Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signaled that security forces would clamp down on protesters after overnight marches through the streets as the country continues to see demonstrations.
Overnight, Iran was plunged into a nationwide internet blackout as anti-regime protests intensified. The blackout severely restricted communications across the country as demonstrations enter their second week and the death toll reportedly reaches 44. Live network data from NetBlocks showed internet traffic collapsing in the troubled nation on Thursday evening, shortly after calls circulated for mass protests at 8 p.m. local time.
Khamenei’s warning about security forces came just days after President Donald Trump vowed the U.S. would intervene if peaceful Iranian protesters were met with violence at the hands of the regime.
“If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Jan. 2.
Trump reiterated the statement during an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Thursday and said that if the regime forces were to kill protesters, “they will be hit very hard.” The remark was posted on the State Department’s Farsi feed.
The Iranian leader dismissed Trump’s statements, saying that the U.S. president’s hands were “stained with the blood of Iranians” as supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired on Iranian state TV, according to The Associated Press.
IRAN REGIME CUTS NATIONWIDE INTERNET ACCESS AS PROTESTS CLAIM 44 LIVES ACROSS MAJOR CITIES
Khamenei said that Iranian protesters were “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy,” referring to Trump.
Short videos purportedly showing protests against the regime still circulated before the blackout cut the nation from the internet and international calls, according to the AP. The outlet noted that the videos appeared to show protesters chanting against the Iranian regime around bonfires as debris littered the streets in Tehran and other areas in the country. Iranian state media claimed “terrorist agents” from the U.S. and Israel set the fires and sparked the violence, the AP reported.
Exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled Iran just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, called for the protests on Thursday night. Pahlavi said on X that he was proud of all those who demonstrated against the regime on Thursday night.
“I am proud of each and every one of you who took over the streets across Iran on Thursday night… You saw how the massive crowds forced the repressive forces to retreat,” Pahlavi said. “Those of you who were hesitant, join your fellow compatriots on Friday night.”
Pahlavi encouraged protests on Friday to be even larger than the ones that took place the night before, saying it would further weaken the Islamic Republic’s regime. He also expressed his faith that the people in the streets would not give up in the face of internet blackouts, assuring the protesters that the victory belonged to them.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this report.
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