Iran says'ready for war' Which are Iran's main opposition groups? This past week, Iranian protesters were labelled "terrorists" and "saboteurs" by the state. That rhetoric was accompanied by an internet blackout and a surge in violence, with the death toll still unclear. Simultaneously, tensions between the United States and Iran escalated, raising the stakes in what has become one of the most serious political upheavals in the country in years. In the US, the shooting - in public - of a woman two weeks ago by immigration officers has spiralled into a case of outright lying that is remarkable even by the standards of the Trump administration.