** NEW MERCH ** Jackets & Sweatshirts, Thermo Mugs!! Daniel Davis Deep Dive Merch: Etsy store https://www.etsy.com/shop/DanielDavisDeepDive?ref=seller-platform-mcnav The episode discusses recent unrest in Iran and challenges the narrative that the country is on the brink of collapse. While Western and U.S. media show violent images and describe widespread upheaval, Alastair Crooke argues that these images are misleading and outdated. According to him, protests have largely dissipated over the last two days and been replaced by massive, nationwide demonstrations in support of the Iranian government, including among ethnic minorities such as Azeris. Only limited unrest persists in some Kurdish areas. Crooke claims the unrest follows a recurring pattern of externally driven regime-change attempts, similar to past efforts and inspired by the “Maidan” or color-revolution model. He asserts that recent violence was orchestrated by coordinated groups rather than spontaneous mass protests. These groups allegedly include Kurdish militants crossing from Iraq and Syria, the MEK (trained abroad), small monarchist elements, and networks linked to Israeli and Western intelligence services. He describes a tactic in which small teams provoke violence in local areas, film clashes, and engineer civilian casualties to inflame public anger against security forces. Iranian authorities, he says, regained control by Thursday night, after which protests collapsed. A key turning point, according to Crooke, was Iran’s disruption of communications. The government shut down domestic internet access city-by-city and, more significantly, disabled most Starlink terminals that had allegedly been smuggled in to coordinate protests. With both internet and Starlink largely offline for activists—but not for state security—the external coordination collapsed, leading to the rapid dissipation of unrest. Crooke acknowledges there were genuine domestic grievances at the outset, particularly economic dissatisfaction caused by a sharp fall in Iran’s currency, which initially angered merchants and the middle class. However, he argues the currency crash itself was externally manipulated via financial operations centered in places like Dubai. He concludes that while real economic frustration existed, the protests quickly became part of a coordinated regime-change effort that has now largely failed.