US President warns of intervention if protesters are targeted; says ‘locked and loaded, ready to go’
A pro-government rally in southern Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday. Pic/Getty Images
US President Donald Trump and a top Iranian security official exchanged duelling threats on Friday as widening economic protests swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.
Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters”, the US “will come to their rescue”. At least seven people have been killed so far in violence surrounding demonstrations. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.
Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged on the social platform X that Israel and the US 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.
A video grab shows protesters attacking a government building in Fasa, in southern Iran on Wednesday. Pic/AFP
“Trump should know that intervention by the US in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the US interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The people of the US should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”
Larijani’s remarks likely referenced America’s wide military footprint in the region. Iran in June 2025 had attacked the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar following US strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war on the Islamic Republic.
The current protests, now in their sixth day, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations.
07
No. of people killed in violence amid protests
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