In a major press briefing held in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI-US) unveiled “highly classified” documents and intelligence obtained from inside the Iranian regime’s inner circles via the network of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The revelations confirm that the bloody crackdown on the nationwide uprising in January 2026 was not a spontaneous reaction to unrest, but a pre-meditated “military operation” ordered directly by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and executed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with war-like tactics intended to crush the popular uprising at any cost.

Anatomy of the “January Massacre”

The briefing began by providing a panoramic view of the explosive situation in Iran. While the world watched the bloodshed in the streets with shock, the NCRI-US presented evidence proving these actions amount to systematic “crimes against humanity.”

Speakers explained that the uprising, sparked in late December by economic collapse, rapidly evolved into a full-scale political revolution demanding the overthrow of the regime. Facing this human tide, the regime adopted a strategic decision for a “maximum security solution,” resulting in the death of over 3,000 protesters and the arrest of more than 50,000 others.

#IranRevolution2026
Soona Samsami (NCRI’s U.S. representative) lays out the policy stakes of Iran’s uprising: protests that began Dec 28, 2025 quickly turned into a nationwide rejection of dictatorship, met by IRGC take-over of repression, internet blackouts, de facto martial… pic.twitter.com/XaLRSCHIvD

— NCRI-U.S. Rep Office (@NCRIUS) February 3, 2026

The objective of the press conference was twofold: first, to debunk the regime’s official narrative portraying the events as “riots” that were contained; and second, to present irrefutable evidence of the IRGC’s central role, compelling the international community—particularly the U.S. administration—to take decisive action beyond mere verbal condemnation.

“Top Secret” Directives: “Crush Them Without Mercy”

The most critical segment of the conference involved the disclosure of documents classified by the regime as “Top Secret.” According to the resistance officials, the regime’s Supreme National Security Council, under Khamenei’s direct supervision, issued directives to IRGC commanders and State Security Forces days before the protests reached their peak. These orders contained explicit instructions to exercise “no leniency” and to use “lethal force” to end the uprising.

The intelligence indicated that Khamenei, sensing an existential threat to his regime, gave the green light for the IRGC to use military-grade weaponry, including snipers and armored vehicles, against unarmed civilians. The documents revealed a contingency plan known as “Neighborhood Security,” which effectively placed major cities, particularly Tehran, under a grid system controlled by Basij militias and the IRGC’s Saberin Special Forces, with clear Rules of Engagement (ROE) to “Shoot to Kill” immediately, without warning shots.

This revelation completely dismantles the regime’s claim that casualties were the result of “skirmishes” or “self-defense,” proving instead that the decision to kill was a centralized political order executed in cold blood.

The IRGC’s Pivotal Role: A State Within a State

The briefing dedicated significant attention to dissecting the role of the IRGC, emphasizing that it is no longer just a military force, but the de facto ruler of Iran.

The command structure managing the crackdown was detailed, showing how IRGC commanders in each province were granted absolute authority by Khamenei to run joint operations rooms comprising the army, police, and intelligence services. The NCRI-US highlighted three key aspects:

1. Specialized Suppression Units: The deployment of elite IRGC units trained in urban warfare, equipped with heavy weaponry and advanced surveillance gear.
2. Information Blackout: The IRGC Intelligence Organization orchestrated the total internet blackout in uprising hotspots (such as Lordegan and Narmak) to facilitate the massacre away from the eyes of the world. The documents confirmed the internet shutdown was part of the pre-planned strategy.
3. Secret Detention and Torture: With official prisons overflowing, the IRGC utilized “safe houses,” secret detention centers, and warehouses to interrogate and torture thousands of youth and women.

The briefing also reiterated that the IRGC controls over 50% of Iran’s economy, using these vast resources to fund domestic repression and export terrorism. Therefore, any business with Iran ultimately funds this machinery of suppression.

The Toll of the Crackdown: Facts and Figures

The NCRI-US provided an updated assessment of the casualties, based on its extensive network inside the country:

• Over 3,000 Martyrs: The identities of hundreds have been verified, while authorities refuse to release the bodies of many victims, using them to blackmail families financially and politically.
• Targeting Women and Youth: The report highlighted a horrific percentage of victims among women and minors, confirming the indiscriminate and brutal nature of the live fire used.
• Abduction of the Wounded: The IRGC has been snatching injured protesters from hospital beds, forcing thousands to treat their wounds in hiding to avoid arrest.

The Resistance Units: The Alternative Voice

In the face of this brutality, the press briefing highlighted the role of the MEK’s “Resistance Units.” It was noted that these units did not merely document the crimes but played a leading role in organizing the protests and directing public anger toward the regime’s symbols.

Speakers emphasized that the continuation of the uprising despite such immense repression proves that the Mullahs’ regime has lost control of the streets and that the “wall of fear” has crumbled. The slogans chanted across Iran—such as “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the Oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader”—reflect the political maturity of the Iranian people, who reject a return to any form of dictatorship.

The conference also refuted attempts by the regime and certain suspicious actors to promote false alternatives (such as the remnants of the Shah’s regime), reaffirming that the Iranian people aspire to a democratic, secular republic based on the ballot box, as embodied in Mrs. Maryam Rajavi’s Ten-Point Plan.

Call to Action: No Alternative to Firmness

The NCRI-US concluded the briefing with a direct and urgent message to the U.S. administration, the European Union, and the international community. Resistance representatives asserted that the policy of appeasement or betting on “reform” from within the regime has been proven catastrophically wrong by the blood on the streets.

The NCRI-US outlined specific, immediate demands:

1. Full Terrorist Designation: Commending the European Parliament’s stance and calling for the full implementation of the IRGC’s designation as a Terrorist Organization, including all associated sanctions to paralyze the regime’s financial capabilities.
2. Right to Self-Defense: Calling on the international community to recognize the right of the Iranian people and the rebellious youth to defend themselves against the IRGC’s violence.
3. Diplomatic Isolation: Expelling the regime’s ambassadors, closing its embassies (which function as hubs for espionage and terror), and holding regime leaders—Khamenei, Raisi, and IRGC commanders—accountable for crimes against humanity.
4. Internet Access: Providing technical assistance to the Iranian people to bypass the digital blockade and ensure the free flow of information.

Conclusion: The Regime is Falling

The press briefing concluded that the Mullahs’ regime has entered a point of no return. The January 2026 massacre, while temporarily slowing demonstrations in some areas, has sown seeds of anger that cannot be uprooted. The NCRI-US asserted that the regime is now “weaker than ever before,” sitting atop a volcano, and that the final word belongs to the Iranian people and their organized resistance.

The son of Iran’s regime leader has created a global real estate empire with the help of Ali Ansari. Records from the UK Land Registry show that the properties located on Bishops Avenue were all purchased together in 2013 for 73 million pounds

Reports indicate that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s regime leader Ali Khamenei, owns multiple luxury mansions in the United Kingdom worth more than 100 million pounds.

According to the Daily Mail, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who is considered one of the potential successors to the leader of Iran’s regime, owns 11 properties on Bishops Avenue in the Hampstead area of north London, an extremely affluent street known as Billionaires’ Row.

Khamenei on The January Protests: It Was Like a Coup, But the Coup Was Suppressed https://t.co/9DxPQYe6dh via @Iran_Focus

— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) February 1, 2026

Mojtaba Khamenei holds these properties through a network of shell companies, one of which is registered in the Isle of Man, a well-known offshore financial jurisdiction. The company Birch Ventures Limited does not list Mojtaba Khamenei as a director or owner, but identifies Ali Ansari, the owner of the now-bankrupt Ayandeh Bank, as the ultimate beneficial owner.

Ali Ansari, who is said to have close ties to the Khamenei family, was sanctioned by the UK Treasury in October. He is accused of financing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an entity that has played a role in the killing of protesters during recent nationwide demonstrations, in which thousands of Iranian citizens were killed.

The UK Treasury’s sanctions statement did not make any direct reference to a connection between Mojtaba Khamenei and Ali Ansari.

Bloomberg News has spoken with sources and reviewed documents linking the London properties to Mojtaba Khamenei, who is said to have built a global real estate empire with the assistance of Ali Ansari. UK Land Registry records show that the properties on Bishops Avenue were all purchased together in 2013 for 73 million pounds and are now estimated to be worth more than 100 million pounds.

On February 1 and 2, a wave of student protests and sit-ins took shape at various universities across Iran. These actions were mainly in response to the widespread killing of young people and protesters during the nationwide January uprising and were held in remembrance of the martyrs of that uprising.

Students, who themselves were among the main victims of this repression, raised their voices for justice by boycotting end-of-term exams, holding protest gatherings, and staging sit-ins. Reports indicate that at more than 30 medical sciences universities and other higher education institutions, students refused to take their exams, describing this action as a protest against the “normalization of crime” and the killing of their classmates.

Students Rose Up in Memory of Their Classmates

At the University of Tehran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences (two major public universities in the capital), hundreds of students gathered in recent days to mourn fellow students such as Aida Heidari, a medical student who was killed by direct gunfire. By lighting candles and reading a statement, students turned a canceled official memorial into a protest sit-in and chanted slogans such as “Freedom, freedom” and “Death to the dictator.”

Nobel Laureates Urge Action Over Iran Crackdown as January Protests Turn Deadly#IranProtests #IranRevolution #FreeIran2026 #No2ShahNo2Mullahshttps://t.co/Xb4SyG7rVY

— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) February 1, 2026

Shiraz University of Medical Sciences witnessed a large student gathering and sit-in on Sunday, February 1, 2026. Students protested the execution of physicians, the arrest of medical staff, and the suspicious deaths of two medical students from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, declaring that they would not remain silent in the face of the killing of young people, threats and intimidation against healthcare workers, and the suffocating atmosphere. The gathering continued with chants against Iran’s regime but turned violent following intervention by campus security forces.

At Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, students also staged a sit-in in memory of their martyred classmate Parsa Saffar and other victims. Reports also point to a sit-in by nursing and midwifery students at Beheshti University on February 1 and protests at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, attended by more than one thousand people. Students in Ahvaz (Jundishapur University), Zahedan, and Kermanshah also joined by boycotting exams and holding similar gatherings.

Azad University (a large nationwide private university network) officially announced that 13 of its students were killed during the protests. The group “United Students” also released an initial list of 15 martyred students, including individuals such as Ahmadreza Ghaderi (Noushirvani University of Babol), Ahmad Khosravani (Sharif University of Technology), Robina Aminian, Zahra Bohlouli-Pour (University of Tehran), and others.

Khamenei on The January Protests: It Was Like a Coup, But the Coup Was Suppressed https://t.co/9DxPQYe6dh via @Iran_Focus

— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) February 1, 2026

These protests reflect the continued anger and demand for justice among the student generation, turning universities into one of the main centers of resistance. With slogans such as “A student may die but will not accept humiliation” and through forthright statements, students emphasized that boycotting exams is not a rejection of learning, but a stand against the humiliation of humanity and the forgetting of crimes.

More than 100 Nobel Prize laureates have issued an open letter condemning what they describe as mass human-rights violations in Iran amid the bloodiest phase of nationwide protests since the 1979 revolution, calling on world leaders to take “practical steps” in support of demonstrators.

In the January 2026 statement, the signatories express alarm at the “gross and shocking violations of rights of citizens” and use of lethal force against crowds by regime forces.

The letter expresses outrage that security forces have shot demonstrators, raided hospitals, and detained wounded protesters, and it argues the unrest reflects deep anger over repression, corruption and rising protesters “use of lethal weapons” has been central to the crackdown.

Khamenei on The January Protests: It Was Like a Coup, But the Coup Was Suppressed https://t.co/9DxPQYe6dh via @Iran_Focus

— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) February 1, 2026

The protests began in late December 2025 as demonstrations over deteriorating economic conditions broadened into anti-government rallies.

By early January, Iranian authorities imposed major internet restrictions after unrest intensified, a move that has made independent verification of casualties and arrests difficult.

However, it is clear that thousands of protesters have been murdered by the regime. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has released the names of around 1,500 civilians killed by the regime, which include many minors.

The letter’s message: support protesters, reject dictatorship

The Nobel laureates’ statement states that the protests are a push for democratic governance, saying demonstrators “reject any dictatorship, whether monarchical or religious” and want a “democratic, pluralistic” republic. It adds that Iranians “deserve the strong and unwavering support of the free world.”

The signatories include a mix of Peace Prize winners and laureates in sciences and literature.

The open letter warns that Iran’s regime carried out more than 2,200 executions in 2025 and cites an exceptionally high December total.

Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian regime, in remarks marking the beginning of the regime’s “Fajr” ceremonies, which it uses to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, described the January protest uprising as a “sedition” and a quasi-coup in which trained ringleaders were tasked with carrying out “killing operations.”

Khamenei said: “Therefore, they were attacking military and law enforcement centers, carrying out armed attacks with advanced weapons, advanced personal weapons, in order for reactions to come from the other side as well and for a number of people to be killed.”

He claimed: “They did not even stop at this. They even struck from behind the same foot soldiers whom they themselves had brought into the field through propaganda. I was informed that among the wounded from that incident, some were attacked from behind; meaning they did not even spare their own people. Why? So that the number of the dead would increase.”

Mass Arrests After Protests in Iran, the Naked Repression of Khamenei’s Rule

Human rights organizations have estimated the number of those killed to be at least in the thousands, and the regime’s narrative of “killing operations” has also faced strong backlash from social media users. If the killing of protesters was not carried out by the government, why was the internet shut down to prevent documentation? If someone else fired the bullets, why do families say they were asked to pay for the bullets in order to receive the bodies of their loved ones? Why are doctors and medical staff arrested for treating the wounded, and what kind of country is this where infiltrating agents can do anything they want in the streets? It is, of course, obvious that the Iranian regime resorts to such tactics to evade responsibility for the bloody January killings. This has also happened in past protests, and the Iranian regime has tried to attribute its own crimes to actors beyond its borders.

Khamenei says that the enemy exaggerates the number of those killed: “Well, it is not unlikely for people like these to lie in this way. They present figures ten times, and more than ten times, higher. The enemy’s goal was to disrupt the country’s security.”

Khamenei also claimed that many of the ringleaders had been arrested and had confessed to receiving money for their actions and being trained on how to attack centers and gather and mobilize young people. He continued: “But another group of the rioters were emotional youths, with whom we do not have much of a problem.”

Amnesty International says that since the start of the new wave of protests, thousands of citizens across Iran have been arbitrarily arrested, a figure that, according to the organization and based on reports by independent media, human rights organizations, and human rights defenders, in fact encompasses tens of thousands of people.

Detainees comprise a wide range of social groups, from street protesters and human rights activists to students, journalists, lawyers, healthcare workers, and members of ethnic and religious minorities who have either participated in demonstrations or engaged in activities supporting protesters.

The organization says that in many cases, detainees, without access to a lawyer and under intense physical and psychological pressure, were forced to sign forms they were not allowed to read, or to make forced confessions on camera about security-related crimes and even entirely peaceful acts such as sending images of protests to Persian-language media outlets outside the country.

Khamenei also referred for the first time to protests by bazaar merchants and, while calling the protesters seditionists, claimed that they hid behind the merchants, who had logical and valid demands and had come into the streets, in order not to be identified.

He continued: “Of course, the smart bazaar merchants, upon seeing the actions of the rioters such as attacking police stations instead of moving calmly in the streets, separated themselves from them and left the seditionists alone.”

Explosions Reported Across Iran Amid Rising Tensions

At a time when the country is facing economic collapse and, amid the tangled and confusing nuclear dispute with the West, is being drawn toward the brink of war, Khamenei referred to the United States’ threat of military attack and warned that if a war breaks out, it will be a regional war.

Khamenei attributed the nationwide January uprising to the United States and Israel and also cited the threat by Donald Trump, the president of the United States, who warned the government against killing protesters and addressed the Iranian people by saying that “help is on the way,” as proof of the validity of his claim.

He also said that this uprising “was like a coup, but the coup was suppressed.”