Another protester, a 23-year-old communications student named Haroon, concurred the bulk of protesters were fellow students “fed up” with their dim prospects.
“Students and ordinary people are being killed and wounded police,” he insisted. “Because we tear down posters of the tyrannical leaders and we burn them. We only want happiness. We want help from the Americans to end this regime.”
According to data obtained by Sc2 Corp, which provides unique “social insight” data to the U.S Special Operations community, the Trump tweets – along with the support by UN ambassador Nikki Haley – generated an instant spike in positive references from Iran, triggering comments from “Viva Iran, Viva USA, Viva Trump” to “proud of you president trump that strongly support the people.”
At least 21 Iranians have been reported killed in the protests, with hundreds more arrested.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday night counter-protesters took to the streets, marching “in solidarity” with the country’s leadership.
Haroon said anti-government protests were growing “day by day,” despite the effort by authorities to shut them down. Nik said that overnight Tuesday, security forces had buses in place to “brutally” sweep up as many protesters as possible.
“We are looking for any opportunity, some threw trash in the streets or chanted,” he said. “And there are many women with us too. They have a special role in this. They want equal rights. Tonight we will go to the streets again.”
As the protests have grown in intensity, so too have the acts of violence.
“The agitation has reportedly become more violent with protesters attacking security forces and the government seems to be gradually increasing the use of force to quell the unrest,” noted Kamran Bokhari, a Senior Analyst with the intelligence firm, Geopolitical Futures and with the Center for Global Policy.
There is considerable debate over just how involved the U.S. should become in the Iranian demonstrations.