DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged dueling threats Friday as\u00a0widening protests\u00a0swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after\u00a0America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least eight people have been killed\u00a0so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, which were sparked in part by the collapse of Iran\u2019s rial currency but have increasingly seen crowds chanting anti-government slogans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protests, now in their sixth day, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of\u00a022-year-old Mahsa Amini\u00a0in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the protests have yet to be as widespread and intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it \u201cviolently kills peaceful protesters,\u201d the United States \u201cwill come to their rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are locked and loaded and ready to go,\u201d Trump wrote, without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, alleged that Israel and the U.S. were stoking the demonstrations. He offered no evidence to support the allegation, which Iranian officials have repeatedly made during years of protests sweeping the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTrump should know that intervention by the U.S. in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the U.S. interests,\u201d Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. \u201cThe people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Larijani\u2019s remarks likely referenced America\u2019s wide military footprint in the region.\u00a0Iran in June attacked Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar\u00a0after the U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war on the Islamic Republic. No one was injured, though a missile did hit a structure there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Friday, no major changes had been made to U.S. troop levels in the Middle East or their preparations following Trump\u2019s social media posts, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter late Friday to United Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council, Iran’s envoy asked the world body to condemn the rhetoric and reaffirm the country’s “inherent right to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security, and to protect its people against any foreign interference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe United States of America bears full responsibility for any consequences arising from these unlawful threats and any ensuing escalation,” said Amir Saeid Iravani, Iranian ambassador to the U.N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who previously was the council\u2019s secretary for years, separately warned that \u201cany interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump’s online message marked a direct sign of support for the demonstrators, something other American presidents have avoided out of concern that activists would be accused of working with the West.\u00a0During Iran’s 2009 Green Movement demonstrations, President Barack Obama held back from publicly backing the protests \u2014 something he said in 2022 \u201cwas a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But such White House support still carries a risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThough the grievances that fuel these and past protests are due to the Iranian government\u2019s own policies, they are likely to use President Trump\u2019s statement as proof that the unrest is driven by external actors,\u201d said Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut using that as a justification to crack down more violently risks inviting the very U.S. involvement Trump has hinted at,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei recently cited a list of Tehran\u2019s longtime grievances regarding U.S. intervention, including\u00a0a CIA-backed coup\u00a0in 1953, the\u00a0downing of a passenger jet\u00a0in 1988 and the strikes in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protests continued Friday in various cities in the country, even as life largely continued unaffected in the capital, Tehran. Demonstrations have reached over 100 locations in 22 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported. It said the death toll in the demonstrations rose to eight with the death of a demonstrator in Marvdasht in Iran’s Fars province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demonstrators took to the streets in Zahedan in Iran’s restive Sistan and Baluchestan province on the border with Pakistan. The burials of several demonstrators killed in the protests also took place Friday, sparking marches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Videos purported to show mourners chasing off security force members who attended the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari. He was killed Wednesday in Kouhdasht, over 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran in Iran’s Lorestan province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Footage also showed Khodayari’s father denying his son served in the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as authorities claimed. The semiofficial Fars news agency later reported that there were now questions about the government’s claims that he served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran\u2019s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran\u2019s rial has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran\u2019s theocracy as well. Tehran has had little luck in propping up its economy in the months since the June war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran recently said it was\u00a0no longer enriching uranium\u00a0at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. However, those talks have yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have\u00a0warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"