Iran’s military says it will protect strategic infrastructure and public property as it calls on Iranians to thwart “enemy plots” after US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to Iranian leaders over escalating anti-government protests.
In a statement published by semi-official news sites, the military on Saturday accused Israel and “hostile terrorist groups” of aiming to “undermine the country’s security,” as Tehran stepped up efforts to quell the country’s biggest subsistence protests in years, which left dozens dead.
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“Under the direction of the Commander-in-Chief and in cooperation with other militaries, the military resolutely protects and defends national interests, the country’s strategic infrastructure and public property, in addition to monitoring enemy movements in the region,” it said.
Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which operates separately from the military, warned on Saturday that protecting the fruits of the 1979 revolution and the country’s security is a “red line that must not be crossed,” state television reported.
Earlier on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated Washington’s support for the Iranian people after Iranian authorities blacked out the internet in an attempt to curb deadly protests.
“The United States stands behind the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote on X.
The post came hours after President Trump issued another warning to Iranian leaders: “You better not start shooting because we’re going to start shooting too.”
President Trump said Iranian leaders appeared to be “in big trouble” and repeated his earlier threat of military strikes if peaceful protesters were killed. “It looks to me like people are taking over certain cities that no one really thought was possible just a few weeks ago,” he says.
Protests have been taking place across Iran since January 3, a movement sparked by anger over the soaring cost of living and calls for an end to the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the pro-Western Shah.
According to Reuters, the unrest continued overnight on Saturday, with state media accusing “rioters” of setting fire to the city hall in Karaj, west of Tehran.
According to Reuters, News TV broadcast footage of the funeral of a member of the security forces said to have been killed in protests in the cities of Shiraz, Qom and Hamedan. Video released by a Persian-language television station based outside Iran showed large crowds of people taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad and the northern city of Tabriz.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei on Friday called demonstrators “subversives” and “disruptors” in his first comments on the escalating protests.
In a speech broadcast on Press TV, Khamenei said President Trump’s hands were “stained with the blood of more than 1,000 Iranians,” an apparent reference to Israel’s attack on Iran in June, which the United States also supported and took part in its own attack on.
Khamenei predicted that the “arrogant” US leader would be “overthrown” like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran until the 1979 revolution.
“Everyone knows that the Islamic Republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honorable people. We will not back down in the face of obstructionists,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who is visiting Lebanon on Friday, accused the United States and Israel of “directly interfering” in an effort to “turn peaceful protests into divisive and violent protests,” which a U.S. State Department spokesperson called “delusional.”
“Various approaches”
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Assadi said protests were growing in the capital and other cities.
“(Protests) started sporadically, but in the last couple of days we have witnessed more and more protests, especially in the capital,” he said, adding that in Tehran on Thursday, demonstrations “degenerated into violence in many streets.”
He said the state was trying to bring the situation under control with a “mixed approach”, including tightening safety measures and introducing new subsidy schemes for citizens.
The protests are the largest in Iran since the 2022-2023 protests sparked by the custodial death of Martha Amini, who was arrested on suspicion of violating women’s dress codes.
A “nationwide internet blackout” imposed by Iranian authorities has now been in place for 36 hours as protesters took to the streets, monitor Netblox announced on Saturday.
“Indicators show that a nationwide internet blackout continues for 36 hours after another night of protests met with a crackdown,” the paper said in a post on X.
Human rights group Amnesty International said the “total internet shutdown” was aimed at “hiding the true extent of the gross human rights violations and crimes under international law being committed to suppress” the protests.
Also on Saturday, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests aimed at capturing and subsequently seizing urban centers.
“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. Our goal is to prepare to occupy and hold the city center,” Reza Pahlavi said in a video message on social media, urging further protests on Saturday and Sunday, adding that he was also “preparing to return to his homeland” during the day, which he believes will be “very near.”
Norway-based NGO Iranian Human Rights said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, had been killed by security forces and hundreds more injured, raising the death toll of 45 announced the day before.
The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada and the European Union strongly condemned the move in a joint statement on Friday, calling on Iran to “immediately end the excessive and lethal use of force by its security forces.”
“Too many lives (more than 40 to date) have already been lost,” the report said.
