Trump warns Iran authorities against killing peaceful protesters
US President Donald Trump warned Iranian authorities not to kill peaceful protesters and said Washington would “come to their rescue.”
In a short post on social media, he wrote: “We’re locked, loaded and ready to go.” He did not give further details.
A senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded by saying Trump should “be careful” if he intervened and warned of possible chaos in the Middle East.
At least six people were reported killed in Iran on Thursday, following almost a week of mass protests sparked by worsening economic conditions.
In a post on Friday’s Truth Social, Trump wrote: “If Iran fires [sic] and if they brutally murder peaceful protesters as is their wont, the United States will come to their rescue.”
Khamenei’s advisor Ali Larijani soon warned that any US intervention would destabilize “the entire region” and also harm American interests.
The US president did not specify in his post what action Washington might take against Iranian officials.
In June, USA attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities By Trump’s orders.
American officials later argued that the attacks significantly hindered Tehran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons; Iran, however, disputed this claim.
In retaliation, Iran launched a missile attack on a major US military base in Qatar.
Six people were reported killed in Iran on Thursday, in the fifth day of protests.
Two people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in the southwestern city of Lordegan, according to the semi-official Fars news agency and human rights group Hengaw.
According to Fars, three people were killed in Azna and one in Kouhdasht in the west of the country.
Fars did not specify whether those killed were demonstrators or members of the security forces.
Hengaw stated that the two people killed in Lordegan were protesters and said that they were Ahmad Jalil and Sajjad Valamanesh.
The BBC could not independently confirm the deaths.
Images published on social media show cars being set on fire during ongoing clashes between protesters and security forces.
BBC Persian has confirmed videos showing Thursday’s protests in Lordegan, Tehran and Marvdasht in the southern Fars province.
Iranian officials had previously said a member of the country’s security forces was killed in the western city of Kuhdasht on Wednesday.
Protests began in Tehran on Sunday among shopkeepers angered by the sharp decline in the value of the Iranian currency, the rial, against the US dollar on the open market.
On Tuesday, university students also got involved and spread to many cities; people chanted slogans against the country’s religious rulers.
Since then, many protesters have been calling for an end to Khamenei’s rule. Some said they wanted to return to the monarchy.
The protests have been the most widespread, but not on the same scale, since the 2022 uprising sparked by the custodial death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman accused by morality police of not wearing her veil properly.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would listen to the “legitimate demands” of the protesters.
But the country’s Attorney General, Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, warned that any attempt to create instability would be met with a “firm response”.
