President Trump warned in a social media post Friday that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, as is their wont, the United States of America will come to their aid.”
Mr. Trump made no further comments on Iran or how the United States might intervene to protect protesters in the country in his message on his Truth Social network, published just before 3 a.m. ET, but he said: “We are locked, loaded and ready to go.” »
It happened hours later reports that at least six people were killed amid nearly a week of escalating protests in Iran. The unrest began last weekend when business owners expressed frustration over the Islamic Republic’s dire economic situation.
Iran has been plagued by staggering hyperinflation for years, fueled by Western sanctions imposed because of the nuclear program of the hardline clerical government and support for activist groups throughout the region.
Videos and photos from Tehran and other cities posted on social media show protesters marching in the streets since the start of the week, often chanting anti-government and pro-monarchy slogans and sometimes violently clashing with security forces.
Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who studies Iran, told CBS News that the current series of protests was sparked in part by traders unhappy with the weakening of the Iranian currency. Traders tend to be a rather conservative group, he noted, but many have warned that the country’s economic woes have made operating their businesses untenable.
“They only take to the streets if they really have to,” he said. “And they’ve done it now, which kind of gives you an indication of how dire the situation has become.”
In an apparent attempt to quell the unrest, Iranian authorities have acknowledged economic concerns and said peaceful protests are legitimate, but have suggested that foreign powers – usually a reference to Israel and the United States – are behind subversive elements fueling violence in the streets.
Reacting to the US president’s latest remarks, Ali Larijani, former speaker of the Iranian parliament and now secretary of the country’s National Security Council, said in his own social media post on Friday that “Trump should know that US intervention in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of US interests.”
“The American people should know that Trump started adventurism,” Larijani said.
“They should take care of their own soldiers,” he added, in what appears to be a reference to U.S. military forces based in the Middle East, which are within range of Iran’s vast stockpile of ballistic missiles.
There was a harsher warning from Ali Shamkhani, adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said “any interventionist hand that comes too close to Iran’s security will be cut off.”
“The Iranian people know well the experience of being ‘saved’ by the Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he said in a social media post.
The U.S. and Israeli governments had issued statements in support of the protests in Iran before Mr. Trump’s warning Friday morning of possible unspecified U.S. intervention.
“The Iranian people want freedom. They have suffered for too long at the hands of the ayatollahs,” Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an article on X earlier this week. “We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war.”
Vatanka told CBS News it was unclear what steps the Trump administration might take to support protesters or push back against the Iranian regime’s crackdown. But he believes Mr. Trump’s gestures of support could embolden protesters.
“We should not underestimate the value of an American president who floats the idea of American support for the protests,” he said. “That might just be the only ingredient you need to keep this movement, the street movement, alive, because in recent years these protests have tended to die down after a few days. [or a] a few weeks.”
Tensions between the United States and Iran escalated this week following a visit to the United States by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has for decades campaigned for his country’s close allies in Washington to take a tougher stance on Iran.
After meeting with Netanyahu On Sunday, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Mr. Trump said he heard that Iran could try to rebuild its nuclear program after the unprecedented crisis US strikes its enrichment facilities in June. Mr. Trump warned that if Iran tried to rebuild, “we will knock them down. We will knock them out of harm’s way. But I hope that doesn’t happen.”
Tuesday, Iranian President Mahsoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would respond “to any cruel aggression” with unspecified “harsh and discouraging” measures.
Iran is no stranger to nationwide protests, and the latest demonstrations fall far short of the last major outbreak of 2022, sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Aminia young Iranian girl.
Her death in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women sparked a wave of anger across the country. Several hundred people were killed, including dozens of members of the security forces, who responded with a spectacular crackdown, arresting hundreds of people.
Numerous protests also took place in 2019, triggered by a sharp rise in gasoline prices.
The standoff between Iran and the United States over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program reached a crescendo in June, when Mr. Trump ordered the deadly operation military strikes against Iranian enrichment facilitiesas Israel also carried out strikes on the country.
While Mr. Trump indicated earlier this week that the United States could take further action if Iran rebuilds its nuclear program, the brief social media post Friday was the first suggestion of possible U.S. intervention on behalf of Iranian protesters.
