Iran protests widen as Trump, Iranian officials exchange threats – National

US President Donald Trump and senior Iranian officials exchanged threats Friday as protests spread in parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after The United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.

At least seven people have been killed so far violence surrounding protestswhich were triggered in part by the collapse of the Iranian rial, but saw growing crowds chanting anti-government slogans.

The protests, now in their sixth day, have become the largest in Iran since 2022, when the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in police custody sparked nationwide protests. However, the protests have not yet reached the whole country and have not been as intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was arrested because she did not wear her hijab, or headscarf, at the request of authorities.

Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”
“We are locked, loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.

Shortly after, Ali Larijani, former speaker of Parliament and secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, claimed on social platform X that Israel and the United States were fueling the protests. He presented no evidence to support the allegation, made repeatedly by Iranian officials during years of protests that have swept the country.

“Trump should know that the intervention of the United States in the internal problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of American interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The American people must know that Trump started adventurism. He must take care of his own soldiers.”

Larijani’s remarks were likely in reference to the vast U.S. military footprint in the region. Iran attacked Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June following US strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic Republic. No one was injured, although a missile hit a radome.

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who served as the council’s secretary for years, separately warned that “any interventionist hand that gets too close to Iran’s security will be cut off.”

“The Iranian people know well the experience of being ‘saved’ by the Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he added on X.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also threatened that all U.S. bases and forces would be “legitimate targets.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei also responded, citing a list of Tehran’s long-standing grievances against the United States, including the 1953 CIA-backed coup, the 1988 shooting down of an airliner and participation in the June War.

The Iranian response came as the protests undermined what was a common refrain among the theocracy’s leaders: that the country had largely supported its government after the war.

Trump’s online message is a direct sign of support for the protesters, something other US presidents have avoided out of fear that activists could be accused of working with the West. During the Green Movement protests in Iran in 2009, President Barack Obama refrained from publicly supporting the protests – something he said in 2022 “was a mistake”.

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But such support from the White House always carries risk.

“Even if the grievances fueling these and past protests are due to the Iranian government’s own policies, it is likely to use President Trump’s statement as evidence that the unrest is caused by outside actors,” said Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“But using this as a justification to crack down more violently risks leading to the American involvement that Trump has alluded to,” he added.

Protesters took to the streets on Friday in Zahedan, in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, on the border with Pakistan. Burials of several protesters killed during the demonstrations also took place, sparking marches.

An online video purports to show mourners chasing away members of the security forces who were attending the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari. He was killed Wednesday in Kouhdasht, more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran, in Iran’s Lorestan province.

The video also shows Khodayari’s father denying that his son served in the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, as authorities claim. The semi-official Fars news agency later reported that questions were now being asked about the government’s claims that he was in the service.

Iran’s civilian government led by reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has tried to signal that it wants to negotiate with the protesters. However, Pezeshkian acknowledged there was little he could do as the Iranian rial rapidly depreciated, with one dollar now costing around 1.4 million rials. This sparked the first protests.

The protests, which are rooted in economic issues, have also heard demonstrators shouting against Iran’s theocracy. Tehran has not had much luck reviving its economy in the months following the June war.

Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remained open to possible negotiations over its nuclear program to ease sanctions. However, those talks have yet to take place as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.

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