Iranian citizens recently took to the streets throughout the country to demonstrate their opposition to Iran regime’s foreign and domestic policies. Beginning as an economic protest that quickly turned political, these demonstrations signaled the Iranian people’s discontent with the ruling regime in Tehran and its failing ideology.

On Monday, Al Jazeera issued a brief report highlighting some of the harsh economic indicators for the population of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Fully one third of that population is reportedly living under the government-established poverty line of 480 dollars per month. Meanwhile, the median income for the country’s 80 million people is not even twice that figure, meaning that the vast majority of Iranians are essentially incapable of saving for the future.

Last week Thursday, the United Nations Security Council held a discussion on nuclear proliferation, during which US Ambassador Nikki Haley reiterated the Trump administration’s position on the related issue of Iran’s ballistic missile activities. Those activities include both the ongoing development and testing of missiles that would be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, and the provision of such weapons to foreign allies including terrorist proxies.

 Friday, the Washington Post published a new analysis of the mass protests that swept the Islamic Republic of Iran beginning three weeks earlier on December 28. After spanning at least 75 and perhaps well over 100 Iranian cities, the demonstrations have been largely suppressed by the government, resulting in thousands of arrests and upwards of 50 deaths. But many observers of the protest movement have publicly stated that it is likely not at an end, but will ultimately be further enflamed by the regime’s response. To this speculation about the future, the Washington Post adds an account of the demonstrations’ roots in the country’s labor movement.

On Tuesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a statement accusing regional rival Saudi Arabia of “a betrayal of the Islamic Ummah and the Muslim world.” The remarks referred to the Saudis’ longstanding alliance with the United States and also to the recent signs of emerging Saudi-Israeli cooperation in countering the perceived threat of Iranian influence in the broader Middle East.

For almost two weeks, the protests in Iran are continuing and the Iranian regime is facing a very real threat. The current protests and anti-government demonstrations are being compared to the ones that shook the country in 2009, but many say there is no comparison. This time the protests are even more widespread and many more people are participating.