Iran’s Protests Have Been Completely Squashed, Government Says

After a crackdown that killed thousands, Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that “the sedition is over now,” vowing to punish those responsible for the protests.A photograph taken during a tour for international news media shows a tax office that was burned during protests, on Wednesday in Tehran.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesJan. 21, 2026, 4:09 p.m. ETThe Iranian government said on Wednesday that it had successfully suppressed anti-government protests that had roiled the country for weeks, after a crackdown that killed thousands.“The sedition is over now,” said Mohammad Movahedi, Iran’s prosecutor general, according to the judiciary’s Mizan News agency. “And we must be grateful, as always, to the people who extinguished this sedition by being in the field in a timely manner.”The remarks were among a series of public moves by the Iranian government to portray the unrest in the country — believed at one point to be a significant threat to the regime — as completely subdued.Among them, Iranian state TV released the first official death toll from the protests on Wednesday, saying that more than 3,000 people had been killed in the demonstrations. That figure was lower than the most recent toll of 4,519 deaths that was reported by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, on Tuesday.The movement was initially ignited in late December by a collapsing economy and a currency in free fall, but snowballed into a broader movement against the clerical government.An internet blackout and a flow of disinformation have made it difficult to independently assess what is going on inside Iran. But in recent days, witnesses and human rights groups have described an eerie quiet gradually settling over the country, with shops and schools opening amid a heavy security presence on the streets.The government has said it would restore internet access in the coming days. But officials have said that even if general connection is restored, foreign sites may remain inaccessible, according to HRANA.ImageThe interior of a mosque in Tehran damaged during protests, in a photograph taken during a tour for international media.Credit...Arash Khamooshi for The New York TimesPresident Trump had at one point threatened to intervene militarily, saying the United States was “locked and loaded” to protect Iranian demonstrators, whom he also encouraged to take over the government’s institutions. On Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, offered the country’s starkest response to any potential U.S. military action, writing in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that Iran has “no qualms about firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”“This isn’t a threat, but a reality I feel I need to convey explicitly,” Mr. Araghchi wrote. “The violence on our streets has subsided and normal life has returned nationwide.”Videos and witness accounts that emerged at the peak of the protests suggested that the government waged one of its deadliest crackdowns in decades. Witnesses described government forces opening fire, apparently with automatic weapons and at times indiscriminately, on unarmed protesters. Thousands of people have been detained, human rights groups have said.The Iranian authorities have vowed to punish people responsible for the protests, who they accuse of being terrorists supported by foreign governments. The “provocateurs,” Mr. Movahedi said on Wednesday, “will be tried and punished in accordance with all legal procedures.” Officials have said they would try people with “waging war against God,” a charge which carries the death penalty.Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting.Pranav Baskar is an international reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.SKIP