'Locked and loaded': Trump says US will intervene if Iranian regime kills peaceful protesters
· France 24US President Donald Trump on Friday said that the United States will intervene if Iran shoots and kills peaceful protesters after cost-of-living protests across the Islamic Republic turned deadly.
"If Iran shots (sic) and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social social media platform.
"We are locked and loaded and ready to go," he added.
Iranian protests show 'huge trust' issue between large part of the population and government
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Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, publicly alleged without providing evidence that Israel and the US were stoking the demonstrations.
“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.”
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that any US intervention in Iran would be met with "a response".
"Any interventionist hand that attacks Iran's security under any pretext whatsoever will be exposed to a response," Shamkhani wrote on X. "Iran's security is a red line."
Trump's threat follows the deaths of several people as Iran's biggest protests in three years over economic hardship turned violent across multiple provinces.
Iran protests turn deadly: Government has offered dialogue in face of demonstrations
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State television reported Thursday that a volunteer member of Iran's security forces was killed overnight during protests in the western city of Kouhdasht. At least six civilians have also reportedly been killed in clashes with security forces across the country.
The violence between protesters and security forces mark a significant escalation in the unrest that has spread across the country since shopkeepers began protesting on Sunday over the government's handling of a sharp currency slide and rapidly rising prices.
Iran's economy has struggled for years since the US reimposed crippling sanctions in 2018, after Trump withdrew from an international nuclear agreement during his first term.
The demonstrations are smaller than the last major outbreak of unrest in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women.
Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AP and AFP)