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A large anti-Israeli banner depicting the image of a Palestinian fighter and the slogan in Persian and Hebrew “Endless Voices of Resistance” is erected at Palestine Square in Tehran on December 31, 2025. Israeli intelligence agency Mossad made a direct appeal on December 31, 2025, urging Iranians to continue their protests, saying it supported them “on the ground” as the Protests spread to the capital Tehran and other Iranian cities. The protests began on December 28, 2025, with Tehran traders rallying against the deterioration of the Iranian economy, and spread to other cities, also attracting students. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images)
Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Friday that if Iran intervenes “violently” in peaceful protests, then the United States will “come to its rescue.”
Unrest has increased in Iran since last week, as protests erupted over the government’s handling of a sharp fall in the national currency and soaring prices. Annual inflation hit 42.2% in December, with food prices rising by 72%. Protests turned violent this week when local media reported the deaths of at least six civilians.
“If Iran violently shoots and kills peaceful protesters, as is its custom, the United States of America will come to their aid,” Trump wrote Friday in an article on Truth Social.
“We are locked, loaded and ready to go,” he added.
Advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Larijani, responded Friday by saying that U.S. interference in protests in Iran amounted to chaos across the region, in comments reported by Reuters.
Iran’s economy has been struggling since Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on the country. Last year at June, American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites an escalation of tensions, drawing Washington into the war between Israel and its long-time regional rival.
Suzanne Maloney, vice president and director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, previously said that the Iranian people were demanding not only a solution to the economy, but also regime change. She added that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been in power for 36 years.
“We hear cries of death to the dictator. We hear slogans that juxtapose the regime’s support for militias in the region with the real interests and demands of the Iranian people,” Maloney told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday.
