Videos of protests in Iran were reportedly shown online on Friday night, despite threats from the country’s authorities to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines to the outside world. The protesters appear to be encouraged by repeated declarations of support from the Trump administration and the country’s exiled crown prince, who on Saturday called on them to pressure security forces and seize towns and cities.
An outside rights group that relies on information from contacts inside Iran says at least 65 people have been killed in the protests, which started in Tehran in late December. What began as anger over Iran’s poor economy quickly spread, however, and turned into the most significant challenge to the government in years.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused President Trump of having “hands stained with the blood of Iranians” in comments broadcast on Iranian state TV on Friday, as supporters gathered before him chanted “Death to America!” and raised slogans.
“Protesters are destroying our streets to please the president of the United States,” Khamenei, 86, told the crowd at his compound in Tehran. “This is because he promised to assist them.” They should instead focus on the situation in their country.”
State media later labelled the protesters “terrorists”, setting the stage for a potentially violent crackdown — despite Mr Trump’s pledge to support peaceful protesters, with force if necessary, similar to how Iran has responded to other major protests in recent years.
Trump issues new warning to Iran’s leaders
Trump has repeatedly pledged to attack Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that has taken on greater significance following the US military strike that captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. On Friday, the president hinted that a potential US attack would not involve placing troops on the ground, but rather, it would involve delivering a forceful blow where it is most needed.
“Iran is in big trouble,” Trump said. “I feel like people are taking over some cities that just a few weeks ago no one thought would really be possible.”
He further said, “I tell the Iranian leaders that you better not start shooting because we will also start shooting.”
In a brief social media post published early Saturday morning in Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The United States supports the brave people of Iran.”
The Iranian regime has warned that protesters will be punished “without any leniency”
Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholamhosein Mohseni-Ezei, vowed separately that punishment for protesters would be “decisive, maximal, and without any legal leniency.”
At least 65 people had been killed in Iran as of Friday, the 13th day of unrest, including at least 14 members of security forces, according to the Washington, DC-based Human Rights Activist News Agency, which was founded by anti-regime activists. At least 180 cities recorded protests, and the authorities arrested over 2,300 people.
Iranian authorities shut down the internet Thursday night as protests escalated, apparently as people heeded a call from the exiled crown prince, a vocal opposition figure, for Iranians to speak out against the regime.
According to an update posted online Saturday morning by the monitoring organisation. netblocks “Metrics show that the nationwide internet blackout will continue for up to 36 hours, severely limiting the ability of Iranians to check on the safety of friends and loved ones.”
That communications blackout has made it incredibly difficult to get a clear picture of the scale of the overall protests — and Iranian authorities’ response to them. Some other reports put the death toll from the unrest much higher; for example, Time quoted a Tehran doctor as saying that at least 217 people were killed.
Iranian officials have acknowledged some deaths, primarily from security forces.
A doctor and medic from two hospitals in Iran informed CBS News partner BBC News that their facilities were overflowing with injuries. The doctor said an eye hospital in Tehran had gone into crisis mode, while the BBC also received a message from a doctor at another hospital who said there were not enough surgeons at the facility to handle the influx of patients. The doctor claimed that many were injured Bullet injuries to head and eyes.
Asked by CBS News how seriously he believed Iran’s autocratic rulers were taking Mr Trump’s warning not to kill protesters, Maziar Bahari, editor of the IranWire news website, said he was sure it “really scared a lot of Iranian officials and may have influenced their actions in terms of how to confront protesters.”
“But at the same time … it has inspired many protesters to come out, because they know that the leaders of the world’s main superpower are supporting their cause,” said Bahari, who spent months in Iranian prisons after being arrested during a previous round of mass unrest in 2009.
“What’s happening in Iran right now is what many people have called a revolution,” Bahari told CBS News’ Haley Ott. “And we can see various signs of revolution in Iran in the movement. But revolution usually requires a leader. But we don’t have that leader.”
But while decades of tight media controls and the deliberate sidelining of dissident voices at home have deprived Iran of a clear opposition leader inside the country’s borders, many in the vast Iranian diaspora remain hopeful that the country’s ousted royal family could make a comeback.
Online videos contradict state media
Saturday marked the start of the workweek in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported. It is believed that internal Iranian government websites are currently operational.
State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from Iranian composer Majid Entezami’s “Epic of Khorramshahr” while showing pro-government demonstrations. The song, which aired repeatedly during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran last year, honours the liberation of the city of Khorramshahr by Iran in 1982 during the Iran–Iraq War. Videos of women protesting against Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022 also featured the song.
Meanwhile, state television reported that “peace remained in most cities of the country overnight,”, with “no reports of any gatherings or chaos in Tehran and most of the provinces.” This was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed a demonstration in the Sadat Abad area of Tehran. Thousands of people gathered in the street, and one man chanted, “Death to Khamenei!” It can be heard raising slogans.
The semi-official Fars news agency, considered close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said was from demonstrations in Isfahan. The footage showed a protester brandishing a long gun, while others ignited the government compound and hurled gasoline bombs.
State TV-affiliated Young Journalists Club reported that protesters killed three members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force in the city of Gachsaran. It was also reported that a security officer was stabbed to death in Hamadan province, a police officer was killed in the port city of Bandar Abbas, and another was killed in Gilan, as well as one person killed in Mashhad.
State television also aired footage of hundreds of people attending a funeral service in Qom, a Shiite seminary town south of Tehran.
Iran’s theocracy cut the country off from the internet and international telephone calls on Thursday, although it allowed some state-owned and semi-official media to publish. Qatar’s state-funded Al Jazeera news network reported live from Iran, but they appeared to be the only major foreign outlet able to operate.
The head of Iran’s exiled royal family predicts their return is “very close”
Many analysts see Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as the driving force behind the momentum of this round of protests. On Saturday, he called on Iranians not only to continue taking to the streets but also to try to take over towns and cities by putting pressure on the authorities.,
“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to occupy city centres,” Pahlavi said in his letter. Latest video message posted on social media “There were calls for more demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday.”
In an optimistic tone, Pahlavi announced that he was “preparing to return to his homeland”, suggesting that the day he would be able to do so was “very close”.
But Pahlavi has lived in exile for nearly 50 years, and although he has long tried to establish himself as a leader-in-waiting, it is unclear how much real support he has inside the country.
His father, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was widely despised inside Iran when he fled into exile in 1979 amid street protests because of the Islamic revolution that brought the current regime to power. Protesters have chanted slogans in support of the Shah at some protests, but it is unclear whether this is support for Pahlavi or a desire to return to times before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
