The leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Germany have condemned what they described as the “killing of protesters” in Iran, urging the authorities to “exercise restraint”.
“We are deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces, and strongly condemn the killing of protestors,” French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a joint statement.
“We urge the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint,” they added.
However, US President Donald Trump tonight again warned that he could order military strikes against Iran, saying the country was in “big trouble”.
“Iran’s in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Mr Trump said.
Asked on his message to Iran’s leaders, he replied: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”
Mr Trump added: “If they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved.
“That doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts.”
Iran has been largely cut off from the outside world after authorities blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as video showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging in several cities across the country.
Rights groups have already documented dozens of deaths of protesters in nearly two weeks and, with Iranian state TV showing clashes and fires, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that several police officers had been killed overnight.
In a televised address, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed not to back down, accusing demonstrators of acting on behalf of émigré opposition groups and the United States, and a public prosecutor threatened death sentences.
Chanting slogans including “death to the dictator” and setting fire to official buildings, crowds of people opposed to the leadership marched through major cities last night.
Internet monitor Netblocks said authorities had imposed a total connectivity blackout and added early Friday that the country has “now been offline for 12 hours… in an attempt to suppress sweeping protests”.Video has shown buildings and vehicles ablaze in anti-government protests raging through the streets of several cities.
The demonstrations represent one of the biggest challenges yet to the Islamic republic in its over four-and-a-half decades of existence, with protesters openly calling for an end to its theocratic rule.
But Mr Khamenei struck a defiant tone in his first comments on the escalating protests since 3 January, calling the demonstrators “vandals” and “saboteurs”, in a speech broadcast on state TV.
