Iran steps up warnings against protesters and threatens US troops in region as unrest enters second week.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Nationwide unrest challenges Iran’s theocracy saw protesters flood the streets in the country’s capital and its second largest city on Saturday night and into Sunday morning, crossing the two-week mark when an outside monitoring group said at least 116 people had died.

With Internet down Iran and phone lines cut, measuring the demonstrations from abroad has become more difficult. But according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which relies on a network of contacts within the country, the death toll from clashes between protesters and Iran’s security forces has risen steadily, and more than 2,600 more people have been detained in the past two weeks.

Facing their most significant challenge in years, Iran’s theocratic rulers have issued increasingly severe threats to what they claim are agitators influenced by the United States and Israel, and responded Threats of US intervention by President Trump. with their own corresponding threats.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament warned that the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if the US attacks the Islamic Republic, as President Trump threatened. Qalibaf made the threat as lawmakers took the stage in the Iranian parliament shouting, “Death to America!”

Those abroad fear that the information blackout will embolden hardliners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown, despite Trump’s warnings that he is willing to attack the Islamic Republic if protesters are killed.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Iran is looking toward FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. America is ready to help!!!”

“I’m sure that has really scared a lot of Iranian officials and may have affected their actions in terms of how to confront protesters, but at the same time, it has inspired a lot of protesters to come out because they know that the leader of the world’s leading superpower is supporting their cause,” Maziar Bahari, editor of the IranWire news website, told News themezone.

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US officials, said late Saturday that Trump had been given military options for an attack on Iran but had not made a final decision.

Iranian lawmaker says ‘signs of threat’ could trigger attacks on US troops

Iranian state television broadcast Sunday’s parliamentary session live. Qalibaf, a hardliner who has run for president in the past, gave a speech applauding Iran’s police and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, particularly its volunteer Basij, for having “stood firm” during the protests.

“The people of Iran should know that we will treat them in the most severe manner and punish those who are arrested,” Qalibaf said.

He then directly threatened Israel, “the occupied territory,” as he called it, and the U.S. military, possibly with a preemptive strike.

“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all US military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said. “We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of threat.”

It is unclear how serious Iran is about launching an attack, especially after seeing its air defenses destroyed during the 12 day war in june with Israel, which also saw the United States carry out attacks against its nuclear facilities. Any decision to go to war would fall to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86.

The US military has said that in the Middle East it is “with forces spanning the full range of combat capabilities to defend our forces, our partners and allies, and US interests.”

Iran Attacked US forces at Al Udeid air base. in Qatar in June, while the US Navy’s Middle East-based Fifth Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Iran threatens to sentence protesters to death

Online videos sent from Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed a meeting in the Punak neighborhood of northern Tehran. There, authorities appeared to close the streets and protesters waved their lit cell phones. Others banged on metal as fireworks exploded.

Another video allegedly showed protesters marching peacefully down a street and others honking their car horns in the street.

“The pattern of protests in the capital has largely taken the form of dispersed, short-lived and fluid gatherings, an approach formed in response to the heavy presence of security forces and increased pressure on the ground,” the Human Rights Activist News Agency said. “At the same time, there were reports of surveillance drones flying overhead and security force movements around the protest sites, indicating continued security monitoring and control.”

In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, about 450 kilometers northeast of Tehran, video reportedly showed protesters clashing with security forces. Debris and burning garbage containers could be seen on the street, blocking the road. Mashhad is home to the shrine of Imam Reza, the holiest in Shiite Islam, making protests there of great importance to the country’s theocracy.

Protests also appeared to occur in Kerman, 500 miles southeast of Tehran.

On Sunday morning, Iranian state television followed the protesters’ lead, having its correspondents appear on the streets of several cities to show quiet areas with a date stamp on the screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included. They also showed pro-government demonstrations in Qom and Qazvin.

Khamenei has announced a coming crackdown, despite warnings from the United States. Tehran escalated its threats on Saturday, with Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Movahedi Azad warning that anyone who participates in the protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a charge punishable by the death penalty. The statement carried on Iranian state television said even those who “helped the rioters” would face charges.

Iran’s theocracy cut the nation off from the Internet and international phone calls on Thursday, although it allowed some state and semi-official media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to work.

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who called for protests on Thursday and Friday, called in his last message for protesters to take to the streets on Saturday and Sunday. He urged protesters to carry the ancient Iranian flag of the lion and sun and other national symbols used during the time of the shah to “claim public spaces as their own.”

Pahlavi’s support for and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past, particularly after the 12-day war. Protesters have shouted in support of the shah at some protests, but it is unclear whether that is support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The protests began on Dec. 28 over the collapse of Iran’s rial currency, which is trading at more than 1.4 million to the dollar, as the country’s economy comes under pressure from international sanctions imposed in part over its nuclear program. The protests escalated into calls that directly challenged Iran’s theocracy.

Pope Leo calls for dialogue

Pope Leo XIV offered prayers for those killed in protests in Iran and the conflict in Syria and called for dialogue and peace on Sunday.

“My thoughts are focused on what is happening these days in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Syria, where persistent tensions are causing the deaths of many people,” the American-born pontiff said during his weekly Angelus prayer at the Vatican. “I hope and pray for the patient cultivation of dialogue and peace, for the common good of all society.”