Iran acknowledges about 2,000 deaths in protests as U.S. imposes sweeping tariffs and weighs next steps
DUBAI, Jan. 13 — An Iranian official said about 2,000 people, including security personnel, have been killed in two weeks of nationwide protests, the first time authorities have acknowledged a death toll from the crackdown that followed unrest over Iran’s collapsing currency and deepening economic pain.
The official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, blamed “terrorists” for the deaths on both sides but did not provide a breakdown of those killed. The protests, which began Dec. 28 after a steep fall in the rial, have broadened into the most serious challenge to Iran’s clerical leadership in at least three years and come amid rising international pressure following Israeli and U.S. strikes last year.
Tariffs and geopolitical fallout
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced 25% import tariffs on products from any country doing business with Iran, a move that could pinch global supply chains and deepen Tehran’s isolation. China, a key buyer of Iranian oil, swiftly criticized the measure. Iran has not publicly responded to the tariffs; other major trading partners include Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and India.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday he believed Iran’s government could fall. “I assume that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime,” he said, adding that a state relying on violence “is effectively at its end.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed the remarks as hypocritical and accused Berlin of double standards.
Crackdown, contested toll and information blackout
Rights groups say they have identified by name hundreds of people killed and allege the true toll exceeds the 2,000 figure cited by the Iranian official. The U.S.-based group HRANA said 10,721 people had been arrested by late Monday; Reuters could not independently verify the number. HRANA also reported families gathering at graves in Tehran’s Behesht Zahra Cemetery to chant protest slogans.
A sweeping communications clampdown has obscured the scale of the violence. The U.N. human rights office said Tuesday that phone services have largely been restored, but internet connectivity remains patchy after days of blackouts that hampered documentation of clashes and arrests.
Videos verified by Reuters show nighttime street battles, gunfire and burning vehicles and buildings in multiple cities over the past week.
Tehran’s dual-track response
Authorities have alternated between calling for calm and deploying a heavy security response. “The government sees security forces and protesters as its children,” government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said Tuesday. “To the best of our abilities, we have tried and will try to listen to their voices even if some have tried to hijack such protests.”
Despite the unrest and years of external pressure, there are no clear signs of fractures within the security establishment that has underpinned the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution. Still, lawmaker Mohammadreza Sabaghian, from the central province of Yazd, urged action to address public grievances, warning that otherwise “the same events will occur with greater intensity.”
Signals of dialogue with Washington
Tehran says it is keeping channels with the United States open even as Washington weighs responses to the crackdown. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that while airstrikes are among the options, “diplomacy is always the first option for the president.”
Araqchi said Tehran was reviewing ideas put forward by Washington but called them “incompatible” with the threats being issued. He told Al Jazeera that his contacts with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff continued before and after the protests and remain ongoing.
For now, Iran’s leadership is projecting control while facing its most combustible mix of domestic anger and foreign pressure in years: a plunging currency, widening arrests, a death toll now publicly acknowledged — and the prospect of global economic penalties that reach far beyond its borders.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
