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Iran has warned the US not to intervene militarily to support protests that have spread across the Islamic republic as President Donald Trump said Washington was “ready to help”.
As two weeks of civil unrest pose the greatest domestic threat to the Islamic regime in years, US media reported that the Trump administration was considering military options in response to the protests. The reports said no decision had been made on an intervention. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The US president has repeatedly said that Washington was ready to come to the “rescue” of Iranians if the authorities there kill protesters.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” Trump said on Saturday on social media. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”
Trump’s comments came as the regime intensified its crackdown and struggled to contain the biggest protests in years amid reports that the death toll was rising.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a foreign-based group, said the death toll since the protests erupted in late December had risen to 116, including security forces. It said more than 2,600 people had been detained.
Iran’s speaker of parliament Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, speaking in parliament on Sunday, warned the US against “a miscalculation”. “Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Ghalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The US has multiple bases in the region. In June, Tehran fired missiles at an American base in Qatar to retaliate for Trump’s decision to bomb the republic’s main nuclear plants as he briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against Iran.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday warned the US against intervening. The authorities have repeatedly accused Washington and Israel of stoking the protests.
“Believing that the Islamic Republic of Iran is like other countries, the US is pursuing the same measures by encouraging certain individuals to create chaos and riots,” he said during a meeting with Oman’s foreign minister.
He added the Iranian people “will support the country and the [Islamic] establishment more strongly than before”, according to state television.
The unrest comes as the Islamic republic is at its most vulnerable in years as it faces intensifying internal and domestic pressures and an increasingly desperate and angry population.
Iran has been cut off from the outside world since Thursday after the regime imposed a near total internet blackout and shut down communications in the republic.
But videos posted online have purported to show protesters continuing to take to the streets in defiance of the government crackdown. The authorities have warned that those detained will be dealt with swiftly and without leniency.
Tehran’s state prosecutor has warned that people who attack public buildings and security forces with weapons would face the charge of waging war against God, which can carry a death penalty.
State-affiliated media has said hundreds of people have been arrested and more than a dozen security personnel killed since the protests escalated on Thursday, the start of the Iranian weekend.
It accused “armed groups” of attacking “public and private property in several provinces, causing extensive damage”, including at mosques.
The demonstrations were triggered by economic grievances as shopkeepers in Tehran shuttered their stores to protest against soaring prices. That has since morphed into nationwide anti-regime demonstrations.
Pezeshkian, who came to power 18 months ago vowing to reform the economy, initially sought to placate the demonstrators. But as the protests intensified, the authorities have stepped up their warnings.
“This is uncharted territory for the Islamic republic as they have organic, bottom-up pressure, with segments of the society that were historically the backbone of the republic protesting, which has mushroomed into something much bigger,” said Ellie Geranmayeh at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“There are no easy answers to this pressure, and combined with this you have the top-down pressure from the US and Israel.”
The protests are the most serious domestic threat to the regime since 2022, when Mahsa Amini was arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab and died in custody. More than 300 people were killed in a backlash against those demonstrations, according to Amnesty International.
Iran is in a weaker position economically and militarily today as a result of Israel’s devastating 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June.
During the conflict, Israeli forces assassinated Iran’s top military commanders and nuclear scientists, destroyed its air defences and — along with the US — bombed its nuclear facilities. The rial has lost more than 40 per cent of its value since the war, exacerbating runaway inflation.
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