Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran if its government kills demonstrators, prompting warnings from senior Iranian officials that any American interference would cross a “red line”.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump said that if Iran were to shoot and kill protesters, the US would “come to their rescue”. He added: “We are locked and loaded, and ready to go”, without explaining what that might mean in practice.
Protests in Iran are in their sixth day, and are the largest since 2022, when the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini triggered demonstrations across the country. The current unrest was triggered by an unprecedented decline in the value of the national currency on Sunday. The Iranian rial dropped to about 1.4m to the US dollar, further harming an already beleaguered economy.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called Trump’s statement “reckless and dangerous”, and said the country’s military was on standby. He also said the protests had been mostly peaceful, but that attacks on public property would not be tolerated.
“Given President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard within US borders, he of all people should know that criminal attacks on public property cannot be tolerated,” he said.
At least seven people have been killed, and videos have shown security forces carrying shotguns with the sound of shooting in the background.
In response to Trump’s threat of intervention, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that Iran’s national security was a “red line, not material for adventurist tweets”.
“Any intervening hand nearing Iran security on pretexts will be cut off with a regret-inducing response,” Shamkhani said in a post on X.
The threats come just days after Trump said that the US could strike Iran if it was found to be rebuilding its nuclear programme, further escalating tensions between the two countries.
Another senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, accused the US and Israel of having a hand in the demonstrations in Iran, a common refrain by officials in response to protests.
“Trump must realize that US intervention in this domestic matter will lead to destabilisation of the whole region and the destruction of American interests,” Larijani wrote on X. “The American people must know that Trump is the one that started this adventure, and they should pay attention to the safety of their soldiers.”
Iran has threatened to target American soldiers stationed in the Middle East in the past, and in June it attacked Al-Udeid airbase in Qatar after the US struck Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.
The current protests have taken place in Tehran but have also spread to other cities, such as Isfahan in central Iran. Shopkeepers have closed their stores in protest and students have taken over campuses to express their grievances. Though economic conditions are the central grievance, demonstrators have also chanted anti-government slogans and decried what they said was corruption and mismanagement by the government.
Protests continued on Friday, with marches taking place to commemorate the burial of several demonstrators killed. Videos appeared to show mourners stopping security forces from attending the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari, who was killed on Wednesday in Lorestan province.
Khodayari was originally reported as a member of the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary group, but his father denied the claims on video.
The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, initially invited protest leaders for talks, taking a less confrontational approach than authorities did in the 2022 protests, which they violently suppressed. Pezeshkian said that he had instructed the government to listen to the protesters “legitimate demands”.
The recent deaths of demonstrators, however, could signal that authorities are taking a harder line against protests as they continue. A statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps on Monday warned that it would take a harsh line against any foreign interference or “sedition” in the country.
As Iranian authorities grapple with protests at home, it has tried to stave off accusations from the US that it is reconstituting its nuclear programme.
Iran has said that it is no longer enriching uranium anywhere in the country and has signaled it is open for negotiations with the west.