A growing number of Iranian officials have released confidential information on the Islamic regime’s brutalization of protesters, indicating growing dissent, the non-partisan American think tank, the Institute of War, published on Sunday.
Conflicting with statements made by regime officials, two Iranian officials briefed on the orders of Ali Khamenei told The New York Times that regime forces had been instructed to quell the protests and that regime security forces had been ordered to use live fire to kill and “show no mercy.”
Two senior Iranian officials separately told TIME on Sunday that 30,000 people may have been killed on January 8 and 9, conflicting with the regime’s official claims at the UN Human Rights Council meeting on Friday that 3,117 had been killed.
The leaked information threatens the regime’s narrative of violent foreign-backed terrorist organizations killing civilians and protesters and causing unrest, the institute noted.
Describing the regime’s reconstructionism as an “ongoing information operation,” the institute warned that the regime is using its narrative to conceal its use of lethal force.
Dissent grows as Iranian officials expose protest crackdown
Human rights groups, including those who spoke with The Jerusalem Post last week, complained that Iran had forced families to identify their murdered loved ones as members of the paramilitary Basij Force, which operates under the arm of the IRGC.
Beyond leaks, the US State Department condemned reports that a soldier was set to be executed for refusing orders to fire on protesters. Javid Khales’s “refusal was not only justified, but it was the only moral choice,” the department asserted.
Additionally, despite ongoing internal debates, the Iranian regime has not restored international internet access. Regime factions against the restoration have warned that internet access could cause protests to resume, while those in support of returning access assessed that the economic toll of the internet shutdown could cause further unrest.
IRGC-affiliated media had promised that internet access would be restored to all provinces by Saturday; however, Netblocks confirmed on Sunday that there were only brief spikes of connectivity in Iran.
Adding to the reports of growing dissent, the Iranian Information and Communications Technology Ministry denied the IRGC-affiliated media’s claim on Sunday.
Divisions over the restoration have become increasingly apparent as multiple IRGC-affiliated media sites have taken different stances on the internet shutdown.
The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency criticized plans to restore access on Sunday, claiming it would threaten the same environment needed for economic activity to resume. However, the institute noted, an IRGC-affiliated Telegram channel published on Wednesday the claim that the shutdown undermines national security interests.
The channel argued that the shutdown risked fueling public resentment and worsening the economic situation in the country.
The think tank’s assessment follows a report from the Iranian dissident media site Iran International last week, claiming that a senior Iranian diplomat to the UN had abandoned his post and is now seeking asylum with his family in Switzerland.
Diplomatic sources told Iran International that Alireza Jeyrani Hokmabad, a senior official at Iran’s permanent mission to the UN in Geneva, decided not to return to Iran out of fear of potential repercussions linked to the unrest.
Furthermore, the sources reportedly claimed that Hokmabad was only one of several Iranian officials probing the possibility of leaving the regime for asylum in the West.