Tehran

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States is negotiating with Iran’s leadership despite what he described as “radical Shiite clerics” who make political decisions based on “pure theology.”

The Iranian government held rallies on Wednesday to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, in an obvious effort to demonstrate strength after massive protests threatened to topple the oppressive government last month. Controversy erupted when U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres allegedly wrote a letter to the president of Iran to congratulate him for the revolution that created the murderous regime in Tehran.

President Donald Trump warned Iran that it would be “foolish” not to make a deal as a massive flotilla heads toward the region, with the United States again prepared to take “very tough” military action — including the possible dispatch of a second aircraft carrier strike group — if negotiations collapse.

Police in Iran’s desert province of Yazd said on Tuesday that 139 foreign nationals have been arrested to date for participating in protests against the Iranian regime that began in December.

New polling conducted by J.L. Partners provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of its public release shows Americans, especially Republicans, by and large support toppling the regime in Iran but are unwilling to put any American lives at risk to do so.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group headquartered overseas, said on Wednesday it has received reports of sexual assault against teenage protesters who were taken prisoner during the regime’s brutal crackdown on demonstrations this month.

Residents of Iran’s capital of Tehran told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on Monday that the city remains under “virtual martial law” after last week’s murderous crackdown on protesters, with a heavy security presence rolling through the largely-deserted streets. 

British author J.K. Rowling accused self-proclaimed human rights defenders of hypocrisy for ignoring Iranian protesters while loudly backing popular activist trends, saying they have “revealed” themselves and “don’t give a damn” about real oppression.

“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” President Donald Trump wrote Saturday as he escalated his public backing of Iran’s protesters — and sharpened warnings to the regime in Tehran.

A young Iranian law student protesting in the streets of Tehran and speaking from inside the capital says life under the Islamic Republic has become “unbearable,” fueling nationwide protests she calls “the final battle,” as she expressed hope President Trump will “keep his promise” and the West will “arm the youth” or strike the regime’s forces before an “unprecedented threat” of exported extremism and a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic “destabilizes the world.”

Protests against the Iranian theocracy spread to most of Iran’s 31 provinces as of Tuesday, including cities that have long been seen as firmly loyal to the ayatollah.

Huge protests spread through several Iranian cities on Tuesday after the national currency, the rial, collapsed to a record low.

The air quality index in Tehran has deteriorated to “unhealthy” and “alarming” levels, according to both outside experts and the Iranian government, which advised city residents to remain indoors last week.

Hundreds of Iranian-American scholars, professionals, human rights advocates, youth, and community leaders from across the United States joined prominent former U.S. and European officials in Washington to map what organizers called a concrete roadmap for democratic transition in Iran. The gathering warned the clerical regime has entered its “final phase” and insisted “a democratic alternative capable of replacing it” already exists in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).

Iran made an all-out effort last week to combat a severe drought by seeding the clouds with chemicals to produce rain. The technique appears to have worked all too well, as heavy rainfall caused flooding in portions of western Iran on Monday.

Officials in Iran have begun cutting the water pressure to homes in Tehran in response to an increasingly dire drought and water supply crisis, but refused this week to describe the “pressure cuts” as rationing even as it reduced Tehranis’ access to water.

The Iranian regime held massive rallies in over 900 cities on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in 1979 – an event known as the “National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance” in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who is subordinate to “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the inevitable need to relocate the capital of his country out of Tehran during remarks on Thursday, citing an unsolvable water and overpopulation crisis.

Iranian state media claimed on Tuesday that 27 inmates from the infamous Evin prison in northern Tehran are still at large.

Israel’s first round of airstrikes, in what the Israeli government is describing as an extended campaign to eliminate Iran’s nuclear program, killed several top Iranian military officers and nuclear scientists.

Iran recently expanded its ban on dog-walking to cities outside Tehran, while a growing number of Iranians are embracing dog ownership as an act of rebellion against their theocratic regime.

Massive crowds assembled on the outskirts of Beirut on Sunday for the delayed funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist organization and political party, who was killed in September by an Israeli airstrike after his forces attacked Israel.

The Italian government on Thursday summoned the Iranian ambassador to demand the release of journalist Cecilia Sala, who was arrested without due process or clear charges in Tehran on December 19.

The Iranian regime has “intensified” its secretive development of nuclear detonators at covert facilities, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) revealed, citing intelligence that exposes alarming advancements in weaponization technologies.

A delegation of politicians from Iran visited Algeria and Tunisia this week, hoping to increase Iran’s presence in Africa, find new friends after Tehran’s disastrous proxy war in Gaza, and turn the page on some unfortunate history in Algeria.

Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Iran on Thursday that the “margins for maneuver are beginning to shrink” for a “diplomatic solution” to the issue of Iran’s nuclear program.

The German Foreign Ministry on Tuesday recalled Ambassador to Iran Markus Potzel, then summoned Iran’s envoy in Berlin to lodge a formal protest against Iran’s execution of Jamshid Sharmahd, a German citizen who resided in California.

An Israeli hacker group called “We Red Evils Original” took credit on Thursday for causing widespread wi-fi outages in Iran.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lit a firestorm on social media last week by refusing to wear black during the mourning period for President Ebrahim Raisi; he then got into a vicious online feud with a prominent state media reporter named Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour over the snub.

Officials at two universities run by radical jihadist terror entities — Iran’s public Tehran University and the Houthi-controlled Sanaa University in Yemen — offered enrollment this week to students in America and Europe facing disciplinary action for supporting the Hamas terrorist organization.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Tehran on Tuesday for meetings with senior Iranian officials, a day after the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Israel’s campaign against the terrorist organization Haniyeh leads.

Tehran announced Monday it has sent a warship into the increasingly contested waters of the Red Sea as navies from other nations work to stem attacks from Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.

Iran vows to bring ‘terrorists’ to justice in pointed statement after veteran European politician and critic of Tehran is shot in the face.

Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran and other cities on Saturday to celebrate the savage Hamas terrorist assault on Israel, dancing and chanting slogans like “Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!” while hundreds of Israeli civilians were being raped, kidnapped, and murdered.

Texas Congressman Lance Gooden (R) introduced legislation condemning Tehran for “reprisals” against protesters, while calling to protect Iranian political exiles in Albania, and backing the Iranian struggle for a democratic and secular government.

Efforts by the Biden administration to procure a non-written agreement with Tehran are “enormously damaging,” according to former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who claims Washington’s moves aim to “monitor” and “limit” Israel to deter an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.