On the latest episode of The New Region’s GeoSpace podcast, host Mohammed A. Salih spoke with Hamidreza Azizi, a Middle East security and geopolitics researcher and visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. They discussed the significance of Iran’s weeks-long nationwide protests compared with earlier episodes of unrest.

Iran has been engulfed in nationwide protests since late last year, as business owners and shopkeepers at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar went on strike and staged demonstrations over the falling value of the Iranian rial against the US dollar. The unrest later spread to other provinces, with chants increasingly targeting the state.

Tehran has labeled the protestors as “foreign plots” and “terrorist elements” working with the US and Israel.

Azizi said while Iran is facing mass unrest at home, Tehran is still operating “in the shadow of the 12-day war with Israel,” which he said is why the government is now “framing the unrest as somehow a continuation of the war with Israel.”

He said this narrative is being used “to legitimize and justify the excessive use of violence and the brutal crackdown on protesters.”

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said on Thursday that at least 4,902 deaths had been confirmed, with more than 9,000 additional cases under investigation. The group also reported over 26,000 arrests and more than 7,000 people seriously injured.

The actual toll is believed to be significantly higher, access to which has been significantly curbed amid widespread internet blackouts and communications outages.

Stressing the significance of the latest unrest and the violent crackdown, Azizi said the protests are “immediately framed as an existential threat, and especially in the aftermath of the conflict with Israel, are heavily securitized and externalized and met with maximum force.”

In June, Israel killed top brass Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists with airstrikes, prompting retaliatory attacks by Tehran, with the two trading salvos of missiles and drones for 12 days. The US also bombed the key Natanz and Fordow nuclear sites in the country near the end of the conflict.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday described protesters as “rioters,” blaming Washington for casualties in the nationwide unrest, which he called “American sedition,” and warning that the country would not let what he described as international and internal criminals go unpunished.

Azizi said there was also “a big effort” by Iranian authorities “to hold the elite together” and to manage the narrative.

“We've seen repression before, we've seen crackdown before, but the speed, the scale, and the kind of openness of lethal force this early in the protest cycle really stands out, I think. And, that alone tells us something.”

Iranian authorities have also cut communication services and imposed a nationwide internet blackout since January 8. Tehran often cuts internet access during unrest, making it significantly difficult to obtain information, especially on the crackdowns.