Iran says internet being restored, technical problems slow rollout - Fars

In recent days, provincial governors and security officials in several parts of Iran have summoned reformist figures to governorate offices for security “briefing” sessions aimed at politically justifying the crackdown on protests and the widespread killings, one participant in the meeting told Iran International.

In some sessions, the source said, objections and heated arguments broke out between reformists and security officials, with several attendees reacting strongly to the scale of the killings.

Provincial officials responded by claiming that those killed during the protests were “terrorists” or individuals who had “entered the country from abroad.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had previously stressed the need to “convince different segments of society,” particularly doctors, about the Islamic Republic’s handling of the unrest and the security response.

The non-profit Jewish Institute for National Security of America, founded in 1976, advocates for a strong US military relationship with Israel and researches conflict in the Middle East.

JINSA president and CEO Michael Makovsky and the group’s vice president for policy Blaise Misztal told Iran International’s English-language podcast Eye for Iran that decades of containment, deterrence and nuclear diplomacy have failed because the Islamic Republic itself should be destroyed.

“It should be US policy to seek the collapse of this regime,” Makovsky said.

They said hesitation now — after mass killings of protesters across Iran — risks emboldening Tehran at the theocracy's weakest moment.

“We don’t say regime change,” Makovsky said. “The regime will fall … only when the Iranian people bring it down. But it should be US policy … to seek the collapse of this regime.”

The last months, Misztal said, have created a rare strategic opening: Iran’s nuclear clock has been set back, its regional proxies weakened and Iranians themselves have returned to the streets demanding freedom.

“This is a moment like no other,” he said. “I don’t know when the stars will align like this again… why not make it now? When is a better time than now?”

The duo urged the Trump administration to abandon negotiations, intensify pressure on the Revolutionary Guards and build the infrastructure needed to help Iranians defeat the Islamic Republic.

Misztal said previous administrations focused on Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism sponsorship and ballistic missile development as separate threats without tying them back to what he called the ideological nature of the theocracy.

“Yes, it’s a problem that Iran is the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism. Yes, it is a problem that it’s pursuing nuclear weapons,” he said. “But all of that stems from it being the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Trump’s Promises and a Moment of Decision

Their warnings come as President Donald Trump faces rising scrutiny over his own rhetoric. Earlier this month, Trump vowed support for protesters and issued a direct warning to Tehran.

“I tell the Iranian leaders: You better not start shooting, because we’ll start shooting, too,” he said.

But Makovsky warned that after mass killings and widespread arrests, the absence of immediate consequences risks damaging US credibility.

“The Iranians have called his bluff for now,” he said. “If he doesn’t do it, it will go down as a tragic mistake.”

In recent days, Trump has said a US "armada" is heading toward the Middle East, with the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and several guided-missile destroyers expected to arrive in the region soon as Washington signals it is positioning military assets amid escalating uncertainty.

The growing tensions are now rippling far beyond Iran itself.

Major European airlines have begun suspending flights across parts of the Middle East, citing security concerns. Air France has canceled flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai, British Airways has halted evening service to Dubai and KLM has suspended routes to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Industry officials say cancellations are expected to increase gradually as carriers reassess airspace restrictions and passenger safety in a rapidly deteriorating regional environment.

A Cold War–Style Pressure Campaign

Misztal framed the strategy as a modern version of what the United States pursued against Soviet communism: strengthening civil resistance while weakening the ruling system from within.

“The strategy of regime collapse has been precisely what the United States pursued throughout the Cold War,” he said.

He argued that Washington should encourage defections, isolate elites in authority, cut off funding streams and expand opposition communications.

“One of the things we recommended is a quarantine of Iran’s oil exports,” Misztal said, “so that it doesn’t keep getting the money to rebuild its forces to pay the Basij or the IRGC.”

Both analysts warned that Iran’s leadership is entering what they described as its most dangerous phase, amid mass violence at home and the potential for war abraod.

“A showdown of some kind” is coming, Misztal said, and “the next showdown will be the last one."

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has moved into a special underground shelter in Tehran after senior military and security officials assessed an increased risk of a potential US attack, two sources close to the government told Iran International.

The facility was described as a fortified site with interconnected tunnels.

The sources indicated that Masoud Khamenei, the supreme leader’s third son, has taken over day-to-day management of the leader’s office and serves as the main channel for communication with executive branches of the government.

Security forces in Iran pressured medical staff to cooperate in the crackdown by controlling hospitals and altering the files of wounded and dead patients to reduce recorded deaths from gunfire, information received by Iran international indicates.

Some facilities held multiple areas filled with uncovered bodies, with corpses loaded onto trucks and, in some cases, buried collectively without ritual washing, according to a healthcare worker.

The accounts also describe demands for payments tied to the type of bullet to release bodies, confiscation of staff ID cards, bans on communication, and manipulation of medical records to list alternative causes of death, the healthcare worker said.

Iran's exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi said protests in Iran amounted to a genuine revolution but argued the country’s ruling authorities responded by turning their guns on the public.

Some members of the security forces, he told in an interview with the CNN, refused to report for duty, and added that several police officers who declined to take part in the crackdown were killed.

Iranians, Pahlavi said, wanted the world to understand they were not fighting only for themselves but for broader human freedom. Referring to warnings by Donald Trump about consequences for repression, he said decisive action could give protesters another chance to prevail.