Iran trying to evict Christians from oldest Protestant church in Tehran — as Islamist regime cracks down

Iran has threatened to seize Tehran’s historic St. Peter Evangelical Church and evict the 20 families who call the temple their home, according to multiple reports.

The move against the church, which has already had part of its property taken by the regime, appears to be in direct retaliation over the war with the US and Israel, said Sasan Tavassoli, an Iranian Presbyterian pastor in the US with direct contacts at St. Peter.

“I will tell you the literal words they used, ‘We were concerned about America all these years. America came. They slapped us on the face. We slapped them on the face back. And then America withdrew. So we are no longer afraid of America,’” Tavassoli told The Free Press.

It’s the Islamist regime’s latest crackdown on other faiths in the nation of 93 million people following the mass street protests and the war with the US and Israel.

St. Peter was founded by American Presbyterian missionaries in 1872, with the compound serving as a home for low-income Christian families who have lived there for years.

The orders to take the church came under the state-affiliated Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order group, which is issuing a new deed for the church through the regime, according to a letter by Sargez Benyamin, executive secretary of the Synod of the Evangelical Church of Iran in Diaspora.

Authorities have allegedly already seized a 2.5-square-acre garden from the church, which is being occupied by four officials with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Benyamin, a former pastor at the temple who now lives in exile, said the church has no legal recourse against the regime, which has refused to renew their operating license.

“In Iran, you don’t have an independent court. So it would not be possible for us to fight back, to start a legal fight and bring back our documents because they confiscated our documents, our properties, and they issued new documents in the name of this organization under supreme leader,” he told The Free Press.

Tavassoli said that given the church’s American origins, it has become the perfect target for the regime, adding that the property itself is worth “tens of millions of dollars.”

The outcome is just what church officials feared when Iran judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i hailed a court ruling allowing the regime to seize American assets in the country, diaspora site Iran International reported.

Tavassoli added that members of Tehran’s security forces have already gone into the church to “identify” people in a lead up to the eventual eviction of its residents.

“They said they’ll return later to evacuate those living on the premises and take over,” he told Iran International.

Benyamin warned that the 20 families living in the church have no chance of survival without the temple’s support, adding that the worshippers face arrest if they do not leave St. Peter.

Church leaders and allies abroad are calling for international aid and pressure to save the temple and the families living inside.

Iran has repeatedly launched crackdowns on religious minorities within the Islamic republic, with the Center for Human Rights in Iran group recording more than 300 arrests of Christians in 2024.

Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of CHRI, warned that Christians were hit with national security charges that he dubbed “absurd” for the sole reason to stop them from practicing their father.

At least 96 Christians prosecuted that year were hit with sentences of a combined 263 years in prison, according to CHRI.

Iran had stepped up its repression of minority groups, including Baha’i, Christians, and Jews, last year.

Amnesty International recorded dozens of cases against individuals from these communities being hit with bogus charges and having their properties raided and seized in 2025.