DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Widening protests in Iran sparked bythe Islamic Republic's ailing economyare putting new pressure on its theocracy.
Tehran is still reeling from a12-day war launched by Israelin June that sawthe United States bomb nuclear sitesin Iran. Economic pressure, intensified in September bythe return of United Nations sanctionson the country over its atomic program, has put Iran's rial currency into a free fall, now trading at some 1.4 million to $1.
Meanwhile, Iran's self-described"Axis of Resistance"— a coalition of countries and militant groups backed by Tehran — has been decimated in the years since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
A new threat byU.S. President Donald Trump warning Iranthat if Tehran "violently kills peaceful protesters," the U.S. "will come to their rescue" has taken on new meaning after American troops captured Venezuelan PresidentNicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
Here's what to know about the protests and the challenges facing Iran's government.
How widespread the protests are
Demonstrations have reached over 170 locations in 25 of Iran's 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early Sunday. The death toll had reached at least 15 killed, it added, with more than 580 arrests. The group, which relies on an activist network inside of Iran for its reporting, has been accurate in past unrest.
Understanding the scale of the protests has been difficult. Iranian state media has provided little information about the demonstrations. Online videos offer only brief, shaky glimpses of people in the streets or the sound of gunfire. Journalists in general in Iran also face limits on reporting such as requiring permission to travel around the country, as well as the threat of harassment or arrest by authorities.
But the protests do not appear to be stopping, even afterSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneion Saturday said "rioters must be put in their place."
Why the demonstrations started
The collapse of the rial has led to a widening economic crisis in Iran. Prices are up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table. The nation has been struggling with an annual inflation rate of some 40%.
In December, Iran introduceda new pricing tier for its nationally subsidized gasoline, raising the price of some of the world's cheapest gas and further pressuring the population. Tehran may seek steeper price increases in the future, as the government now will review prices every three months.
The protests began first with merchants in Tehran before spreading. While initially focused on economic issues, the demonstrations soon saw protesters chanting anti-government statements as well. Anger has been simmering over the years, particularly after the 2022 death of22-year-old Mahsa Aminiin police custody that triggered nationwide demonstrations.
Iran's alliances are weakened
Iran's "Axis of Resistance," which grew in prominence in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, is reeling.
Israel has crushed Hamas in the devastating war in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group in Lebanon, has seen itstop leadership killed by Israeland has been struggling since. A lightning offensive in December 2024 overthrew Iran's longtime stalwart ally and client in Syria,President Bashar Assad, after years of war there. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels also have been pounded byIsraeli and U.S. airstrikes.
China meanwhile has remained a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, but hasn't provided overt military support. Neither has Russia, which has relied on Iranian drones in its war on Ukraine.
The West worries about Iran's nuclear program
Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials haveincreasingly threatened to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels prior to the U.S. attack in June, making it the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.
Tehran also increasingly cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, as tensions increased over its nuclear program in recent years. The IAEA's director-general has warnedIran could build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program.
U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
Iran recently said it wasno longer enriching uraniumat any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. But there's been no significant talks in the months since the June war.
Why relations between Iran and the US are so tense
Iran decades ago was one of the United States' top allies in the Mideast underShah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA fomented a1953 coup that cemented the shah's rule.
But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule. Then came theIslamic Revolutionled by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which created Iran's theocratic government.
Later that year,university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah's extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed.
During theIran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein. During that conflict, the U.S. launched a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea as part of the so-called"Tanker War,"and latershot down an Iranian commercial airlinerthat the U.S. military said it mistook for a warplane.
Iran and the U.S. have seesawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, and relations peaked with the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran greatly limit its program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. ButTrump unilaterally withdrew America from the accordin 2018, sparking tensions in the Mideast that intensified afterHamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.