United States President Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Iran’s authorities, cautioning them against harming peaceful demonstrators and stating that Washington “will come to their rescue.”
In a brief social media post, Trump wrote: “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” without providing further details on what actions might follow.
In response, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Trump to “be careful” if he intervened, highlighting the risk of widespread chaos across the Middle East.
The unrest in Iran has already claimed at least eight lives after nearly a week of protests over worsening economic conditions.
Trump’s post on Truth Social read: “If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.” He did not elaborate on what measures Washington might take.
In June, the US carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites under Trump’s orders, which American officials later said set back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a claim Iran disputes. In retaliation, Iran launched a missile attack on a major US military base in Qatar.
Following Trump’s latest statement, Khamenei adviser Ali Larijani issued a counter-warning, “Trump should know that US interference in this internal matter would mean destabilising the entire region and destroying America’s interests.”
For some Iranian protesters, however, outside support is welcome. “They [security forces] are afraid and they shake to the bones when Mr Trump says something or Mr (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu says something,” a young woman in Tehran told the BBC’s Newshour programme. Preferring to remain anonymous, she added that protesters have long sought US backing because security forces “believe that if Mr Trump says something, he will do [it],” and that they “know if anything happens, they would have to take the consequences.”
Video footage from Reuters shows protests in Lorestan province outside a police station, where eight people have reportedly been killed since Sunday.
Two fatalities occurred in clashes in Lordegan, south-west Iran, according to the semi-official Fars news agency and human rights group Hengaw, which named the victims as Ahmad Jalil and Sajjad Valamanesh.
Fars also reported three deaths in Azna and one in Kouhdasht, but did not specify whether the deceased were protesters or security personnel.
Additional casualties were reported in Fuladshahr and Marvdasht. The BBC has not independently verified these deaths.
Social media footage showed cars set ablaze amid confrontations between protesters and security forces. BBC Persian confirmed videos of Thursday’s protests in Lordegan, Tehran, and Marvdasht.
Iranian officials claimed a young member of the country’s security forces was killed on Wednesday in Kouhdasht, but protesters said the man was a demonstrator shot by security personnel.
Clashes were reported during his funeral, attended by thousands, when security forces attempted to carry the coffin but were overpowered by mourners.
The protests began on Sunday in Tehran among shopkeepers angered by a sharp drop in the value of the rial against the US dollar.
By Tuesday, university students had joined, and demonstrations spread across several cities, with chants against the clerical rulers. Many participants are now calling for an end to Khamenei’s rule, and some advocate a return to the monarchy.
“We don’t have any kind of liberty here,” the protester said. “We fight every day – we face the most brutal things every day. We want to end it [the regime], even with the price of our lives, we don’t have anything.”
These protests are the broadest since the 2022 uprising triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being accused by morality police of improperly wearing her veil, though the current unrest is smaller in scale.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would listen to the “legitimate demands” of protesters. Meanwhile, Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi-Azad warned that any attempt to destabilize the country would be met with a “decisive response.”
