Iran supreme leader signals upcoming crackdown on protesters ‘ruining their own streets’ for Trump

Atlantic Council senior fellow Thomas Warrick says the Iranian regime is starting to show some concern for the growing protests across the country.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country’s theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world.

At least 65 people have been killed in the protests that began in late December over Iran’s ailing economy and have morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” as his supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later referred to the demonstrators as “terrorists,” setting the stage for a violent crackdown as in other protests in recent years, despite Trump’s pledge to back peaceful protesters with force if necessary.

Protesters are “ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”

Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”

Late Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement condemning reported deadly violence against the protesters, and urged Iran to allow its citizens to express themselves without fear of reprisal.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi called on more Western governments to denounce Iran’s theocracy, saying it “has made cruelty a governing method.”

“Some still insist on romantic myths about this regime, treating it as a defender of the oppressed abroad,” Ebadi said in a statement. “But a government that shoots peaceful protesters ... at home cannot claim moral authority anywhere.”

Trump has repeatedly pledged to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that has taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela’s former President Nicolas Maduro. The president suggested Friday any possible American strike wouldn’t “mean boots on the ground but that means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”

“Iran’s in big trouble,” Trump said. “It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago.”

He added: “I tell the Iranian leaders you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”

Internet cut off

Despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into Friday morning. The demonstrations restarted Friday night, but it wasn’t possible to immediately assess whether they continued at the same strength. The demonstrations happened even after security services warned families to keep their children home.

One online video showed a fire in the street near in the Saadat Abad area of northern Tehran, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.

“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.

The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. Friday.

Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.

So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 65 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”

“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”

Thursday night protests preceded internet shutdown

When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.

On Friday, Pahlavi called on Trump to help the protesters, saying Khamenei “wants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes.”

“You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word,” he said in a statement. “Please be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran.”

Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past -- particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The internet cut also appears to have taken many of Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline.

State TV claimed the protests Thursday night were violent and caused casualties, but did not offer nationwide figures. It said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometres (175 miles) southwest of Tehran, and two security force members in Qom, 125 kilometres (75 miles) south of the capital.

Protests also were reported Friday in Zahedan in Iran’s restive southwestern Sistan and Baluchestan province. State TV aired footage of pro-government forces on motorcycles Friday night in Tehran.

Jon Gambrell, The Associated Press