Donald Trump has been threatened with a “swift, decisive and comprehensive” response by Iran if the US intervenes following growing unrest in the country, with at least 10 people killed and dozens of arrests, according to reports.
Iranian officials have been responding to the US president’s pledge to “rescue” protesters if they were killed while demonstrating on the streets over a growing cost-of-living crisis.
If Iran “kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social.
In a statement on Friday evening, Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the “intimidating remarks” and accused the US of “escalating tensions in the region”.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s response to any aggression will be swift, decisive, and comprehensive,” it added.
The US State Department shared a video of some of the protests on X. It said the “courage of the Iranian people is undeniable” and praised the demonstrators’ “resolve in the face of repression”.
This week’s protests are the biggest since nationwide demonstrations triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody in 2022.
The unrest has spread across the country, with deadly confrontations with security forces focused in western provinces.
State-affiliated media and rights groups have reported at least 10 deaths since Wednesday, including two men who authorities said were members of the Basij paramilitary force affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards.
According to information verified by Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights, there have been 132 arrests during the recent unrest, including at least 12 women and 8 children.
Protests erupted on Sunday in the capital, Tehran, with crowds largely chanting about economic grievances.
Iran’s economy has been battered by years of sanctions, and the country’s currency has hit a record low against the US dollar as prices soar.
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Protests turn deadly
The unrest has seen students take to the streets of Tehran on Tuesday, demonstrators attempting to break into a government building on Wednesday, and then turning deadly as the violence escalated overnight into Thursday.
Rights groups and social media posts reported protests in a number of cities across Iran late on Friday, including in three districts of the capital Tehran.
Iran’s hardliner politician Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a post on X that Mr Trump’s threat makes “all American bases and forces across the region legitimate targets in response to any possible adventurism”.
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Mr Trump did not specify what sort of action the US could take in support of the protests, but America bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June, joining an Israeli air campaign that targeted Tehran’s atomic programme and military leadership.
