EXPLAINER: Iran’s protests, the crackdown and the regime’s future

The Iranian regime appears to have weathered the most challenging and widespread protests against its rule since the 1979 Islamic revolution. But it has done so only by engaging in an unprecedentedly brutal crackdown in which thousands have been killed and imprisoned – with reports suggesting that mass arrests are continuing even after the protests have, for now at least, been quelled. The ferocity of what has been termed “a state-ordered massacre” is an indication of not only the existential challenge which the regime faces, but also of its weakness and vulnerability. The regime may not fall immediately but its long-term future is in doubt, with analysts predicting a “zombie state” emerging from the bloodshed.