Iran has warned the US not to intervene militarily to support protests that have spread across the Islamic republic as President Donald Trump said Washington was “ready to help”.
US media reported that the Trump administration was considering military options in response to the protests.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” Trump said on Saturday on social media. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”
Trump’s comments came as the regime intensified its crackdown and struggled to contain the biggest protests in years amid reports that the death toll was rising.
Protesters continued to take to the streets of cities, including Tehran on Saturday, defying the government’s crackdown.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a foreign-based group, said the death toll since the protests erupted in late December had risen to 116, including security forces. It said more than 2,600 people had been detained.
Iran has been cut off from the outside world since Thursday after the regime imposed a near total internet blackout and shut down communications in the republic.
Iran Warnings to US
Iran’s speaker of parliament Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, speaking in parliament on Sunday, warned the US against “a miscalculation”. “Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Ghalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The US has multiple bases in the region. In June, Tehran fired missiles at an American base in Qatar to retaliate for Trump’s decision to bomb the republic’s main nuclear plants as he briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday said the government would “sit and listen” to people’s concerns.
“It is our responsibility to solve their concerns. But the higher responsibility is to not allow a group of rioters to come and destroy the entire society,” he said in an interview on Iranian TV. “These are not people. They are not from this country.”
He blamed the US and Israel for stoking the protests. On Saturday, he warned the US against intervening.
“Believing that the Islamic Republic of Iran is like other countries, the US is pursuing the same measures by encouraging certain individuals to create chaos and riots,” he said during a meeting with Oman’s foreign minister.
He added the Iranian people “will support the country and the [Islamic] establishment more strongly than before”, according to state television.
videos posted online have purported to show protesters continuing to take to the streets in defiance of the government crackdown. The authorities have warned that those detained will be dealt with swiftly and without leniency.
Tehran’s state prosecutor has warned that people who attack public buildings and security forces with weapons would face the charge of waging war against God, which can carry a death penalty.
The demonstrations were triggered by economic grievances as shopkeepers in Tehran shuttered their stores to protest against soaring prices. That has since morphed into nationwide anti-regime demonstrations.
The protests are the most serious domestic threat to the regime since 2022, when Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab and died in custody. More than 300 people were killed in a backlash against those demonstrations, according to Amnesty International.
