Iran's rulers are carrying out one of the most visible and deadly crackdowns in decades, with mass arrests, political trials, and executions surging at an alarming pace.

Stephen Rapp, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large in the office of Global Criminal Justice, tells CBN News the Iranian regime isn't just cracking down with arrests or beatings. It's using executions to silence dissent, with the numbers rising fast after the recent war with Israel.

"There are thousands of political prisoners, and they could charge them with these phony charges and begin mass executions, really, judicial murders of peaceful opponents," Rapp told CBN News.

Human rights advocates say the scale is staggering. In 2023, Iran executed more than 850 people. The following year, the toll rose to 975. Now, just seven months into 2025, over 700 executions have already been recorded, putting the country on track to shatter previous records.

"The Islamic Republic continues to be the leading state sponsor of executions, second only to the Chinese Communist Party," said Janatan Sayeh, with the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 

Authorities are accused of using vague charges like "enmity against God" to target dissenters. 

"The regime fears its people more than a potential external attack, because ultimately, in their perspective, they can absorb any attack on their military installations," explained Sayeh.  "However, if the discontent internally will expand and lead to nationwide unrest as it has in the past, it would really be the key catalysts for regime collapse."

Recent executions include three Kurdish men and a top nuclear scientist accused of collaborating with Israel.

"What I fear is instead of a thousand a year, we could end up with literally tens of thousands being executed," Rapp warned.

Lana Silk of Transform Iran says security forces are now stopping citizens in the streets.

"People are being rounded up all over the place, people are being stopped in the streets and told to hand over their cell phones while they check messaging history, photos taken, phone calls made, websites visited, it's just blanket across the board," Silk told CBN News. "Cars are being stopped and checked, homes are being raided, no one is safe."

And it's not only political activists being targeted.

"As the internal crackdowns expand and intensify, the religious minorities tend to be on the front lines of this repression apparatus," said Sayeh.

Last month, 21 Iranian Christians were arrested in five cities, accused of "spreading Zionist Christianity" and "acting against national security.

"Those two things are the classic accusations for Christians when they get arrested and charged with something," said Silk. "Of course, the government just wants to stop the spread of Christianity in Iran, but this is amplified now because they are paranoid."

Days after the Israel-Iran ceasefire, the regime's state-run Fars News Agency, which is tied to the Revolutionary Guard, openly called for a repeat of the 1988 massacre, when 30,000 political prisoners were secretly executed.

"They got away with mass murder in 1988," Rapp said. "They think they can get away with it again."

Experts warn that silence from the U.S., Europe, and other global powers only emboldens the regime.

"As long as the international community, the United States and Europe particularly, do not speak up against these heinous, heinous crimes, the regime therefore, doesn't feel any obligation to scale back its internal repression," said Sayeh.