Is Iran Reaching a Tipping Point?

Protests in Iran have now engulfed its major cities and all 31 provinces, creating a mass movement incorporating all elements of Iranian society, despite a comprehensive internet blackout.  The regime, blaming the United States and Israel for the sweeping movement, is casting the protests as a continuation of its twelve-day war with Israel and is cracking down hard, with the death toll rising. The Institute for the Study of War has reported that more Iranian security forces have been killed than in any previous periods of unrest. Now, President Donald Trump is vowing U.S. intervention in support of the protestors. 

How are these demonstrations different than others in the past? What are the Iranian regime’s options for suppressing them? Are we nearing the point of regime fracture or the end of Ayatollah Khomeini’s reign altogether? And how should the United States respond?

Join Aaron David Miller as he engages two veteran Iran analysts, the Carnegie Endowment’s Karim Sadjadpour and the New Yorker’s Robin Wright in conversation to discuss the unfolding crisis in Iran and America’s reaction, on the next Carnegie Connects.