As the turmoil in Iran seems to have transformed into a period of relative quiet, reports emerge of the nature of the protests and government response. The FT reporting includes several elements that support claims that foreign forced were heavily involved in promoting the protests, which escalated after the Jan. 8 call by Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former Shah, for an uprising.
But amid the crowds, multiple witnesses described the sudden appearance of strange, highly organised “agitators”—men dressed in black, physically fit, and moving with military-like coordination.
“They were agile and quick,” one demonstrator in Tehran said, describing groups who would set fire to property and disappear moments later in search of another target. Another witness said he saw “commandos” urging residents to leave their homes and join the unrest, an aggressive, escalatory demand that many locals found alarming and unfamiliar. “They were definitely organised, but I don’t know who was behind them,” the witness said.
Their presence has become a central mystery of the upheaval. Iran authorities claim to have arrested 3,000 people, including “members of terrorist groups.”
Outside Iran, statements from Western and Israeli figures added fuel to fire. U.S. President Donald Trump urged protesters to continue and suggested that outside support was coming.
Officials pointed directly to the United States and Israel, framing the chaos as a continuation of covert warfare against Tehran. On Jan. 16, President of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian told President Putin that “it is evident that the US and the Zionist regime had a direct role” in the riots.
