- 5 days ago
Iran is facing one of the most serious political and social crises in decades — with economic collapse, massive protests, violent crackdowns, and rising international tension dominating global headlines.
In this video, we break down the 10 most important things you need to know about the Iran crisis right now — from why people are protesting to the international implications and what the future might hold.
👉 Watch till the end and tell us which fact surprised you most.
🎬 Channel: watchmojo.world
📌 Like | Share | Subscribe for more current affairs explained clearly.
In this video, we break down the 10 most important things you need to know about the Iran crisis right now — from why people are protesting to the international implications and what the future might hold.
👉 Watch till the end and tell us which fact surprised you most.
🎬 Channel: watchmojo.world
📌 Like | Share | Subscribe for more current affairs explained clearly.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I've made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past,
00:04we will get involved. We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down everything you need to know about the
00:12political crisis unfolding in Iran and what it means for the country's future.
00:17Despite bullets, arrests, and complete internet blackouts, ordinary Iranians are still risking
00:23everything for freedom. Number 10. A revolution nearly half a century ago still sets the rules
00:29today. It began just after midday when a few hundred demonstrators, and it must be emphasized
00:34that it was no more than that, began to throw a chain of burning barricades across streets throughout
00:40the city center. Everything happening now has a long echo. Back in 1979, millions of Iranians rose up
00:47and pushed out the Shah, bringing in a new system led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Months later, protesters
00:54stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats hostage for more than a year.
00:59In November 1979, shortly after the exiled Shah is admitted to the United States for medical
01:05treatment, Iranian militants seized the American embassy in Iran.
01:12More than 50 men and women are held hostage despite worldwide appeals for their release.
01:19The fallout froze relations, hardened mistrust, and locked both sides into cycles of suspicion
01:25that never really went away. The Islamic Republic that was born out of that moment built a structure
01:30that fused religious authority with political control. Fast forward to today, and the people
01:34marching in the streets aren't just reacting to bad economics. They're challenging the foundations
01:39of the system that came out of that revolution.
01:42The people on the streets clearly believe that the Shah will not be returning to Iran.
01:46But everything that we have seen here today, laid out in such magnificent splendor on this
01:51unique visit, is clearly designed to give the impression of a man and a family who will one
01:57day be returning to their home.
01:59Number nine. Iran has paid a heavy price for the way it projects power abroad.
02:03The past few days have seen growing evidence of Iran's resistance turning very gradually into a
02:09kind of offensive. This oil installation at Kut received a direct hit from Iranian planes three
02:15days ago. The storage tanks further south at Fau, Iraq's main oil outlet to the Gulf, have also
02:23been hit, but this time by ground fire. Since the revolution, Iran's leaders have treated foreign
02:28policy as a battlefield, sometimes literally. The brutal Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s scarred a
02:35generation. Sanctions piled up afterward, especially as Iran clashed with the U.S. and
02:40Europe over its nuclear program. Iranian assets in the U.S. were frozen. Trade in goods and
02:45services fell under a ban from 1979 to 87. Following missed opportunities with the first
02:51Bush administration in 1995, sanctions directly targeted oil. Under an executive order by President
02:58Clinton, Washington clamped down on Tehran's support for organizations the Americans considered
03:03terrorists.
03:04At the same time, Tehran built a network of allies and armed movements across the Middle East.
03:09From Hezbollah in Lebanon to militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen.
03:13Whatever the strategic logic, many Iranians now say those choices drained resources from hospitals,
03:19schools, and livelihoods at home. When protests broke out in late December of 2025, they spread
03:25fast to all 31 provinces because people feel the cost of those policies every single day.
03:31The falling value of Iran's currency has fueled a third day of demonstrations in the capital,
03:37Tehran. Shopkeepers and market stall holders began protesting against rocketing food prices
03:42on Sunday. And today, they were joined by university students demanding political change. There have
03:48also been protests in other parts of the country.
03:51Number eight. Elections happen, but the real power isn't on the ballot.
03:55The shrine at Mashhad, the place of martyrdom, a pilgrimage site for Shia Muslims. Whoever wins the election, this is still the Islamic Republic, where the supreme leader and councils of unelected ayatollahs hold parallel and greater power than the elected president and legislature.
04:13Wild people, they're all expecting from the president to give the service. But the real power is somewhere else.
04:21Iran holds presidential and parliamentary elections, but the system is designed so the most important decisions never really leave clerical hands.
04:29Under Velayat Ifahi, the supreme leader sits at the top. He supervises the military, shapes the courts,
04:35and ultimately decides the bounds of political debate. Bodies like the Guardian Council screen who's allowed to run, blocking candidates who might challenge the system too directly.
04:45All qualify to vote, but none will bother.
04:49You care about politics?
04:50I myself, no. I don't care. Because I know that I'm not gonna have any effect, I don't know, on the politics.
05:03You don't think there's anything you can do to bring change?
05:09I don't think so.
05:10You can feel the limits everywhere, from who gets to speak publicly to what policies can actually be implemented.
05:16That's why so many protesters now aim higher than economic grievances.
05:21They're calling for changes to a structure that millions believe isn't capable of reforming itself from the inside.
05:26Now, what began as discontent over the collapsing economy, things like rising prices, a plunge in currency, and chronic power and water outages,
05:36but it's now rapidly evolved into something more widespread.
05:39It is anger at the entire system.
05:42Number seven.
05:43The Revolutionary Guard isn't just the muscle.
05:45It's the system's backbone.
05:46Established in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Revolutionary Guards are often described as a parallel government within Iran.
05:58Tasked with protecting Iranian interests at home and abroad, it's also heavily involved in regional politics and conflicts.
06:06The IRGC began as a force meant to protect the revolution.
06:10Over the decades, it became a power center all its own.
06:14Part army, part intelligence service, part business empire.
06:18In a crisis, the Guard steps forward.
06:20And that's what we're seeing now.
06:22Along with besiege military units, IRGC personnel are on the streets, at checkpoints, and surrounding universities and neighborhoods where protests have surged.
06:30The Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard Corps has actively engaged in terrorism and created, supported, and directed other terrorist groups.
06:38The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled.
06:45It regularly violates the laws of armed conflict.
06:48It plans, organize, and executes terror campaigns all around the world.
06:52Human rights groups report live ammunition being used on crowds, arrests mounting into the thousands, and security forces moving aggressively to shut down any momentum.
07:01For the ruling system, the Guard is the guarantor of survival.
07:04For many Iranians, it has become the symbol of what stands between them and the country they want to live in.
07:11The Revolutionary Guards also control much of Iran's economy and wield significant political power domestically, as many of their former members work in parliament.
07:23Number six.
07:24Young Iranians are done waiting for things to improve.
07:27You cannot rule over caged birds.
07:33These are young people who have aspirations, who look at their neighboring countries.
07:39They're really not asking for very much.
07:42They're incredibly patriotic.
07:44Many of them are spiritual.
07:47They just want a tiny bit, an iota of freedom.
07:52Iran's median age hovers in the mid-30s, which means millions of Iranians have no personal memory of the revolution.
07:59They've grown up watching prices rise, jobs vanish, and freedoms shrink, while the state stays rooted in the political culture of the 1980s.
08:07And goodness knows where Iran would have been had the young entrepreneurs, how these amazing young people that you have just listed, could have just had a tiny bit of ability to move on without being oppressed, held back by sanctions, etc., that never harmed the top echelons.
08:28It always gets the guy in the street.
08:30When protests began on December 28th in Tehran's bazaars and university districts, young people were there first and in the biggest numbers.
08:38The tragedy of 23-year-old student Rubina Aminian, fatally shot as protests intensified, became a rallying point.
08:46Her death resonated far beyond Tehran, fueling vigils and marches in cities like Shiraz, Ahvaz, and Mashhad.
08:52The generational divide could not be clearer.
08:55An aging leadership defending a system younger Iranians increasingly see as a prison, not a homeland.
09:02Many young people said to me, we want a government that if it's good, we re-elect it.
09:06If it's bad, we throw it out of office.
09:09We're Muslim because our parents were Muslim.
09:11So within Iran, this has been bubbling away now for many years.
09:17Number five.
09:18Protests aren't new, but this wave feels different.
09:21For a few days in July, it looked like the start of a second revolution.
09:28Students on the campus of Tehran University demanding political and social reform and demanding it now.
09:36Iran has seen uprisings before.
09:381999, 2009, 2019, 2022.
09:44Each time, the state cracked down hard, forced people indoors and waited for the anger to dissipate.
09:49This time, that formula isn't working as smoothly.
09:53It's like a war zone.
09:55The streets are full of blood.
09:56They're taking away bodies in trucks.
09:59Everyone is frightened tonight.
10:01They're carrying out a massacre here.
10:03It's officially a massacre.
10:05The unrest has touched every corner of the country.
10:07Villages, university towns, industrial hubs, border regions, and pulled together groups that don't always stand side by side.
10:15Teachers, truckers, bizarre merchants, and students have all joined in.
10:19Rights groups now estimate more than 10,000 arrests and hundreds of deaths.
10:24Activists say the death toll in Iran has climbed to 538 and more than 10,000 detained amid an internet and phone blackout this weekend.
10:33Now, we've seen rallies across Canada as Iranians here struggle to connect with family and friends.
10:38In Fardis and Senandaj, witnesses describe panic as automatic gunfire scattered crowds.
10:44The sense on the ground, even through blackouts and silence, is that the old safety valve isn't relieving the pressure anymore.
10:50Number four, Tehran is trying to turn out the lights.
10:54Alec, many of the people that we talked to at today's protest have family back in Iran.
11:00With the internet currently out there and that death toll rising every day, they say that their voices are one of the only tools that they have left.
11:08We'll go ahead and show you what it looked like earlier today at the Capitol this afternoon.
11:12Chance filling the air is hundreds gathered outside the state building to call for regime change in Iran.
11:18On January 8th, the Iranian state flipped the switch on the country's digital life.
11:23Internet access collapsed across Tehran, Mashhad, and dozens of other cities,
11:28followed by mobile disruptions that left families struggling for basic communication.
11:32Last I talked to my cousins was three days ago or four days ago, but that was before the blackout.
11:39So they said they're okay, but a lot of people are very concerned.
11:44Almost everybody has someone back home.
11:46They are killing people because just simply we're against the government.
11:50The blackout didn't stop the protests, but it made them harder to follow, harder to report, and far more dangerous.
11:56Videos still make it out.
11:58Blood on pavement, volleys of gunfire, hospital hallways jammed with the wounded.
12:03Doctors quietly say morgues are overflowing.
12:06State media calls protesters, quote,
12:08Foreign agents and, quote, thugs, echoing familiar lines.
12:12But a government that cuts the country off from itself sends a silent message.
12:16It knows the truth won't flatter it.
12:18Many of us in the diaspora have family, friends, and of course our compatriots in Iran.
12:23And it was easier to contact them, I would say, earlier on in the protests.
12:28But the last two days, there have been complete internet blackouts.
12:32And it's difficult for them, too, with their telephone lines, because when they do go out to protest, it's sometimes hard for them to reach each other.
12:38So every footage that we can get on the outside is like gold to us.
12:42In the last 48 hours, Iranians have suffered more casualties than America did after the 9-11 attack.
12:55This is a moment that is defining.
12:58Despite being completely cut off from the world, internet shutdown, and for a regime that is massacring its own people,
13:05this is an opportunity to liberate that nation.
13:07As news of killings and mass arrests leaked out, condemnation from abroad followed.
13:12Leaders in Europe issued statements urging restraint.
13:15U.N. officials expressed alarm.
13:17In Washington, Donald Trump warned Iranian leaders that there would be consequences if the bloodshed continued,
13:22hinting at everything from new sanctions to alternative communication pipelines.
13:26Can they cross your red line yet to trigger a restraint?
13:29Well, no, they're starting to, it looks like.
13:31And there seem to be some people killed that aren't supposed to be killed.
13:35These are violent.
13:37If you call them leaders, I don't know if they're leaders or just they rule through violence.
13:42But we're looking at it very seriously.
13:44The military is looking at it.
13:46And we're looking at some very strong options.
13:50We'll make a determination.
13:51Whether these words translate into meaningful action remains unclear.
13:55Having said that, though, the fact that Tehran immediately accused the U.S. and Britain of orchestrating the protests
14:01shows how nervous the regime is about losing control of the narrative.
14:05Diplomatically, Iran is on the defensive, juggling sanctions, domestic revolt, and the fear that global opinion could harden into coordinated policy.
14:13As you can see, people are still fighting despite this crackdown.
14:18They hope that there will be assistance in protecting them from further bloodshed.
14:23I've called upon further strikes, and that is beginning to unfold.
14:28We are beginning to see more and more defections, which is very important as part of the transition.
14:33So all of this is at play as we speak.
14:342. What happens inside Iran won't stay inside Iran
14:39Iran sits at the geographical hinge point of the Middle East and Central Asia,
14:43and that makes every internal tremor feel like a regional warning bell.
14:47Oil markets twitch any time the Strait of Hormuz feels insecure.
14:51Gulf states quietly shore up energy exports.
14:54Israel watches Iran's proxies nervously, wary of a desperate leadership making bold moves.
14:59None of this requires a formal war.
15:02The region is already connected through shadow conflicts, cyber skirmishes, and long-range weapons.
15:07If Iran's internal walls crack, those fractures could spread outward.
15:11Through migrant flows, force realignments, or proxy groups testing boundaries,
15:16the crisis may feel like a domestic story, but its ripples travel farther than most headlines show.
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15:37Number one, the United States may decide how long this crisis lasts, or how far it goes.
15:44The president posted on social media yesterday, Iran is looking at freedom.
15:47Perhaps like never before, the U.S. stands ready to help.
15:51In response to Trump's comments, Iran's parliament speaker told Trump that U.S. military and shipping centers would be considered targets.
15:59America's stance is unpredictable, and that uncertainty shapes every calculation in Tehran.
16:05President Trump has again embraced a hard line.
16:08More sanctions, fresh threats, and public warnings that the regime will, quote,
16:12pay a price for killing citizens.
16:14Yet behind the rhetoric is a hint of something else.
16:16Reports of indirect messages from Tehran probing whether talks are possible, even now.
16:21For Iranians taking to the streets, U.S. statements matter symbolically, but they know they're ultimately on their own.
16:28For Iran's rulers, Trump's mix of pressure and potential engagement forces them to brace for the unknown.
16:34And for the rest of the world, the question is stark.
16:37Does this crisis burn itself out, or is it the start of something larger?
16:41They know also that they do have this international pressure, what we're hearing from the U.S. president,
16:48and also significant pushback from the Iranian side, in fact, saying that Trump should concern himself with problems in his own country.
16:56What do you think will happen next in Iran?
16:58Is there anything we missed?
17:00Be sure to let us know in the comments.
17:01Be sure to let us know in the comments.
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