”
Judicial authorities in Qom province last week announced the confiscation of all assets and bank accounts belonging to Mohammad Saeedinia, the founder of a popular cafe chain operating in several Iranian cities.
Saeedinia had been arrested a day earlier and officials linked the move to his alleged support for strikes and protests after he temporarily closed his cafés following calls for strikes and work stoppages.
State-affiliated Fars News reported that assets linked to Saeedinia—including cafe chains, a roadside complex and food-industry businesses—were valued at between 25 and 27 trillion rials ($17.5–19 million).
Prosecutors said similar cases had been opened against dozens of other cafes, as well as actors, athletes and signatories of protest statements, adding that some assets had already been seized to compensate for damage to public property.
No violent crime, financial fraud or national-security offense has been publicly substantiated in Saeedinia’s case. Instead, it illustrates how economic pressure has emerged as an element of state repression in a practice with a long pedigree.
Confiscation codified
From the earliest months after the 1979 revolution, confiscation was used not only to dismantle the ancien régime’s economic base, but to restructure ownership and concentrate power within institutions aligned with the new state.
In the chaotic post-revolutionary period, seizures were carried out in what amounted to a legal vacuum. Revolutionary courts and ad hoc committees confiscated property under broad ideological justifications, often before a coherent judicial framework existed.
Decrees issued by Ruhollah Khomeini concerning “ownerless” or “illegitimate” property created elastic categories through which private assets could be absorbed by revolutionary bodies.
Although framed as redistribution, these measures laid the economic foundations of new power centers.
Over time, confiscation was institutionalized through bodies such as the Foundation of the Oppressed and the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, as well as through legal provisions including Article 49 of the constitution, which targets “illegitimate wealth” without defining the term.
Among the early and most consequential targets was Ahmad Khayami, a pioneer of Iran’s modern auto industry and co-founder of Iran National, later Iran Khodro. The seizure of his assets and removal of private control over the company marked a decisive break with Iran’s pre-revolutionary model of industrial entrepreneurship.
Another prominent case was Habib Sabet, an entrepreneur active in media, construction and commerce, and the founder of Iran’s first private television network. His assets were confiscated in the revolution’s aftermath, reflecting how independent capital—even without overt political involvement—was treated as incompatible with the new order.
Private sector hobbled
The execution of Habib Elghanian, a leading industrialist and head of Tehran’s Jewish community, sent a particularly chilling signal. After a summary revolutionary trial in 1979, his assets were seized and he was put to death, accelerating capital flight and underscoring the risks facing private enterprise in the new Islamic Republic.
The impact on Iran’s modern private sector was significant.
Entrepreneurs who had built manufacturing, retail and financial enterprises over decades were removed, their assets transferred to state or quasi-state structures. Many left the country.
Others were sidelined through prosecution or regulatory exclusion.
As revolutionary fervor faded, the practice evolved rather than disappeared. Highly publicized trials and executions gave way to asset freezes, license revocations and selective enforcement. Confiscation became less spectacular but more routine, embedded in administrative and judicial processes.
Recent protest cycles have again brought these mechanisms to the fore. Business closures, account seizures and professional bans have accompanied crackdowns, reinforcing the message that economic activity remains conditional on political compliance.
The seizure of Saeedinia’s assets fits squarely within this longer trajectory. It is not an isolated response to unrest, but part of a system in which control over property has, from the outset, served as a means of political management.
Mai Sato said earlier this week that civilian deaths were estimated at 5,000 or more, adding that medical reports suggested the toll could be far higher, at about 20,000 or more.
The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) said it has verified 4,902 deaths since unrest erupted in late December and is reviewing a further 9,387 suspected fatalities, while more than 26,000 people have been arrested, according to a statement on its website.
Iran’s National Security Council on Wednesday issued its first official toll, reporting 3,117 deaths, including 2,427 described as “innocent,” among them members of the security forces, without providing a civilian breakdown.
Iran International reported earlier this month that more than 12,000 people were killed during the crackdown largely on January 8 and 9.
