Iranian leaders warn protesters and foreign enemies as deadly unrest escalates | News of the demonstrations

Army chief slams foreign ‘rhetoric’ targeting Iran and threatens decisive action to ‘cut off the hand of any aggressor’.

Iran’s top judge has warned protesters who took to the streets during a growing economic crisis that there would be “no leniency for those who help the enemy against the Islamic Republic”, accusing the United States and Israel of sowing chaos.

“Following the announcements by Israel and the US president, there is no excuse for those who take to the streets to provoke riots and unrest,” Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Wednesday in his comments on the deadly protests reported by the Fars news agency.

Amid growing unrest, Iran faces international pressure after US president Donald Trump threatened last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters, as is their habit, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”

His threat – accompanied by a claim that the United States is “locked and loaded and ready to go» – came seven months after Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war.

Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the protesters on Sunday, telling ministers: “It is entirely possible that we are at a moment where the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands. »

Following Ejei’s warning, the Iranian army chief threatened to take pre-emptive military action due to the “rhetoric” targeting Iran.

Speaking to students at the military academy, Major General Amir Hatami – who took over as commander-in-chief of the Iranian army after the deaths of several top military commanders in Iran Israel’s 12 Day War – said the country would “cut off the hand of any aggressor.”

“I can say with certainty that today the readiness of the Iranian armed forces is much better than before the war. If the enemy makes a mistake, it will face a more decisive response,” Hatami said.

“Long-standing anger”

THE nationwide protestswhich has seen dozens of people killed so far, flared late last month when traders in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar closed their stores in anger over the collapse of Iran’s rial currency, amid growing economic woes brought on by mismanagement and punitive Western sanctions.

The Iranian state has not announced the number of victims. HRANA, a network of human rights activists, reported at least 36 deaths and the arrest of at least 2,076 people. Al Jazeera was unable to verify any figures.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to “give in to the enemy” following Trump’s remarks, which took on added significance after the U.S. military raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran, over the weekend.

Seeking to end the anger, the Iranian government on Wednesday began paying the equivalent of $7 a month to subsidize rising costs for table essentials such as rice, meat and pasta – a measure widely seen as a meager response.

“More than a week of protests in Iran reflects not only deteriorating economic conditions, but also long-standing anger against government repression and regime policies that have led to Iran’s global isolation,” said the New York-based think tank Soufan Center.