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U.S. President Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged duelling threats Friday as\u00a0widening economic protests\u00a0swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after\u00a0America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.<\/p>\n
Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least seven people have been killed\u00a0so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency.<\/p>\n
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, alleged on the social platform X 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
WATCH | Canadians worry about Iran protests:![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767360908_654_default.jpg\")
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B.C. residents worry for family amid Iran protests<\/p>\n
In Iran, protests over the soaring cost of living have spread to several universities. Students are joining shopkeepers and merchants to demand an end to the rule of the current government. As Pinki Wong reports, some Iranians in Vancouver are worried about what will unfold in the days ahead.<\/p>\n
“Trump 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,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”<\/p>\n
Larijani\u2019s remarks likely referenced the wide U.S. 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\u2019s 12-day war on the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who previously was the council\u2019s secretary for years, warned that “any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut.”<\/p>\n
“The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he added on X.<\/p>\n
The current 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 demonstrations have yet to be countrywide and have not been as 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
Iran’s 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 US now costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.<\/p>\n
The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran\u2019s theocracy as well.<\/p>\n
Months after the war, Iran 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. <\/p>\n
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":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-383580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}