Trump says if Iran

President Trump warned in a social media post Friday that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, as is its custom, the United States of America will come to its rescue.”

Trump offered no further comment on Iran or how the United States might intervene to protect protesters in the country in the post on his Truth Social network, which was published just before 3 a.m. ET, but said, “We are locked, loaded and ready to go.”

He arrived hours later reports that at least six people have died in the midst of almost a week of escalating protests in Iran. The unrest began last weekend when business owners expressed frustration over dire economic conditions in the Islamic Republic.

Iran has been plagued for years by staggering hyperinflation, Driven by Western sanctions. tax on the nuclear program of the hardline clerical government and support for militant groups throughout the region.

Videos and photographs from Tehran and other cities posted on social media have shown protesters marching through the streets since early this week, often chanting anti-government and pro-monarchy slogans and sometimes clashing violently with security forces.

In an apparent attempt to quell the unrest, Iranian authorities acknowledged economic concerns and said peaceful protests are legitimate, but suggested that foreign powers (usually referring to Israel and the United States) are behind subversive elements fueling violence in the streets.

Reacting to the US president’s latest statements, Ali Larijani, former speaker of the Iranian parliament and now secretary of the country’s National Security Council, said in his own social media post on Friday that “Trump should know that US intervention in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of US interests.”

“The American people should know that Trump started adventurism,” Larijani said.

“They should take care of their own soldiers,” he added, in what appeared to be a reference to US military forces based throughout the Middle East, which are within reach of Iran’s vast ballistic missile arsenal.

There was a sterner warning from Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said that “any interventionist hand that comes too close to Iran’s security will be cut off.”

“The people of Iran know well the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he said in a social media post.

Both the US and Israeli governments had issued statements supporting the protests in Iran before Trump warned on Friday morning of possible unspecified US intervention.

“The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the ayatollahs for too long,” Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said in a post on X earlier this week. “We stand with Iranians on the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest against a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic crisis and war.”

Tension between the United States and Iran increased this week following the visit to the United States of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for decades has campaigned with his country’s close allies in Washington to take a tougher stance toward Iran.

After meeting with Netanyahu At his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday, Trump he said he had heard that Iran could be trying to rebuild its nuclear program after the unprecedented crisis US attacks on its enrichment facilities in June. Trump warned that if Iran tried to rebuild, “we will take them down. We will beat them down. But let’s hope that doesn’t happen.”

On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahsoud Pezeshkian said Tehran would respond “to any cruel aggression” with unspecified “harsh and discouraging” measures.

Iran is no stranger to nationwide protests, and the latest demonstrations have not come close to the last major outbreak of 2022, which was sparked by the Death in police custody of Mahsa Aminia young Iranian woman.

Her death in custody after being arrested for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women sparked a wave of anger across the country. Several hundred people were killed, including dozens of members of the security forces, who launched a dramatic crackdown in response and arrested hundreds of people.

There were also widespread protests in 2019, sparked by a sharp rise in the price of oil.

The standoff between Iran and the United States over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program reached a crescendo in June, when Trump ordered the deadly Military strikes against Iran’s enrichment facilitiesas Israel also carried out attacks in the country.

While Trump indicated earlier this week that the United States could take further action if Iran rebuilt its nuclear program, Friday’s brief social media post was the first suggestion of possible American intervention on behalf of Iranian protesters.