Why Protests Are Surging in Iran—and What the Biden Administration Should Do About It

In a recent interview with a Western a journalist, an Iranian dissenter accused Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of “imposing famine on us” through “useless uranium enrichment, interfering in internal affairs of neighboring countries, stupid enmity with Israel,” and much else. As Behnam Ben Taleblu and Saeed Ghasseminejad document, the ongoing protests in Iran—which the government has brutally been trying to repress—may have been prompted by economic conditions but have become more broadly political. They outline the conditions leading to the current unrest, their proximate causes, and the reasons they are unlikely to end anytime soon—as well as possible steps the U.S. can take to support the dissenters.