President Donald Trump announced in a message on his website, Truth Social, on Friday that the United States is ready to intervene to “rescue” anti-regime protesters in Iran should the government attempt to brutalize them.
The president was responding to the eruption of nationwide protests against the terrorist regime in that country that began last week, a response to the collapse in the value of the rial, the national currency, in addition to various national crises that include a months-long struggle to maintain the water supply. Reports on Wednesday and Thursday indicated that Iran’s repressive apparatus killed at least seven people on Thursday, but the protesters have continued attacking regime institutions, including attempting to burn down police and security force offices in multiple cities. Chants of “death to the dictator” and “death to Khamenei” have spread.
“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” President Trump wrote. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The protests began last week after the rial dropped to 1.42 million per U.S. dollar and the Iranian regime ousted central bank chief Mohammad Reza Farzin, a sign that “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dissatisfied with his performance. While reports this week suggest the Iranian regime has yet to shut down the internet, as it usually does during protests, it has responded in part by shutting down businesses and government offices in affected provinces, including the capital, Tehran.
The independent outlet Iran International reported on Thursday that seven protesters were killed on Thursday, but protests continued to spread to new cities, prompting the government to again shut down businesses, allegedly to save energy.
“Government offices were shut down in 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces on Wednesday, and several major universities in Tehran moved classes online until further notice under the same pretext,” the outlet reported.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a dissident group associated with the leftist People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), documented the deaths of three unidentified “young people” on Thursday, in addition to the violence in prior days. The NCRI also documented a growing phenomenon of protesters setting government buildings on fire, including the headquarters of the Basij (domestic repressive forces) in Mashhad, Sabzevar, and Neyshabur, and protesters in several other cities setting police stations and police vehicles on fire. In response, according to the NCRI, repressive state security forces have opened fire on protesters in several cities.
Iran regularly experiences protests, often violent ones. The ongoing protests this week are the largest since the wave of protests in 2022 following the brutal state killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old women who was killed by “morality police” for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
The Iranian regime responded to President Trump via its Foreign Ministry on Friday, accusing him of threatening “foreign interference.” Spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei called the president’s Truth Social post “a blatant violation of the most fundamental principle of international law.”
“Iranians, in their dialogue and pursuit of solutions to their problems, will not allow any kind of foreign interference,” Baqaei claimed.
Top Khamenei official Ali Shamkhani, who represents Khamenei on the Iranian Defense Council, also threatened Trump personally, declaring, “any interventionist hand that approaches Iran’s security with excuses will be cut off before it reaches a regrettable response.”
Another top Khamenei mouthpiece, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, also weighed in, with an apparently conciliatory note towards the protesters coupled with threats against American soldiers.
“We distinguish between the stance of the protesting shopkeepers and the actions of disruptive actors, and Trump should know that US interference in this internal matter would mean destabilizing the entire region and destroying America’s interests,” Larijani reportedly said in a social media statement. “The American people should know that Trump started the adventurism. They should be mindful of their soldiers’ safety.”
Iran International reported on Thursday that government banners appeared in Tehran on Thursday threatening America and Israel, which at press time has made no public comment on the protests.
“The phrase, ‘It Will Happen Again’ appears above images of sites targeted during the June war, including Israel’s Nevatim airbase and the Haifa refinery and power plant, as well as Qatar’s Al‑Udeid airbase which hosts American troops and was targeted in June,” Iran International reported.
Iran falsely claims that it defeated Israel and the United States in a conflict in June that began with Iran launching missiles into civilian areas of Israel. Israel responded by launching “Operation Rising Lion” intended to neutralize Iranian threats. On June 21, President Trump announced that he had ordered American airstrikes on three major nuclear targets in Iran: the enrichment sites at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan. Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” that prevented the Iranian regime from advancing in its quest to develop a nuclear weapon.
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