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Highly Organised Agitators Were Trying to Hijack Iran’s Protests
Posted
January 25, 2026
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2,353
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January 25, 2026
2,353
275
17
12.41%
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2:41Now PlayingLarge crowds moved through central Tehran on January 8 after opposition figure Reza Pahlavi issued a call to mobilize, Tehran-based essayist and photographer Kaveh Rostamkhani told Drop Site News.
He said more than two thousand people passed through his neighborhood rapidly, but emphasized that within the larger crowd were smaller, highly determined groups attempting to steer its movement. Faces were masked, clothing dark, and a limited number of individuals “were pushing the crowd, giving it direction,” tactics that reminded him of protest movements he had covered in Europe. Rostamkhani said these groups aggressively introduced monarchist slogans into chants: “People were shouting ‘death to the dictator,’ and these people were adding very loudly and very aggressively ‘long live the king,’ referring to the former prince.”
“If I had not seen this by myself on the ground,” he said, it might sound like “a conspiracy theory,” adding, “but I do trust my eyes.” He stressed that while he did not witness any killings in his area, he did see “very loaded situations,” describing “a very fierce fight between riot forces and people on the street,” and said the absence of independent investigations has made it harder to establish what unfolded nationwide.
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