{"id":420961,"date":"2026-01-18T09:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T09:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420961\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T09:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T09:53:10","slug":"he-hoped-trumps-help-would-arrive-why-protesters-in-iran-feel-betrayed-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420961\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He hoped Trump\u2019s help would arrive\u2019: why protesters in Iran feel betrayed | Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Donald Trump, said he would \u201crescue\u201d protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad<\/a> believed the US president.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old father had seen protests rise up before, only to be brutally crushed by authorities. <\/p>\n

But this was the first time in his life that the president of the United States had promised to help demonstrators. Reassured, Shirzad took to the streets, ignoring his family\u2019s warnings and joining the growing crowds.<\/p>\n

Siavash Shirzad. Photograph: courtesy<\/p>\n

Authorities started shooting, but no help came. On 8 January, the internet was shut off and Iran<\/a> went dark, Shirzad was shot at a protest in Tehran and died of his wounds hours later, leaving behind a 12-year-old son.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiavash hoped until the very end that Trump\u2019s help would arrive,\u201d his cousin said, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions. \u201cWe told him: \u2018Don\u2019t go, it\u2019s dangerous.\u2019 But he gave a firm answer: \u2018Trump said he supports us, I\u2019m going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and to \u201ctake over your institutions\u201d, telling them \u201chelp is on its way\u201d, as reports grew that a strike on Iran was imminent. But just a day later, Trump abruptly did an about-face, telling reporters that he had received assurances that Iranian authorities would not execute anyone, walking back from military intervention in Iran, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n

In Iran, protesters despaired. Despite Trump\u2019s reassurances, killings of demonstrators continued.<\/p>\n

The streets of Tehran were empty, except for pickup trucks with armed security forces patrolling where tens of thousands had marched just days before. Protests continued in provinces outside the capital, but getting an accurate picture of their scale was difficult amid the communications blackout.<\/p>\n

\u201cMass arrests are taking place. As soon as Trump\u2019s attention moves elsewhere, the executions will start,\u201d a resident of Tehran said in messages forwarded to the Guardian via an activist.<\/p>\n

\"WhatWhat are we hearing from inside Iran? | The Latest<\/p>\n

Iran doubled down on the prosecution of protesters, with state TV on Thursday airing footage of forced confessions and Iran\u2019s chief justice interrogating detained protesters. Rights groups warned that protesters would probably not receive fair trials and that they had grave concerns over the conditions in which detainees are held.<\/p>\n

\u201cPast patterns in Iran demonstrate that periods of widespread unrest are accompanied by heightened abuses inside detention facilities, where these groups are particularly vulnerable to extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture, and other forms of ill-treatment,\u201d more than 30 rights groups wrote in a joint letter<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Erfan Soltani. Photograph: Erfan Soltani\/Facebook\/Reuters<\/p>\n

However, the authorities refrained from executing protesters, most notably cancelling the death sentence of the 26-year-old protester Erfan Soltani<\/a> and announcing no hangings would take place. Trump seemed pleased, sharing news that Soltani\u2019s execution would not take place.<\/p>\n

Iranians in the diaspora felt betrayed. For two weeks they watched a brutal crackdown on the streets of Iran. Messages from family came infrequently, if at all, and Trump\u2019s statement that \u201chelp is on the way\u201d seemed their only lifeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone living in the diaspora, this feels like a slap in the face,\u201d said Elham, an Iranian living in Sydney. \u201cIranians have been let down before. This time, there was a sense it was going to be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran internet shut down graphic<\/a><\/p>\n

To many Iranians abroad, Trump\u2019s about-face felt like a victory for the Iranian regime. Instead of helping topple the Iranian government as protesters demanded, he was going to negotiate with them. The comments on Wednesday by the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Fox News, urging the US to engage in diplomacy only furthered their fears.<\/p>\n

Iranians living in Australia attend a rally in Sydney in support of protests in Iran on 17 January. Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Trump gives the regime a lifeline, it will be such a profound betrayal from which ordinary Iranians won\u2019t recover. It will be the end of hope. Many talk of Trump\u2019s unpredictability, but using innocent lives for political theatre is intolerable,\u201d said Elham.<\/p>\n

Even as US forces pulled back from bases in the Middle East and indicators of a US strike gathered, it was unclear what Trump planned to do in Iran. Though unprecedented, nationwide protests had not threatened the short-term stability of the Iranian state, which has well-armed and trained security forces.<\/p>\n

A strike on Iran could trigger retaliation on Israel and the US, without necessarily shielding protesters from harm. Other Iranian analysts warned that US intervention could further the accusation that protests are foreign-backed, without giving meaningful benefit to the demonstrators\u2019 aims.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Iranians abroad and inside the country hoped that the world would do something to help, even if they were unsure of what.<\/p>\n

Iranian people attend a rally in Toronto in solidarity with protesters in Iran on 13 January. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Iran believed him. They placed their trust in his words. If he fails to act against this brutal regime, that trust will be broken and the people of Iran will not forget who stood with them, and who turned away,\u201d said Azam Jangravi, an Iranian based in Canada whose close friend was killed in protests in Isfahan last week.<\/p>\n

Though Trump appeared to walk back from the brink of a strike, the US has said it had not completely ruled out intervention. Trump \u201chas made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter,\u201d the US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the UN security council on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A US aircraft carrier was heading to the Middle East and military assets were being redeployed to bolster Israeli air defences \u2013 two indications that a US strike on Iran was still possible.<\/p>\n

In Iran, many protesters feel as if they are in limbo. Cut off from the rest of the world and under the heavy boot of authorities, they are unsure if they should take to the streets again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe protests have come to a pause, people are waiting to see what Trump will do,\u201d said Alborz, a Tehran resident, in messages forwarded to the Guardian.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Donald Trump, said he would \u201crescue\u201d protesters if Iranian authorities started shooting, Siavash Shirzad believed the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-420961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}