{"id":311794,"date":"2026-01-12T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=311794"},"modified":"2026-01-10T05:40:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T05:40:22","slug":"iran-dark-clouds-future-uncertain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/01\/iran-dark-clouds-future-uncertain\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran: Dark Clouds, Future Uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 Jan 2026 – <\/em>Since the “12-day war” of Israel and the U.S.A. against Iran in June 2025, Iran has been a powder key with unresolved political tensions, deepening economic turmoil, and rising domestic dissent.\u00a0 With the start of 2026, the keg has exploded.\u00a0 Protests have started in some 32 cities and larger towns throughout the country.<\/p>\n

The protests were first focused on economic issues symbolized by the sharp collapse of the rial, the national money, and the inflation exceeding 40 percent.\u00a0 These dynamics have turned the “bazaaris” – the merchants – traditionally a more conservative social group, into key participants in the protests.\u00a0 Economic hardship has become a daily experience for a wide segment of the population.<\/p>\n

Although the protests began with economic demands, reports from across the country indicate that slogans have increasingly shifted toward explicitly political and anti-governmental messages, including chants directed at the Iranian leadership and the political system as a whole.\u00a0 Universities have once again emerged as key protest centers with action by both students and professors.<\/p>\n

The government led by President Masoud Pezeshkian has promised economic reforms, but there is no protest leadership with which to negotiate.\u00a0 The\u00a0 security forces have increased repression with a large number of persons arrested.\u00a0 A number of persons have been killed.\u00a0 Funerals for the protesters killed have become occasions for\u00a0 additional protests.\u00a0 The repression has led the U.S. President Donald Trump to say “If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.\u00a0 We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”<\/p>\n

The U.S.\u00a0 threats in the Iran situation are very unhelpful.\u00a0 It is time to unlock and unload.\u00a0 Rather,\u00a0 as peacebuilders, we call on the Iranian authorities to cease immediately the use of\u00a0 force against peaceful protesters and to release those arbitrarily detained.\u00a0 This will create space for genuine dialogue and the needed reforms for economic justice.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Ren\u00e9 Wadlow is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>. He <\/em>is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues<\/em>, and <\/em>editor of <\/em>Transnational Perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Jan 2026 – Since the “12-day war” of Israel and the U.S.A. against Iran in June 2025, Iran has been a powder key with unresolved political tensions, deepening economic turmoil, and rising domestic dissent.\u00a0 With the start of 2026, the keg has exploded.\u00a0 Protests have started in some 32 cities and larger towns throughout the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":244689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[742,88,1378,70,481],"class_list":["post-311794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-protests","tag-usa","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":311795,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311794\/revisions\/311795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}