The Cradle – Jan 4, 2026
Iranian police announced on 4 January the arrest of rioters and protest organizers, including some being paid from abroad and others found in possession of weapons and explosives.
Iranian police chief Ahmad Reza Radan explained on Sunday that the protests initially “were legitimate economic protests by market traders,” but “later turned into riots.”
“We started two days ago arresting those who incite riots,” Radan said while speaking on Iranian television. He noted that some of them confessed to receiving payments in dollars, suggesting the protests are being supported by foreign NGOs or intelligence agencies.
Iranian police said they arrested two rioters and vandals in Lorestan province who were found in possession of weapons and explosives.
On Saturday, police in Kuhdasht, a city in Lorestan Province in western Iran, announced the arrest of two alleged leaders of recent unrest in the city.
Police chief Ali Amani stated that the individuals “were planning to carry out acts of sabotage to destabilize security in the Kuhdasht region of Lorestan province.” One of the rioters “was in possession of a pistol and several homemade bombs, in addition to a number of bladed weapons.”
Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the arrest of two teenage girls in Isfahan. The girls were allegedly leading the unrest in the city and calling for the destruction of property while receiving payments from an agent in Germany.
The IRGC’s public relations office issued a statement announcing the arrest of three alleged leaders of recent unrest in Khorramabad, a city in Lorestan Province.
According to the statement, the individuals were receiving direction from Iran International and other opposition media outlets, and participated in damaging public property, writing slogans, and escalating protests into unrest.
The protests began on 28 December after shopkeepers and bazaar merchants were angered by a massive drop in the value of the Iranian currency against the dollar.
The fall in the value of the lira compounded the difficult living conditions faced by Iranians already living under US sanctions, including regular water and electricity shortages.
However, subversive elements receiving guidance from abroad quickly exploited the peaceful protests, carrying out riots and acts of sabotage, targeting public facilities, government buildings, and even some military institutions, in an effort to create chaos and panic among the population.
On 30 December, Israeli journalist Zvi Yehezkeli boasted about the role of foreign intelligence in fomenting the riots in Iran while speaking to Israel’s i24NEWS channel.
On 29 January, the Mossad used its Twitter account in Farsi to encourage Iranians to protest against the Iranian government, saying it would join them during the demonstrations.
“Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” the Mossad wrote.
On 2 January, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, acknowledged the grievances of the protesters.
“When a merchant looks at the decline in the value of the national currency and the instability of exchange rates, whether for local or foreign currency, and the accompanying lack of stability in the business environment, he says that he cannot carry out his work, and he is right in that,” Khamenei stressed. The Supreme Leader also drew a clear distinction between legitimate protest and rioting.
Reuters reported on Sunday that more than a dozen people have been killed during the week of unrest, citing local rights groups.
Hengaw, a Kurdish rights group, said that at least 17 people had been killed, while HRANA, the US-based media arm of the Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI) group funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), claimed at least 16 people had been killed and 582 arrested. Both civilians and security forces are among the dead.
Reuters added that according to the governor of Qom, two people had been killed there in the unrest, including one who had died when an explosive device he had made accidentally detonated.
Rioters, some of them armed, have been documented setting fire to religious sites, attempting to storm police stations, and assaulting security forces.
Iranians continue to live under the threat of a new attack by Israel. In June, Israel launched an unprovoked, 12-day war on the Islamic Republic. The US joined the attack, bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities on Israel’s behalf.
Iran responded by attacking Israeli military and intelligence sites, including in Tel Aviv, using ballistic missiles and drones.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cited Iran’s advanced missile program as a new pretext for launching “round two” of its war on the Islamic Republic.
⚡️BREAKING
Iran’s police Chief:
‘We have begun arresting leaders of groups that organize riots; they have confessed to having received dollars for this work’ pic.twitter.com/pVt6hS1dcQ
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) January 4, 2026
This demonstrates just how wary Israel and the US have become of attacking Iran. From bombing it at least twice to stirring sh!t there must be a humbling experience they must disguise with lots of tough talking. Billions of dollars to arms companies and billions to Israel weren’t enough, so now it’s a few hundred bucks here, a few thousand there to anti-government quisling malcontents.
The US will not be able to hold off Netanyahu for long enough.
Sniff! Sniff! I smell the stench of Metrowelly & MI6 🤭
All these “sovereign countries” that claim everyone is happy and everyone loves each other…
Why do they care what their money is worth the dollar? Don’t they buy their stuff using their own money? Aren’t all their shops filled with stuff grown and made in their own country? Aren’t all their resources extracted from their own land? If not, they aren’t a “sovereign countries”. They’re just another jew owned proxy dictatorship.
US money certainly. But the US doesn’t really have these sorts of contacts or frankly, the brains – that will be MI6 and Mossad.
old CIA/Mossad trix like they financed the
truckers strikes in Allendes Chile .
The conquest by the Zionist International, a ruination to America. The conquest by the myriad components, how overt, covert, now more blatant than ever before. Woe betide you, America, for Israel is not your ally. It is the opposite.