The Regime will not provide accurate numbers of how many have been arrested or even killed by the Regime’s police, but estimates by Iran’s Resistance in January include over 50 extrajudicial killings, 8,000 arrests, and 14 deaths under torture in prison.

This number has only risen since, with practically large protests breaking out at the end of June over the failing economy, regime corruption, and severe water shortages.

In the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, protests broke out in the cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr (both ethnically Arab cities) on Saturday and at least four protesters were shot dead as protests continued into the night.

But, as usual, the Regime is refusing to deal with the problems. They acknowledge the poor economy, but blame it on returning US sanctions, when the economy was already collapsing from the Regime’s funding of foreign proxy wars. They blame the water shortage on the drought, despite the fact that they have done nothing to solve the problem and have made it worse by diverting water to ethnically Persian areas, leaving Kurdish and Arab Iranians to fend for themselves.

At no point does the Regime acknowledge that the real problem is corruption or that the people of Iran can see only one solution: regime change.

The people of Iran are out in the streets on a daily basis, chanting that they want the mullahs out (or dead) and decrying Western governments who will fund the terrorist mullahs. They know that the root of all evil in Iran is the Regime and the only way to end the corruption is to cut off the head of the Regime.

But these protests carry a heavy price. Calling for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei could mean a death sentence for anyone caught doing so. That’s why they need the support of the West – support they did not get during the 2009 uprising and that is still soundly lacking today.

The West should cut financial ties to the Regime as bankrupting the mullahs will limit their ability to suppress the people’s protest and bring forward the end of the Regime. That’s why other governments should heed the US call to cut trade with Iran before November.

In early 2019, it will be the 40th anniversary of the mullah’s reign. With any luck, the Regime will collapse before then.