Trump threatens to intervene during ‘reckless’ protests, Iranian foreign minister says

Iran’s foreign minister called Donald Trump’s promise of intervention “reckless and dangerous” after the The American president warned Iranian authorities oppose the killing of peaceful protesters, saying Washington will “come to their rescue.”

In a brief social media message, Trump wrote, “We’re locked, loaded and ready to go,” but gave no further details.

In a statement on »

Iran “will strongly reject any interference in its internal affairs,” he added.

Separately, an Iranian police spokesperson said officers would not allow what he called “enemies” to turn “unrest into chaos.”

HAS at least eight people are believed to have died during week-long protests Saturday morning in Tehran.

Two people died in clashes between protesters and security forces in the southwestern town of Lordegan, according to the semi-official Fars news agency and the Hengaw human rights group, which said they were demonstrators, citing Ahmad Jalil and Sajjad Valamanesh.

Three people were killed in Azna, while another died in Kouhdasht, all located in the west of the country, Fars reported. She did not specify whether they were demonstrators or members of the security forces.

One death was reported in Fuladshahr in central Iran and another in Marvdasht in the south.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify these deaths.

The protests have spread to a number of towns and villages, with continued fighting between security forces and protesters.

Protests began in Tehran among traders angered by another sharp drop in the value of the Iranian currency against the US dollar on the open market.

By Tuesday, university students were involved and they had spread to several cities, with people chanting against the country’s religious leaders.

The protests are the most widespread since a 2022 uprising sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman accused by morality police of not wearing her veil properly, but they have not been on the same scale.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would listen to protesters’ “legitimate demands.”

But the country’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, warned that any attempt to create instability would result in a “decisive response.”

The Reuters news agency reported that Iranian Ambassador to the UN, Amir-Saeid Iravani, called on the Security Council to condemn Trump’s statements in a letter sent to the UN secretary-general and the Security Council president on Friday.

“Iran will exercise its rights decisively and proportionately. The United States of America takes full responsibility for all consequences arising from these unlawful threats and any resulting escalation,” he said in the letter.