One result of the 12 days of war has been the intensification of repression inside Iran under the name of "defending the homeland" or "fighting espionage." According to reports, at least 700 people have been arrested on accusations of cooperating with Israel. Six political prisoners (all with serious legal irregularities in their cases) have already been executed, labeled as "spies." And this is only the beginning... The Islamic Gestapo (the Basij) have turned major urban areas like Tehran into militarized zones. They roam the streets, hunting for "suspicious agents."

In Episode 284 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg  interviews Frieda Afary of the blog Iranian Progressives in Translation, author (most recently) of Socialist Feminism: A New Approach, and a longtime voice for democratic-secular opposition movements in Iran. How is the situation of Iran's civil resistance complicated by the US-Israeli air-strikes on the country, and how should progressives in the West respond?

On June 23, two days after the US carried out air-strikes against Iran's nuclear sites in what is being dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran launched missiles at al-Udeid air base in Qatar, headquarters for US Central Command's regional operations and host to some 8,000 US troops. The US said nearly all the missiles were intercepted and there were no casualties. In a post on TruthSocial, President Trump shortly later claimed a ceasefire between Israel and Iran has been reached, with Israeli media reporting that the truce was brokered by Qatar. Sources also told Reuters that Iran had tipped off Qatar authorities before the attack, who then warned the US—accounting for the light damage and raising the possibility that, as in US-Iran brinkmanship of early 2020, the supposed Iranian retaliation was choreographed to allow Tehran to save face. The US, Israel and Iran alike are now all claiming victory, and it remains unclear how seriously Tehran's nuclear capabilities have in fact been degraded. (BBC News, The Guardian, JP, TWZ, NYT, NDTV, FirstPost)

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on June 22 vowed retaliation against US and Israeli targets following American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. "Operation True Promise 3 continues, and the aggressors must await responses that will make them regret and [will] go beyond their calculations," the IRGC said in a statement, adding that "American bases in the region are not points of strength but rather factors of their greater vulnerability."

Prominent Iranian opposition activists and cultural figures have issued a joint statement calling for both Iran and Israel to instate a ceasefire, for cessation of Iran's nuclear program, and for the "authoritarian regime" to step down. The statement, published in the French daily Le Monde June 16, was also released on the X (Twitter) account of its lead signatory, imprisoned human rights advocate and Nobel Laureate Narges Mohammadi. It is also signed by Nobel Laureate dissident Shirin Ebadi, filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, and attorneys Sadiqeh Vasmaghi and Abdolfattah Soltani. The statement calls for an "end to the devastating war between the Islamic Republic and the ruling regime in Israel—a war that not only destroys infrastructure and the lives of civilians in both territories but also poses a clear threat to the foundations of human civilization."

With Israel's criminal air-strikes on Iran's nuclear sites releasing radioactive contamination, Bibi Netanyahu cynically invokes the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protest movement that shook Iran for months from September 2022. Of course nothing is less conducive to pro-democracy civil resistance in Iran than to have this cause associated with the foreign power that is bombing the country's territory—and is itself oppressing the Palestinians with biblical justifications. In Episode 282 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again advocates a neither/nor position that rejects the militaristic and reactionary regimes of both Zionism and political Islam, and looks to a secular order in the Middle East.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on June 13 urged both Iran and Israel to exercise "maximum restraint" amid a sudden escalation between the two states following Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear installations. Condemning the Israeli strikes, the statement from the secretary-general's office expressed concerns about a wider conflagration throughout the Middle East, warning that "a descent into deeper conflict" would be "a situation that the region can hardly afford." 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Feb. 14 reported that the Iranian government is systematically targeting the Azeri ethnic minority through the imposition of "abusive" criminal charges and severe prison sentences aimed at silencing dissent. The crackdown has intensified since October, with at least two dozen Azeri activists imprisoned following unfair trials. These activists have been handed terms ranging from three to 14 years on charges including "propaganda against the state," "conspiracy against the country," and "forming an opposition group against the state."