“The only way we can reasonably explain the rise in executions is that the regime is responding to a potentially explosive situation and is doing whatever it can to deter people,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.
Vatanka said the crackdown on unrest among the country’s poorest illustrates the clerical leadership’s draconian approach to any kind of opposition. Instead of working with local citizens to alleviate the socioeconomic hardship that pushes people to protest, it seeks to suppress the unrest with force, he said.
“The alternative could have been to send someone from Tehran who would have compromised, sent aid, and had dialogues,” Vatanka said. “But the regime doesn’t believe in that approach.”