![Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) says 3,428 protesters have been verified to have been killed during the unrest [file image]](https://www.rte.ie/images/0023bad5-800.jpg)
Protests in Iran have subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands under an internet blackout, monitors said, a week after the start of the largest demonstrations in years challenging the country's theocratic system.
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's late shah, however, said he was confident the Islamic republic would fall and called for intervention, though the threat of new military action by the United States against Iran has appeared to have receded for the time being.
In posts to social media yesterday, Mr Pahlavi announced a fresh coordinated demonstration, calling for Iranians to "raise your voices in anger and protest with our national slogans" on the weekend.
Protests sparked by economic grievances started with a shutdown in the Tehran bazaar on 28 December but turned into a mass movement demanding the removal of the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.
People started pouring into the streets in big cities from 8 January but authorities immediately enforced a shutdown of the internet that has lasted over a week and activists say is aimed at masking the scale of the crackdown.
The "brutal" repression has "likely suppressed the protest movement for now", said the US-based Institute for the Study of War, which has monitored the protest activity.
"The regime's widespread mobilisation of security forces is unsustainable, however, which makes it possible that protests could resume," it added.
Mr Pahlavi also told a news conference in Washington that "The Islamic republic will fall - not if, but when."
"I will return to Iran," he added.
Norway-based rights group Iran Human Rights (IHR) says 3,428 protesters have been verified to have been killed by security forces, but warns the actual toll could be several times higher.
Other estimates place the death toll at more than 5,000 - and possibly as high as 20,000 - with the internet blackout severely hampering independent verification, IHR said.
The opposition Iran International channel based outside the country has said at least 12,000 people were killed during the protests, citing senior government and security sources.
'Give Iran a chance'
Monitor Netblocks said that the "total internet blackout" in Iran had now lasted over 180 hours, longer than a similar measure that was imposed during 2019 protests.
Amnesty International said this was being backed up by the use of heavily armed patrols and checkpoints to crush "the nationwide popular uprising in Iran" with security forces visible in the streets.
US President Donald Trump, who backed and joined Israel's 12-day strikes against Iran in June, had not ruled out new military action against Iran and made clear he was keeping a close eye on if any protesters were executed.
But a senior Saudi official told AFP that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman led "a long, frantic, diplomatic last-minute effort to convince President Trump to give Iran a chance to show good intention".
While the US appeared to have stepped back, the White House said that "all options remain on the table for the president".
Rights groups have estimated up to 20,000 people have been arrested. Security officials cited by the Tasnim news agency said around 3,000 people were arrested.
The US Treasury announced new sanctions targeting Iranian officials including Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile held telephone talks with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in what the Kremlin described as "efforts to facilitate de-escalation".
At the UN Security Council in New York, Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, invited to address the body by the US, said "all Iranians are united" against the clerical system in Iran.
Iran's representative at the meeting, Gholamhossein Darzi, accused the United States of "exploitation of peaceful protests for geopolitical purposes."
