U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to help protesters in Iran if security forces fired on them, days after unrest that left people dead and posed the biggest domestic threat to Iranian authorities in years.
“We are loaded and ready to go,” he said in a social media post. The United States attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in June, joining an Israeli air campaign targeting Tehran’s atomic program and military leadership.
Senior Iranian official Ali Larijani responded to Trump’s comments by warning that US interference in Iran’s internal affairs would amount to destabilization of the entire region. Iran supports groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The comments come as a local official in western Iran, where several deaths have been reported, was quoted by state media as warning that any unrest or illegal gatherings would be fought “decisively and mercilessly”, increasing the likelihood of escalation.
THE BIGGEST DEMONSTRATIONS IN THREE YEARS
This week’s protests against rising inflation have spread across Iran, with deadly clashes between demonstrators and security forces concentrated in the western provinces of Lorestan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.
State-affiliated media and rights groups have reported at least six deaths since Wednesday, including a man who authorities say was a member of the Basij paramilitary group, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.
In recent decades, Iran has seen repeated episodes of major unrest, often suppressing protests with heavy security measures and mass arrests. But economic problems could now make authorities more vulnerable.
This week’s protests are the largest in three years, since nationwide protests sparked by the death of a young woman in custody in late 2022 paralyzed Iran for weeks, with rights groups reporting hundreds of deaths.
During the most recent unrest, President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian struck a conciliatory tone, promising dialogue with protest leaders over the cost of living crisis, even as human rights groups said security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
Last year’s Israeli and American attacks increased pressure on authorities, as did Syria’s ouster of Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Tehran, and Israel’s attack on its main regional partner, Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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