{"id":387633,"date":"2026-01-04T16:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387633\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T16:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:34:10","slug":"growing-iran-protests-rattle-leaders-as-trump-threatens-to-intervene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387633\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Iran protests rattle leaders as Trump threatens to intervene"},"content":{"rendered":"

Widespread protests have rocked Iran for nearly a week and led to increasing violent clashes with security forces, prompting President Donald Trump to threaten intervention<\/a> if a crackdown continues.<\/p>\n

The protests, which started with economic grievances by shopkeepers in Tehran and quickly spread to remote cities in provinces like Fars and Lorestan, where protesters chanted slogans against the ruling clerics, have raised pointed questions for the country\u2019s leaders about how much support they really enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"Image:Shopkeepers and traders protest in the street against the economic conditions and Iran’s embattled currency in Tehran on Monday.Fars News Agency \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ali Larijani, who serves as the secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, alleged Friday<\/a> without providing evidence that Israel and the U.S. were stoking the escalating demonstrations. And Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a post on X<\/a> that Trump\u2019s threat of intervention makes U.S. bases in the region \u201clegitimate targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a post on Truth Social, Trump had said that if Iran \u201cviolently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.\u201d He did not specify what this would mean.<\/p>\n

Iranian officials attempted to project a united front with ordinary citizens in June, when the Israeli military battered the country in a 12-day war, partly joined by the U.S. military. The war killed more than 1,000 people including top military leaders and nuclear scientists, according to state media, and wreaked havoc on its nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n

On Monday, after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump issued a fresh threat to \u201cknock the hell out of\u201d Iran if the Islamic Republic attempts to rebuild its nuclear program or expand its ballistic missile program.<\/p>\n

\"NicolasNicol\u00e1s Maduro arrives in New York with DEA agents on Saturday.Obtained by NBC News<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s capture of Venezuela\u2019s President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, who enjoyed a warm relationship with Tehran, has also incensed Iran\u2019s political elites, who have decried the U.S. operation as \u201ca clear example of state terrorism.\u201d But as tensions with the U.S. escalate once again, Iran appears far from having the unity projected last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIranians were facing bombardment by external powers and so they had no choice but to stick together. And I think that we should take that for what it was. Did [Iranians] coming together mean that they suddenly abandoned all of their contentious feelings towards the regime or its leadership? Absolutely not. They\u2019re not mutually exclusive feelings,\u201d Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, told NBC News in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that Iranians still feel quite united amidst the many challenges that they face, challenges from abroad, challenges from their governance system and their leadership that isn\u2019t willing to reform or change,\u201d Vakil said,<\/p>\n

\"Protest-in-Iran\"Burning debris lies next to an overturned dumpster in the middle of a street during unrest amid demonstrations in Hamedan, Iran, on Thursday.Mobina \/ Middle East Images\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even before the joint Israeli and U.S. attack in June, Iran\u2019s economy was in a tailspin, battered by sanctions, rising inflation and the devaluation of the Iranian currency against the U.S. dollar, which led to families struggling hard to make ends meet as the value of their savings plunged, analysts say.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s problems were compounded by a water and energy crisis last year that led to dry taps and electricity blackouts.<\/p>\n

President Masoud Pezeshkian has attempted to at least partly shoulder the blame for the country\u2019s woes and even suggested on Monday<\/a> that the interior minister should meet with leaders among the protesters to address their concerns and try to solve their problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the people are dissatisfied, we and you are to blame. Don\u2019t look for America or someone else to blame,\u201d Pezeshkian said on Thursday<\/a> while visiting officials in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari in central Iran, according to state media. \u201cWe need to serve properly so the people are satisfied with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, a Norwegian-registered Kurdish watchdog that monitors rights violations across Iran, reported on Thursday that two protesters were killed<\/a> by security forces in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, perhaps highlighting the limits of Pezeshkian\u2019s powers in dealing with the protests.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is trying to limit, I think, the nature of the anger. He\u2019s trying to say it\u2019s all because of the currency collapse, because of inflation,\u201d Abbas Milani, the director of the Iranian studies program at Stanford University, told NBC News in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that people see it that way. I think the people see the currency collapse and the inflation as the consequence of the regime\u2019s inherent corruption and incapacity,\u201d Milani said. \u201cThey want the regime changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hengaw reported the death of 10 people during six days of protests<\/a>, including one man who was killed by security forces<\/a> on Friday in Kermanshah province in northwest Iran.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether Trump\u2019s threats of intervention will encourage the protesters or lead security forces to hold their fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople could feel slightly more confident and emboldened thinking that the United States might actually be more than rhetorically supportive,\u201d said Vakil of Chatham House. \u201cBut I worry that they might be disappointed, not understanding that the United States is very much focused on outcomes and interests that benefit the United States and not really benevolent towards the Iranian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IranProtesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, on Monday.Fars News Agency \/ via AP<\/p>\n

Still, whether the protests expand and continue or are crushed by force like similar protests in 2022 and 2023 \u2014 when approximately 500 people were killed and thousands were arrested \u2014 will largely depend on the will of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic, analysts say. He has not spoken publicly about the protests in the past week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will have a scorched-earth policy,\u201d Milani from Stanford said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Widespread protests have rocked Iran for nearly a week and led to increasing violent clashes with security forces,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-387633","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}