Iran<\/a>ians have since Sunday been protesting over economic grievances, as mounting frustrations over soaring inflation and the collapse in living standards spill out on to the streets.<\/p>\nSeveral people have been killed in the social unrest and the authorities have arrested dozens of people after protests turned violent in some towns and provincial cities, according to Iranian media. <\/p>\n
The republic\u2019s authorities have a record of ruthlessly cracking down on large protests. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s warning comes just over six months after the US briefly joined Israel\u2019s 12-day war against the republic in June to bomb Iran\u2019s main nuclear sites. <\/p>\n
Iran feared Israel was pushing for regime change during the war as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Iranians to rise up. It has long worried about western interference in its domestic affairs. <\/p>\n
There is no credible organised opposition inside or outside the republic, and the protests often lack clear leadership. <\/p>\n
This week, Trump warned that the US could launch fresh strikes against Iran if it was found to be rebuilding its nuclear programme, as he held talks with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
It is unclear what Trump\u2019s offer of help for protesters could mean in practice. <\/p>\n
Ali Larijani, Iran\u2019s top security official, reacted to the post by Trump by saying it revealed \u201cwhat has been going on behind the scenes\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe distinguish between the stance of the protesting shopkeepers and the actions of disruptive actors, and Trump should know that US interference in this internal matter would mean destabilising the entire region and destroying America\u2019s interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the American people should know \u201cTrump started this adventurism. They should be mindful of their soldiers\u2019 safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The protests, which have included angry anti-regime slogans, including chants of \u201cdeath to the dictator\u201d, have become a crucial test for President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to power about 18 months ago vowing to reform the economy and make life easier for ordinary Iranians.<\/p>\n
They have grown into the largest demonstrations since 2022 when a woman, arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a hijab, died in custody. More than 300 people were killed during a crackdown on those demonstrations, which became known as the \u201cWomen, Life, Freedom\u201d protests, according to Amnesty International.<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s demonstrations started in Tehran\u2019s business district over the collapse of the currency and have spread to universities and other towns and cities. There has been a relative calm in the capital over the past few days. <\/p>\n
Protesters in the south-western city of Lordegan on Thursday chanted slogans and threw stones at government buildings, including the local governor\u2019s office, according to Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the elite Revolutionary Guards. <\/p>\n
Riot police responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd. Two protesters \u2014 aged 28 and 21 \u2014 were killed during the confrontation, the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Norway-based NGO, said. Tasnim news agency, also affiliated to the guards, identified the pair who were killed. <\/p>\n
An unspecified number of people on both sides have been injured, Fars added. In the town of Azna, in the western province of Lorestan, three people were killed, according to Fars and Hengaw. Fars said armed assailants raided a police station, set police vehicles on fire and attacked the station\u2019s ammunition storage facility. <\/p>\n
At least 17 people had been arrested, it added. West of the capital Tehran, 14 people were arrested in the city of Karaj as members of a \u201cnetwork\u201d that allegedly produced explosives, including Molotov cocktails, local media reported. <\/p>\n
Pezeshkian\u2019s government has taken steps to assuage protesters, meeting business leaders over their concerns and appointing a new central bank governor to try to restore \u201ceconomic stability\u201d. <\/p>\n
The Iranian president on Thursday evening said \u201cpeople\u2019s livelihoods are the government\u2019s red line\u201d, adding that resolving economic concerns was a \u201cnon-negotiable\u201d duty of his administration, without making any reference to the demonstrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-216426","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\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}