Iran’s Regime On Edge As Blackouts Fuel Public Fury – OpEd

While Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently asserted with unparalleled audacity that “in the public sphere of the country, there is no particular issue,” the reality on the ground paints a starkly different picture. The mullahs’ regime is gripped by fear, particularly dreading the escalation of social protests fueled by a worsening electricity crisis and its accompanying frequent blackouts.

This crisis is a glaring symptom of the regime’s endemic corruption, incompetence, and profound disregard for the Iranian people, pushing the nation ever closer to a boiling point.

An “irreversible” crisis of the regime’s making

The energy and electricity crisis under the clerical regime has reached what is described as an “irreversible point.” The power shortage is projected to reach a staggering 30,000 megawatts by the end of the current government’s term.

Regime officials, experts, and state-controlled media themselves acknowledge the impossibility of resolving this deficit. Aliabadi, the Minister of Energy in Pezeshkian’s cabinet, admitted, “We are now in a super-critical situation.” The state-affiliated Bahar News grimly predicts that by 2026, winter blackouts could extend to 8 hours, and by 2028, they could last up to 14 hours daily. This self-admitted catastrophe underscores the regime’s abject failure to manage essential services, directly devastating the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Iranians. Rather than a lack of resources, the crisis stems from chronic mismanagement and systematic neglect, with billions diverted from infrastructure to fund the IRGC and its regional proxies.

Blackouts igniting widespread protest

The regime’s own media outlets are sounding the alarm. The state-run Jahan Sanatnewspaper explicitly warned of the potential for “violent protests” and “social unrest” stemming from the power cuts, particularly noting that outages in industrial towns have led to “expanded dissatisfaction among workers” and that “the smell of violent protests can be detected in some industrial towns.”

The paper added that “in these coming days, perhaps seeking tolerance and inviting citizens to cooperate with the government will become a rusty tool that is useless and does not reduce social unrest. Every day that passes like this, the cancer of powerlessness gets closer to killing Iranian society.”

Members of the regime’s parliament (Majlis) echo these concerns. Ahmad Jabari, an MP, criticized the regime for “playing with people’s psyche” by using terms like “imbalance” to describe the energy crisis, while citizens, especially in Hormozgan province in the south, endure 50-degree Celsius heat without electricity. “The power outages have exhausted the dear and honorable people of the south of the country… People’s lives and businesses are facing problems… Cutting off people’s electricity in the 50-degree heat of the south, by God, has no logical or rational justification,” Jabari stated.

Another MP, Hassan Norouzi, confessed to the regime’s lack of solutions as the peak summer months of July and August approach, with concurrent water shortages compounding the misery and impacting factories, insurance, and even the bread supply.

Bakers on the frontline

The regime’s fear has been magnified by street protests from hardworking bakers, who are severely impacted by the power outages from multiple angles. The state-run Etemadnewspaper warned that “power cuts have brought public dissatisfaction to a peak and weakened trust in the government. In most cities, bakers have protested.”

Ahmad Fatemi, another Majlis member, described the bakers’ predicament as a “super-challenge,” exclaiming with trepidation, “Today, the problems of bakeries have turned into a super-challenge… Why are you not accountable? Regarding the frequent power cuts and widespread blackouts, I am warning; this issue has exhausted the people. It has exhausted production units and industry owners.”

These warnings are not abstract. In the past weeks, bakers in major Iranian provinces—Qom, Mashhad, Isfahan, Birjand, and Khuzestan—launched coordinated protests. They voiced anger over repeated, unannounced electricity cuts that ruined dough batches, led to severe financial losses, and rendered production unsustainable. In Mashhad, bakery owners highlighted chaos from inconsistent power, reporting dough frequently wasted. In Isfahan, protesters chanted, “Enough with promises—our tables are empty!” and dumped spoiled dough in front of the power office. This unified outcry from bakers, whose livelihoods are being destroyed, signals a dangerous flashpoint for the regime.

A failing regime pushing society to the brink

The devastating electricity crisis is not an isolated incident but a direct and undeniable consequence of the Iranian regime’s systemic corruption, gross mismanagement, and deliberate prioritization of its repressive security apparatus, missile programs, and funding for regional terrorist proxies over the fundamental welfare of its own people.

Billions of dollars in national revenue have been plundered and diverted from essential infrastructure investments. The regime’s officials offer no accountability, further highlighting the complete disconnect between the rulers and the ruled, and signaling the collapse of any remaining social legitimacy.

As power outages intensify, so does public fury. The shared experience of suffering from blackouts, alongside hyperinflation, water scarcity, and unemployment, is uniting Iranians across all social strata. Khamenei’s dismissive pronouncements cannot mask the daily reality faced by millions, a reality that is steadily fueling the embers of dissent. The regime’s inability to provide basic necessities like electricity is not just a failure of governance; it is an indictment of its very existence, pushing Iranian society closer to a nationwide uprising that could spell the end of this corrupt and oppressive rule.