US President Donald Trump said yesterday that “Iran is in big trouble” after anti-government protests rocked the country for consecutive days.
“It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Trump told reporters after meeting US oil company executives.
Trump reiterated previous threats to the Iranian authorities not to shoot at protesters. He said the US was watching the situation very carefully, warning, “We will get involved. We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.”
“This is something pretty incredible that’s happening in Iran. It’s an amazing thing to watch,” he said. “They’ve done a bad job. They’ve treated their people very badly, and now they’re being paid back.”
Trump added that any US response would not involve troops on the ground but would focus on measures that would “hit them very hard where it hurts.”
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei yesterday warned of a crackdown on protesters, as a Tehran prosecutor said some could face the death penalty for their actions.
Demonstrations in the Iranian capital, sparked by a struggling economy, have spread to other cities, increasing pressure on the country’s leadership.
The death toll from the violence around the demonstrations has now reached at least 62, with more than 2,300 other people detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
According to the semi-official news agency Tasnim, prosecutor Ali Salehi said that some protesters in Iran could face the death penalty for their actions.
He added that acts of vandalism targeting public property carried out as part of anti-regime demonstrations will be considered “moharebeh”, translated as “waging war against God”.
“We will not show leniency towards armed terrorists,” Salehi said, according to Tasnim. “Their sentence is moharebeh.”
The punishment for moharebeh includes execution.
It comes after Iran’s 86-year-old supreme leader accused protesters of acting on behalf of US President Donald Trump in a brief address aired by state television yesterday.
He said “vandals and rioters” were “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy”.
Tehran would not tolerate people acting as “mercenaries for foreigners”, he warned.
An audience in his address shouted “death to America” – mimicking the “death to the dictator” chants during the protests.
After the leader’s address, Iran’s judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei warned protesters they faced “maximum” and “decisive” punishment, “without any legal leniency”.
Tasnim also reported that several police officers were shot dead by “armed protesters”.
A joint statement yesterday from the leaders of France, the UK and Germany said the countries “strongly condemn” the killing of protesters in Iran and are “deeply concerned” about reports of violence by Iranian security forces.
The statement added: “The Iranian authorities have the responsibility to protect their own population and must allow for the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisal.
“We urge the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint, to refrain from violence, and to uphold the fundamental rights of Iran’s citizens.”
The UN’s human rights agency said it is “disturbed” by reports of violence in Iran, “including reported deaths and destruction of property”.
Multiple flights from across the region to Iranian cities were cancelled yesterday as mass protests in Iran grew for the 14th day in a row.
At least 17 flydubai flights to Iranian cities including Tehran, Shiraz, Bandar Abbas and Mashhad were cancelled, the Dubai Airports website showed.
A flight operated by Emirates to Tehran was also cancelled, according to the Dubai Airports website.
Turkey’s flag carrier, Turkish Airlines, announced that 17 flights that were scheduled for yesterday and today to the Iranian cities of Tehran, Tabriz and Mashhad were suspended due to the developments in the country.
Turkish low-cost air carrier AJet cancelled six flights yesterday and today to Tehran.
Flights for yesterday by Qatar Airways and Oman Air from Doha’s Hamad International Airport to several Iranian cities were cancelled, according to the airport’s website.
Earlier this week, a US intelligence community assessment said that the protests were not big enough to challenge the leadership of Khamenei, according to a source familiar with US intelligence reports.
But US analysts were watching the situation carefully. The source said: “Prior to the last 24 hours the protests were broadly concentrated in cities where opposition to the regime has always been a thing. Moving to strongholds (like the Supreme Leader’s hometown of Mashad) is the significant development.”
“We don’t comment on matters of intelligence. As the President has stated repeatedly, if Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, ‘They will get hit very hard,’” said a White House spokesperson.
&uuid=(email))