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Iranian protesters shouted and marched through the streets into Friday morning after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for demonstrations, despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls.
Short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas. Iranian state media broke its silence Friday over the protests, alleging “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties,” without elaborating.
The state TV acknowledgment at 8 a.m. local time Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations.
Iran’s supreme leader signalled Friday that security forces would crack down on protesters, directly challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to support those peacefully demonstrating. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
Protesters are “ruining their own streets … in order to please the president of the United States,” Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”
Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”
Dozens killed so far, rights groups say
The full scope of the demonstrations couldn’t be immediately determined due to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy and has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years. The protests have intensified steadily since beginning Dec. 28.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seen during a televised speech presented in Tehran on Sept. 23, 2025, appeared to reference U.S. President Donald Trump when discussing the current protests in a message broadcast Friday. (West Asia News Agency/Reuters)
The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late ruling shah who fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fuelling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 42 people while more than 2,270 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Pahlavi, who called for protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. local time Friday.
When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighbourhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!”
Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, speaks during a news conference, June 23, 2025, in Paris. Pahlavi called for protests Thursday night, as well as protests Friday night. (Thomas Padilla/The Associated Press)
“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,” Pahlavi said. “It has shut down the internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.”
He went on to call for European leaders to join Trump in promising to “hold the regime to account.”
“I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,” he added. “Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”
Not the time to meet Pahlavi, Trump says
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans, depending on the response to his call.
Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi has been criticized for ties to Israel.
Iran has faced rounds of country-wide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after the 12-day war, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1 US. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.
It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on the demonstrators. Trump warned last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” America “will come to their rescue.”
In an interview with radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt aired Thursday, Trump reiterated his pledge.
Trump demurred when asked if he’d meet with Pahlavi.
“I’m not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that as president,” Trump said. “I think that we should let everybody go out there, and we see who emerges.”
Speaking in a separate interview with Fox News, Trump went as far as to suggest Ayatollah Khamenei may be looking to leave Iran.
“He’s looking to go someplace,” Trump said. “It’s getting very bad.”