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Iran's Food Shelves Emptying Out, ATMs Offline, Two Days Into Iran's Internet Blackout

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by Tyler Durden
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Update(1335ET): Iran is two days into a total internet blackout, which has not only impacted news footage from the ground getting out of the country, but the ability of ATMs to function (already there is a full Wikipedia page). Rumors have begun that people are trying to access their bank savings (despite the collapsing currency crisis) at shuttered locations, but one clear trend is that supermarket shelves are being emptied, amid unpredictable circumstances as protests spread, some locales witnessing fires, vandalism, and severe violence. BBC's live blog coverage highlights the following trends, amid an information fog and the Ayatollah blaming a US and Israeli hidden hand:

The cutting off of the internet in Iran has led to a near-total blackout of news about the unrest sweeping across the country.

Only a few videos have been posted today from Zahedan in the east of the country, showing protesters facing off against security forces, with the sound of gunfire in the background. Another from Mashhad, the second biggest city in Iran shows a burnt out government building.

One person who has been able to send a message to the BBC says he is in Shiraz, in southern Iran, where he reports a run on supermarkets by residents trying to stock up on food and other essentials, expecting worse days to come.

The shutdown of the internet has meant that ATMs are not working, and there is no way to access cash to pay for purchases in shops where debit cards cannot be used due to the lack of internet.

Cigs are apparently still in good supply...

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Iran's supreme leader has just taken to X where he for the first time explicitly called out the United States for instigating ongoing unrest in the Islamic Republic, where raging economic protests have taken root in more that one hundred cities and towns - with in some instances rioters torching buildings and cars.

"Today like the past, the US is wrong in its calculations about Iran," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote. Importantly he added context to this assertion in a Friday speech - his first since protests began in a Tehran market 13 days ago - that authorities will "not back down" as Tehran officials have charged that the unrest has a foreign hand behind it.

This Guardian image is sourced to the MEK(!)

The Ayatollah denounced the protesters as "vandals" and "saboteurs" and called out their alleged foreign agendas, amid increased images of city sectors burning, ongoing clashes with police, and reports of some limited exchanges of gunfire.

Protesters are now "ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy… because he said he would come to their aid" - in reference to President Trump, after the US leader has warned at least twice that there could be American military intervention if Iran starts killing protesters.

Trump also claimed in a FOX interview, but without citing specific intel or any evidence that the Ayatollah is "looking to go somewhere. It’s getting very bad." The claim is based on anonymously sourced reports that he could flee to Moscow if things got bad enough.

However, given the nature of Iran's brand of Shia revolutionary Islam, it remains highly unlikely that the country's Supreme Leader and top Shia cleric would simply or hastily just flee (perhaps would face 'martyrdom' first?) - especially during the opening phase of such unrest, given also the country has weathered similar ones over several years prior, including the so-called 'anti-hijab protests'.

By some international accounts, these current protests have yet to reach the size of the 2022 large-scale demonstrations, but that could change at any moment at this rate.

Thursday saw an escalation as the internet was cut throughout almost the entirety of the country, as much more images emerged of largely peaceful demonstrations quickly turning violent in some areas:

There were violent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in several locations in Iran on Wednesday, as a wave of unrest sparked by the country's economic crisis continued for an 11th day.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, said two policemen were shot and killed by armed individuals in the south-western town of Lordegan.

Videos posted on social media showed a tense stand-off between protesters and security forces, with the sound of gunfire in the background. In footage from several other areas, security forces appear to fire guns and tear gas towards crowds of protesters, some of whom are throwing stones.

Like with Syria of the last decade of the anti-Assad insurgency, information out of Iran can be hard to assess and interpret, given almost no international reporters or observers are on the ground. This means that professional activist networks and NGOs outside the country can dominate the narrative, cheerleading the spiraling crisis from afar.

To be expected, Israel is also cheering this on, and had even last week issued brazen statements - including that Mossad stands 'with' the protesters and is even helping them (a statement full of the usual ambiguity and psychological warfare). Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo has stated the same.

Below is an example of some of the worst and most simplistic propaganda which has no basis in any presentable evidence, and by 'anon' sources which don't tend to have any understanding of the internal dynamics of the country and people:

According to one such 'anti-Iran media' source and agency, "The 42 documented fatalities include 29 protesters, eight security personnel and five children or adolescents, figures released on Thursday by the US-based rights group HRANA showed."

Russian state media sources have alternately been highlighting the ample evidence of rioting and crowds attacking police, in some locales:

The clear admission from even Western mainstream reports that some eight or at least several among the security forces have been killed seems a full-on admission that this is sliding into more than just economic protests by common people. Will Tehran be targeted by the external 'powers that be' for regime change next after Maduro? Will the protests be hijacked and fully driven by nefarious actors and enemy intel? ...The next proxy war for the fate of the Persian heartland?

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