Trump threatens Iran with strong blow as the protests entered their eighth day

President Donald Trump warned Iran on Sunday that it would be dealt a “very strong blow” by the United States if more protesters were killed during demonstrations entering their second week of protests against living conditions.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One, “We’re watching the situation closely… If they start killing people like they have done in the past, I think they’re going to get a very strong blow from the United States”.

New clashes between demonstrators and Iranian security forces resulted in deaths, rights groups and media outlets said, after a week of protests sparked by anger over deteriorating living conditions.

At least 12 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed since protests began in a strike by shopkeepers in Tehran on December 28th, according to official reports.

The US-based Iranian human rights group HRANA reported overnight protests in Tehran and the southern city of Shiraz, and in western Iran, where the movement is concentrated, during which slogans critical of the authorities in the Islamic Republic were raised.

The protests are the most prominent in Iran since the September 2022 movements that lasted for months, following the death of young Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by the morality police for violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

The recent protests have been concentrated in parts of the country’s heavily populated western parts of the Kurdish and Lur minorities, and haven’t yet reached the scale of the movement witnessed in late 2022, nor the scale of previous protest movements such as the Green Movement following the 2009 presidential elections or the 2019 demonstrations.

But it poses a new challenge to the authorities, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has been in power since 1989, following a 12-day war with Israel in June that damaged nuclear and military infrastructure and civilian targets, killing senior figures in the security elite.

Under pressure from President Masoud Bazshkian’s administration to respond to economic conditions, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani told state television on Sunday that citizens would receive a monthly payment of $7 over the next four months.

The protests have erupted in 23 of the 31 provinces and have affected at least 40 cities, most of them small and medium-sized to varying degrees.

The Norway-based rights group Hengao said the Revolutionary Guards opened fire on demonstrators in Malekshahi province in the western province of Ilam on Saturday, killing four members of Iran’s Kurdish minority.

The organization said it was verifying reports that two more people had been killed and dozens had been injured.

It also accused the authorities of raiding the main hospital in the city of Ilam to confiscate the bodies of protesters.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights Organization reported a similar toll of four dead and 30 wounded, after security forces attacked protests in Malekshahi.

Funerals were held for the dead-on Sunday in western Iran, with mourners chanting anti-government and anti-Khamenei slogans, it said.

The two organizations published footage of what appeared to be bloodied bodies on the ground.

Iran’s Mehr news agency referred to the clashes, saying a member of the Revolutionary Guards was killed in a confrontation with rioters in front of a police station.

“Rioters tried to storm a police station, were two of the attackers were killed,” Fars news agency reported.

In Tehran, Fars news agency reported that sporadic demonstrations took place on Saturday night in eastern, western and southern neighborhoods of the capital.

The majority of shops remained open in the capital on Sunday, although the streets appeared less crowded than usual as riot police and security forces were deployed at major intersections.

The protests began last week with the closure of Tehran Bazaar merchants, and then spread to other areas and universities.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States was “ready to act” if Iran killed protesters, on the eve of the US operation to arrest Iran’s ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

From his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the remarks as reckless and warned that the armed forces were on standby in the event of any intervention.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country “stands in solidarity with the aspirations of the Iranian people for freedom,” adding that it is likely that “we are facing a decisive moment when the Iranian people can determine their own destiny”.

Iranian officials, including Khamenei, have taken a lenient public stance toward the protesters’ economic demands, warning that they will not tolerate destabilization and chaos.