US Senator Lindsey Graham has delivered a stark warning to Iran’s leadership during an appearance on Fox News.
The Islamic Republic has been gripped by mass demonstrations spanning more than two dozen provinces in recent weeks, fuelled by a crumbling economy and the rial’s dramatic collapse, now trading at over 1,350,000 to the US dollar. Multiple fatalities have been confirmed, including both demonstrators and security forces across various cities.
“If you keep killing your people who are demanding a better life, Donald J. Trump is going to kill you”, the South Carolina Republican declared.
“Change is coming to Iran. It’ll be the biggest change in the history of the Mideast to get rid of this Nazi regime. To the people of Iran, help is on the way.”
Graham’s remarks follow Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s admission that protesters have legitimate grievances, whilst simultaneously warning that violent unrest would not be permitted.
Iranian authorities have conducted several rounds of negotiations with shopkeeper representatives in a bid to defuse tensions, which have escalated into violent confrontations in the capital, Tehran. President Donald Trump declared that Washington would “come to the rescue” of demonstrators should Tehran deploy lethal force against them.
On Friday, merely a day before American military forces conducted strikes in Venezuela and apprehended the nation’s long-serving leader, Nicolas Maduro, Trump stated that the U.S. was “locked and loaded and ready,” cautioning that if Iran “violently kills protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”
According to a U.S.-based human rights organisation, at least 36 individuals have lost their lives in the widespread anti-government protests sweeping Iran. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, which compiled the fatality figures through its network of sources within the country, reported on Tuesday that at least 36 people “have been confirmed killed during the past 10 days of protests. Among them were four individuals under the age of 18, as well as two members of security and law enforcement forces.”
The organisation claimed that over 2,000 demonstrators had been detained; though the true figure of those arrested is believed to be considerably higher.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has likewise expressed solidarity with Iranian protesters, almost certainly intensifying suspicions within Tehran. Iranian authorities have subsequently branded certain demonstrators as “rioters, “mercenaries,” and “foreign-linked agitators.
“Protesting is legitimate, but protesting is different from rioting. We talk with protesters. The officials must talk with the protesters. But, there’s no point in talking with a rioter,” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared on X this week.
“Rioters must be put in their place.”
