new warning<\/a> to Iran\u2019s leaders, saying, \u201cYou better not start shooting because we\u2019ll start shooting too.\u201d<\/p>\nTrump said it looked like Iran\u2019s leaders were \u201cin big trouble\u201d and repeated an earlier threat of military attacks if peaceful protesters were killed. \u201cIt looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Protests have taken place across Iran since late December in anger over the rising cost of living, with growing calls for the end of the clerical system that has ruled the country since the 1979 Islamic revolution that removed a pro-Western shah ruler.<\/p>\n
The unrest continued overnight on Saturday, with state media blaming \u201crioters\u201d for setting a municipal building on fire in Karaj, west of Tehran, the Reuters news agency reported.<\/p>\n
Press TV broadcast footage of funerals of members of the security forces it said were killed in protests in the cities of Shiraz, Qom and Hamedan, Reuters said. Videos published by Persian-language television channels based outside of Iran showed large numbers of people taking part in new protests in the eastern city of Mashhad and Tabriz in the north.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called the demonstrators \u201cvandals\u201d and \u201csaboteurs\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a speech broadcast on Press TV, Khamenei said Trump\u2019s hands \u201care stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians\u201d, in apparent reference to Israel\u2019s attacks on Iran in June, which the US supported and joined with strikes of its own.<\/p>\n
Khamenei\u00a0predicted the \u201carrogant\u201d US leader would be \u201coverthrown\u201d like the imperial dynasty that ruled Iran up to the 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows the Islamic republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honourable people; it will not back down in the face of saboteurs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, on a visit to Lebanon on Friday, accused the US and Israel of \u201cdirectly intervening\u201d to try to \u201ctransform the peaceful protests into divisive and violent ones\u201d \u2013 claims a US State Department spokesperson called \u201cdelusional\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018Different approaches\u2019<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the protests have been growing in the capital, Tehran, and other cities.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The protests] started sporadically, but over the past two-three days, we have been witnessing more and more protests, specifically in the capital,\u201d he said, adding that the demonstrations \u201cflared up into violence in many streets\u201d in Tehran on Thursday.<\/p>\n
He said the state is trying to control the situation \u201cwith different approaches\u201d such as tightening security measures and introducing a new subsidy scheme for citizens.<\/p>\n
But Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University Qatar, said that subsidy would do little to stem public frustrations over soaring costs of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe inflation rate is at 42 percent, according to the government. Unofficially, it\u2019s closer to 60 percent. So it doesn\u2019t seem as if this kind of measure is going to alleviate any sort of economic pressure on the population,\u201d Kamrava told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
The protests are the biggest in Iran since the 2022-2023 protest movement prompted by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the dress rules for women.<\/p>\n
A \u201cnationwide internet blackout\u201d implemented by the Iranian authorities as protesters took to the streets has now been in place for 36 hours, monitor NetBlocks said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter another night of protests met with repression, metrics show the nationwide internet blackout remains in place at 36 hours,\u201d it said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Rights group Amnesty International said the \u201cblanket internet shutdown\u201d aims to \u201chide the true extent of the grave human rights violations and crimes under international law they are carrying out to crush\u201d the protests.<\/p>\n
Also on Saturday, the US-based son of Iran\u2019s ousted shah<\/a> urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests, with the aim of taking and then holding city centres.<\/p>\n\u201cOur goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,\u201d Reza Pahlavi said in a video message on social media, urging more protests on Saturday and Sunday and adding he was also \u201cpreparing to return to my homeland\u201d in a day he believed was \u201cvery near\u201d.<\/p>\n
Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights, raising a previous toll of 45 issued the day before, said at least 51 protesters, including nine children, have been killed by security forces, and hundreds more injured.<\/p>\n
In a joint statement on Friday, the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada and the European Union issued a strong condemnation and called on Iran to \u201cimmediately end the use of excessive and lethal force by its security forces\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many lives \u2013 over 40 to date \u2013 have already been lost,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iranian army says it will safeguard strategic infrastructure and public property as it urged Iranians to thwart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[32,774,839,12,2579,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-686922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-middle-east","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-protests","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115871349627734400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}