U.S. Policy Toward Iran

Amid nationwide protests, Iranian security forces have been accused of killing young demonstrators — including 23‑year‑old fashion student Rubina Aminian, reportedly shot in the head and buried roadside, and 19‑year‑old amateur boxer Sepehr Ebrahimi — while distraught families say they have been forced to search overcrowded morgues and retrieve bodies piled on top of one another. Human Rights Activists News Agency reported at least 6,126 killed (plus 214 government‑affiliated forces and 49 civilians) with thousands more deaths under investigation, family sources told CBS they fear 12,000–20,000 dead, and relatives have publicly blamed Iran’s leaders and security services for the killings.

Eyewitness accounts gathered by Iranian and exile human‑rights groups allege that security forces sexually assaulted teenage detainees, including a 16‑year‑old, and forced other prisoners to strip to check for pellet wounds during the latest nationwide protests that began Dec. 28, 2025. The Kurdistan Human Rights Network reports that in western cities like Kermanshah some families have been told to pay up to 10 billion rials — a sum equivalent to many years of wages — just to retrieve the bodies of relatives killed in the crackdown, and that funerals were held under heavy security with relatives pressured to blame protesters for the deaths. HRANA now counts at least 4,902 confirmed fatalities, 9,387 additional deaths under review and 26,541 arrests, even as Iran’s prosecutor general Mohammad Movahedi declares 'the sedition is over' and credits loyalists with extinguishing the unrest. The exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran tells Fox that detainees are still being killed and their bodies burned, and says clashes between protesters and Revolutionary Guard units continue in cities such as Kermanshah, Rasht and Mashhad despite official claims of calm. These allegations, if borne out, would add sexual violence, extortion of bereaved families and corpse desecration to an already extensive list of abuses that U.S. and European governments are weighing as they debate new sanctions and other responses to Tehran’s crackdown.

A new Quinnipiac University poll taken Jan. 9–12, 2026 finds 70% of U.S. voters oppose the United States taking military action in Iran in response to the regime’s killing of protesters, while just 18% favor a strike, even as President Donald Trump openly weighs bombing Iranian targets. Opposition cuts across party lines, with 80% of independents, 79% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans saying the U.S. should not get militarily involved if demonstrators are killed. The same survey shows 70% of voters believe presidents should obtain congressional approval before using military force abroad, including 95% of Democrats and 78% of independents, while a 54–35% majority of Republicans say such approval is not necessary. The findings come as rights groups estimate thousands of deaths in Iran’s nationwide protests and as Trump uses social media and TV interviews to urge Iranians to "KEEP PROTESTING" and warn Tehran of "very strong action" if it executes demonstrators. The data underscore a broad public reluctance to see another U.S. intervention in the Middle East and strong support, outside the GOP base, for reasserting congressional war‑powers limits on the presidency.