U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Newsmax, as the Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday, that the Iranian leadership was wiring tens of millions of dollars out of the country,
“We are now seeing the rats fleeing the ship, because we can see millions, tens of millions of dollars being wired out of the country, snuck out of the country by the Iranian leadership,” Bessent said. “So they are abandoning ship, and we are seeing it come into banks and financial institutions all over the world."
Not exactly a vote of confidence for the regime's future.
While the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that the mass demonstrations like those of January 8-11 may have disappeared, Iran is like a simmering pot ready to boil over. The American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Critical Threat Project (CTP), partnering with ISW, reports that the horrific slaughter carried out by regime forces and foreign militias on January 8-9 has been effective in clearing the streets, but the revolutionary fervor has not been dimmed.
CTP-ISW recorded zero protests on January 14, but the regime is sustaining repressive measures that impose a significant cost on the regime. This suggests that the regime does not perceive that the threat from protests has subsided. The regime is maintaining security force mobilizations, which risks exhausting and burning out these forces. Security forces are patrolling streets in towns and cities across Iran to prevent Iranians from holding demonstrations.[8] Sources in Chalus, Mazandaran Province, for example, told a BBC Persian reporter on January 11 that “security forces with machine guns have been stationed in all streets.”[9] The widespread deployment of security patrols is likely contributing to the decrease in recorded protest activity because these patrols are likely deterring some Iranians from participating in protests.
There's a good reason the Iranian elites are preparing to run. The shutdown of the internet, as well as the unsafe streets, are crashing the Iranian economy. Residents of Tehran are reporting that most shops are closed.
Bessent confirmed as much in his interview.
“We're quickly approaching the endgame of President Trump's plan that he put into effect almost immediately when he came into office. We've been applying a maximum pressure campaign on Iran's oil exports to cut off the sources of the regime's funding. And what we have seen in the past month is a total financial collapse of the regime.”
The Jerusalem Post reports that while the security forces are massacring Iranians in the streets, many are fighting back, taking a toll on their tormentors.
US-based Iranian rights group HRANA has thus far confirmed 2,615 deaths, a number that grows every day.
According to the group, 153 of those were either members of the regime’s security forces or government supporters.
Additionally, Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen told public broadcaster KAN News on Thursday morning that Israel had information that protesters had killed hundreds of Iran’s security personnel.
Further, while Trump has said the killings in Iran were "stopping," he has threatened military action against the country if they did not.
European officials on Wednesday evening told Reuters that US military intervention in Iran could come in the next 24 hours.
Given the apparent lack of mass street protests, which hasn't given the regime the opportunity to shoot citizens down in the street, Trump is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward military action, but he can't delay forever. Any assets he planned to use for an attack can't remain on standby for more than a few days.
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