Report: Iran Spending Nearly $25 Million Daily to Quash Dissent

According to Iranian media, the Islamic Republic has over the past year spent an average of $24.5 million daily to quash dissent in the country. Iran was rocked by nationwide protests in November, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets to demonstrate against the regime’s economic mismanagement and interventionism abroad. Tehran responded with a brutal crackdown which Amnesty International has claimed killed more than 300 people during a three-day period last month. According to the United Nations, another 7,000 civilians have been detained, with rights groups alleging that many of them have been tortured. As Iran struggles to contend with the deepening effects of US economic sanctions, the mullahs have apparently been preparing for civil unrest. They have reportedly increased the country’s internal security budget to $5.7 billion annually, up from $3.1 billion at the beginning of President Hassan Rouhani’s tenure five-plus years ago. Since US President Donald Trump in May 2018 withdrew from the multilateral nuclear accord and reimposed the sanctions, the Islamic Republic’s oil exports have fallen from about 2 million barrels per day to an estimated 200,000.