Iran on the Brink

Over the past week, massive protests have erupted across Iran. Calling for economic reform and an end to the regime. In recent days, a full picture of the government's crackdown on the protesters has emerged, garnering worldwide condemnation we don't wanna see what's happening in Iran happen. And threats of action from president Trump. When they start killing thousands of people and now you're telling me about hanging, we'll see how that works out for them. It's not gonna work out good. From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. Today, my colleague Farnaz Faseehi on what's driving the protesters and why the Iranian regime has never been closer to collapse. It's Wednesday, January 14. Farnaz, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Farnaz, you have been covering Iran for decades, and we at The Daily turn to you during these huge moments of disruptions, eruptions, which is what it feels like we are in right now in Iran. We're talking to you Tuesday afternoon at about 01:30PM, and I'd like for you to start off by characterizing what we are seeing on the ground right now. For the past week, we've seen nationwide protests in cities big and small across different demographics erupt all across Iran with a singular demand for the end of the Islamic Republic's rule. And this is coupled with an external threat from The United States and Israel, that there might be a military strike on Iran and an economy that's in tailspin, which is creating a very unique and difficult challenge for the government because it's facing a kind of a perfect storm. But we're also seeing the government brutally responding to these protests and violent crackdown unfolding with thousands of people killed and injured, and bodies are piling up at the morgue and at the cemetery as reports of the killings trickle out. So as you said, it is a perfect storm of things that the regime is dealing with in terms of threats. So I wanna start with the protests themselves and what's going on inside the country. Can you just talk a little bit about what's driving people to the streets? People are just set up racial. They feel like they've got nothing to lose, that this government is either unwilling or incapable of bringing the kind of change that people want to see in their lives, ranging from social freedom to political freedom and, of course, the economy, which is fueling these protests. Now we have to remember that Iran's economy has been in shambles for years. President Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran targeting its oil revenues and international banking structures in 2018 when he exited the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. In the fall, the United Nations Security Council reimposed UN sanctions on Iran through a mechanism known as snapback related to Iran's standoff with Europeans and The United States over the nuclear program. And from then, …