by JNS Staff
Nineteen dead over eight days of unrest in the Islamic Republic.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media
aboard Air Force One en route to Washington on Jan. 4, 2026. Photo by
Joe Raedle/Getty Images. |
The Islamic regime will get “hit very hard” if it starts killing protesters, U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Sunday, upping his rhetoric as demonstrations continued for the eighth day.
Washington is monitoring the situation “very closely,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, asked about his warning on Friday that the U.S. would come to the protesters’ rescue.
“If they start killing people, like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump reiterated.
In a Friday post on the Truth Social social media platform, the president had threatened that the United States was “locked and loaded and ready to go” if the regime killed protesters, which he said was Iran’s “custom.” Trump vowed “the United States of America will come to their rescue.”
At least 19 protesters and one member of the security forces have been killed during eight days of protests that have spread to 200 sites, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a U.S.-based press association established by human rights advocates, said on Sunday.
Protests intensified across dozens of cities overnight on Sunday, with regime forces responding with live fire and widespread arrests, Iran International, an opposition outlet headquartered in London, reported on Monday morning.
Anger over soaring inflation and a plunging currency has accelerated the biggest protest movement in three years. The Islamic regime is also grappling with economic sanctions over its nuclear program, as well as its worst water crisis in decades and a worsening electricity shortage.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has plans to escape to Moscow should security forces fail to suppress protests or desert, according to an intelligence report shared with The Times of London on Sunday evening.
Khamenei’s plans are reportedly based on the escape of his former ally, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who fled Damascus for Russia before jihadi-led opposition forces took control of the capital in December 2024.
Khamenei and up to 20 other top regime officials “have plotted an exit route out of Tehran should they feel the need to escape,” including by “gathering assets, properties abroad and cash to facilitate their safe passage,” The Times cited an intelligence source as saying.
A psychological profile of Khamenei prepared by a Western intelligence agency and seen by The Times said the 86-year-old leader was “weaker, both mentally and physically,” since June’s 12-day war with Israel.
For the duration of the war, Khamenei holed up in a bunker, feeding his “obsession with survival,” the assessment read, calling him “paranoid.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support for the protests on Sunday, telling reporters he stands with all Iranians seeking freedom and that this may be a pivotal moment in their fight.
“The government of Israel, the State of Israel, and my policy: We identify with the struggle of the Iranian people, with their aspirations for freedom, liberty and justice,” he stated at a Cabinet meeting.
“It is very possible that we are standing at the moment when the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands,” Netanyahu declared.
JNS Staff
Source: https://www.jns.org/trump-warns-iran-will-be-hit-very-hard-if-regime-kills-protesters/
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