DUBAI – As widespread protests continue to grip Iran, they’re nearing the two-week mark with the government acknowledging the unrest amid a harsh crackdown. The Islamic Republic remains largely isolated from the global community during this turbulent period.

With Iran facing internet blackouts and disrupted phone services, assessing the scale of the demonstrations from outside the country has become increasingly challenging. However, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, the protests have resulted in at least 65 fatalities and the detention of over 2,300 individuals. Meanwhile, Iranian state television reports on casualties among security forces while suggesting that order is being maintained.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has indicated a potential intensification of the crackdown, despite warnings from the U.S.

In a show of support for the Iranian populace, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on the social platform X, “The United States stands with the courageous people of Iran.” The State Department further cautioned, “Do not underestimate President Trump. His words are backed by action.”

A split-screen presentation on state TV underscores the challenges facing Iran.

Saturday marks the start of the work week in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported. Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.

State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the “Epic of Khorramshahr” by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honors Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. It has been used in videos of protesting women cutting away their hair to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini as well.

“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night.”

That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.

“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan. In it, a protester appeared to fire a long gun, while others set fires and threw gasoline bombs at what appeared to be a government compound.

The Young Journalists’ Club, associated with state TV, reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran. It also reported a security official was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas and another in Gilan, as well as one person slain in Mashhad.

State television also aired footage of a funeral service attended by hundreds in Qom, a Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.

More weekend demonstrations planned

Iran’s theocracy cut off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, though it allowed some state-owned and semiofficial media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday and Friday, asked demonstrators to take to the streets Saturday and Sunday with Iran’s old lion-and-sun flag, used during the time of the shah.

Pahlavi’s support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some protests, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.