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From Fox News: In the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the regime appears to be turning inward — escalating repression with chilling speed.
According to Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, the Islamic Republic is accelerating toward what he said is a “North Korea-style model of isolation and control.”
“We’re witnessing a kind of domestic isolation that will have major consequences for the Iranian people,” Aarabi told Fox News Digital. “The regime has always been totalitarian, but the level of suppression now is unprecedented. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.”
Aarabi, who maintains direct lines of contact in Iran, described a country under siege by its own rulers. In Tehran, he described how citizens are stopped at random, their phones confiscated and searched. “If you have content deemed pro-Israel or mocking the regime, you disappear,” he said. “People are now leaving their phones at home or deleting everything before they step outside.”
Aarabi said the escalated levels of fear and paranoia are similar to that of North Korea, where communication and information is tightly controlled and citizens just randomly vanish without any explanation.
“At the start of the war, many Iranians welcomed the strikes,” Aarabi explained, noting that a bond began to develop between the Iranians and the Israelis. “They knew Israel was targeting the IRGC — the very forces responsible for suppressing and killing their own people. But once the internet was cut and fear set in, some began to question what was happening.”
Arabai also explained that, as brutal as Khamenei is, he has created a new generation of Iranian military officers that are even more radical than he is, due to the deep indoctrination they have been trained with.
READ MORE from Fox News.
Iran regime escalates repression toward ‘North Korea-style model of isolation and control’ https://t.co/yTkRNM28aW
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 4, 2025
ABC News published a similar report on Thursday, quoting Human rights advocate Narges Mohammadi as sharing the same warning that the Iranian government is using the aftermath of its war with Israel to escalate repression against its own citizens.
Human rights advocate Narges Mohammadi warns that the Iranian government is using the aftermath of its war with Israel to escalate repression against its own citizens. https://t.co/a4y475EnBR
— ABC News (@ABC) July 4, 2025
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