Discussing protests in Iran following the government’s decision to raise gas prices in November, Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook asserted that “it appears the regime could have murdered over a thousand Iranian citizens since the protests began”. Hook also announced Secretary of State Pompeo’s determination that the Great Tehran Penitentiary and Qarchak Prison “meet the criteria for gross human rights violations set out in CAATSA”. “The U.S. calls for the immediate release of all protesters detained in prison”, he added, “as well as all the political prisoners currently held by the regime”. Hook went on to state that “the Iranian regime keeps losing major constituencies in its revolutionary base… The only support left for the regime is with a handful of clerics whom the Iranian people despise for having imposed 40 years of brutality on them. The regime now maintains its grip on power through brute force”.