Iran\u2019s supreme leader has vowed that authorities will \u201cnot back down\u201d in the face of a rapidly growing protest movement, setting the stage for an intensified violent crackdown on the second day of a nationwide internet shutdown.<\/p>\n
Protests have raged in cities and towns across the country in recent days, posing a threat to the authority of the regime, which has been significantly weakened since the last large protest movement in the country in 2022. Another round of demonstrations was called for Friday night.<\/p>\n
In his first speech since demonstrations started on 28 December, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> described protesters as \u201cvandals\u201d and \u201csaboteurs\u201d, and accused them of working on behalf of foreign agendas.<\/p>\n Protesters were \u201cruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy \u2026 because he said he would come to their aid\u201d, Khamenei said \u2013 a reference to Donald Trump, who has threatened American intervention<\/a> in Iran if authorities kill protesters.<\/p>\n Map of where protests have taken place across Iran<\/a><\/p>\n The protests started after a sudden depreciation in the value of the country\u2019s currency, but demands for political reform and an end to the regime\u2019s rule quickly emerged.<\/p>\n The US president, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, suggested the supreme leader was preparing to flee Iran. \u201cHe\u2019s looking to go somewhere. It\u2019s getting very bad,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n The demonstrations on Thursday were the biggest since the 2022-23 rallies prompted by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini<\/a>. Authorities look more vulnerable this time around because of the dire economic situation and the aftermath of last year\u2019s war with Israel and the US.<\/p>\n Graph showing Iran\u2019s annual consumer price inflation rate<\/a><\/p>\n The head of Iran\u2019s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, said consequences for demonstrators would be \u201cdecisive, maximum and without any legal leniency\u201d.<\/p>\n An internet blackout introduced on Thursday has sharply reduced the amount of information flowing out of the country. The Iranian rights group Hengaw reported that a protest march after Friday prayers in Zahedan, where the Baluch minority predominates, had been met with gunfire that wounded several people.<\/p>\n Videos showed crowds of thousands of people marching through the streets of Tehran on Thursday, setting fire to a building belonging to the Iranian state broadcasters and hoisting a flag bearing the lion and sun emblem \u2013the flag of Iran before the 1979 revolution that brought the current regime to power.<\/p>\n Ali Khamenei speaking in Qom yesterday. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah, who had called for the protests on Thursday night, made another call for demonstrations to take place at 8pm (1630 GMT) on Friday. He also called on Trump to help the protesters, saying Khamenei \u201cwants to use this blackout to murder these young heroes\u201d.<\/p>\n Footage from Thursday showed protesters chanting in support of Pahlavi, including in Mashhad, Khamenei\u2019s home town. Protesters who went out on Thursday night said they were met with violence \u2013 part of what rights groups are calling an already brutal crackdown.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re aiming for the eyes,\u201d Maryam, a 25-year-old artist who was at protests in Tehran in the early hours of Friday, told the Guardian via text message. \u201cThe Faraja [uniformed police], the Basij [paramilitary militia] and even plainclothes kill-squads are driving into the crowds with motorbikes. I don\u2019t know how long the internet will be working but we are thousands on the streets and I fear I will wake up to hundreds of casualties.\u201d<\/p>\n