The pressure on him is increasing: Ayatollah Khamenei.Image: keystone
The situation in Iran is getting worse. According to reports, Iran’s Supreme Leader is already planning to flee to Moscow. Threats are coming from Washington.
Jan 5, 2026, 1:56 p.mJan 5, 2026, 1:56 p.m
Finn Michalski / t-online
Over the last days of December and into the new year Iran a new wave of broad mass protests against the regime of Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The main reason for this is the renewed collapse of the Iranian economy. The currency has slipped massively, but at the same time it has risen Inflation rate to over 52 percent. The current protests are the largest since the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests that broke out after the violent murder of Iranian Mahsa Amini in 2022.
Protests in Tehran. (Recorded on December 29, 2025)Image: keystone
In Tehran, too, concerns appear to be growing within the authoritarian leadership. According to a report in the British newspaper “The Times”, Supreme Leader Khamenei is said to already have an escape plan modeled on the former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad have prepared. Accordingly, the 86-year-old is planning to join around 20 confidants and family members in the event of a loss of control in the country or desertion from the military Moscow to escape.
Khamenei’s 95 billion network
The escape plan includes, among other things, bringing together assets, foreign real estate and cash to enable a safe exit from Tehran, said the source. Khamenei has had an extensive wealth network for years. Parts of it are pooled in the powerful Setad Group, a semi-governmental foundation structure that is known for its lack of transparency. According to a Reuters investigation from 2013, the assets controlled by Khamenei are said to be around $95 billion.
The regime’s concerns are not unfounded. A lot has changed compared to the situation in 2022. At that time, Iran still had a different standing in the region. Proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon As a result of Israeli attacks, they are hardly able to act anymore, and the Houthis in the Yemen operate significantly more independently of Tehran today than they did in 2022. With Assad, a close ally in the region has also been lost, and the US attacks on the Iranian nuclear program have further weakened the regime’s resilience.
But above all, the pressure is increasing Washington. On Sunday, US President said Donald Trump to reporters aboard Air Force One about Iran: “If they kill people like they have in the past, they will be hit hard by the United States.” In the immediate aftermath of the US military operation in which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was arrested and taken out of the country, Trump’s threats are increasingly reverberating.
Trump threatens Iran once again:
If they start killing people like they’re having in the past, they’re going to get hit very hard by the US
We’re watching very closely. pic.twitter.com/i6YT6TP9Dm
— Clash Report (@clashreport) January 5, 2026
On Sunday, the US State Department’s Persian-language account posted a picture of President Trump with the message: “President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know, you know now.”
The same post had already appeared on the US State Department’s general account on Sunday morning. It showed Trump alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Indiscriminate action against the civilian population”
Meanwhile, human rights organizations are reporting on violent action by the Iranian security authorities against demonstrators. According to reports, at least 20 people have been killed and around 1,000 arrested so far. Skylar Thompson, deputy director of the Iranian human rights organization HRAI, told the Guardian that the “indiscriminate action against the civilian population must be viewed as a violation of international law.” She particularly emphasized that there were also children among the victims.