in some cases platoon of IRGC are getting protestors to retreat
in other cases a lack of IRGC is creating opportunities for protestors to destroy regime assets
some protestors have hand weapons
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[IsraelTimes] US president says he can’t ‘hold somebody responsible’ for the dozens of deaths that have already been reported, declines to meet exiled crown prince for time being
US President Donald Trump
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
reiterated his threat on Thursday of retribution against Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
should the Islamic Theocratic
Republictarget protesters who have been taking to the streets in large numbers to demonstrate against the regime over the past two weeks.
His comments coincided with the biggest protests yet of nearly two weeks of rallies across Iran, as authorities cut internet access and the corpse count from a crackdown mounted.
"I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots... we’re going to hit them very hard," Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
When the radio host noted that dozens have indeed been killed in the protests, Trump countered that some of those deaths were caused by stampedes, and not necessarily caused by law enforcement.
"I’m not sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that, but... they’ve been told very strongly — even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now — that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell," the president said.
Trump first issued a similar threat last Friday, when he warned that if Iran "
At least 45 protesters, including eight minors, have been killed since the rallies began on December 28, rights groups said Thursday.
Asked on Hewitt’s radio show to offer a message of support to the anti-regime protesters in Iran, Trump said: "You should feel strongly about freedom... You’re brave people. It’s a shame what’s happened to your country. Your country was a great country."
The already riled-up protesters in Iran were further fueled on Thursday by a call from the country’s exiled crown prince for the public to take to the streets.
The response to his call, with thousands of people shouting from their homes and rallying outside, represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Demonstrations have included cries in support of the Shah, something that could bring a death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
Trump, pressed on whether he would meet with Pahlavi, indicated that he wouldn’t do so at this time.
"I’ve watched him, and he seems like a nice person, but I’m not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that," Trump said. "I think that we should let everybody go out there and we see who emerges."
Separately on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent underscored Washington’s concerns about Tehran’s
"The Iranian economy is on the ropes," Bessent told the Economic Club of Minnesota, highlighting the high inflation and other challenges in the Islamic Theocratic
Republic, partly due to US sanctions.
"It’s a very precarious moment," Bessent said, referring to Trump’s threat to retaliate if Tehran kills protesters. He does not want them to harm more of the protesters. This is a tense moment."
He said it was clear that "what had been an affluent society that still maintained a high standard of living is really crumbling, and a lot of that is through the sanctions."
The current protests have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations.
Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after its 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.
Before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the rial was broadly stable, trading at around 70 to $1. At the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, $1 traded for 32,000 rials. Shops in markets across the country have shut down as part of the protests.
Iran state TV breaks silence on protests, claims ‘terrorist agents’ of US and Israel set fires
[IsraelTimes] Iranian state media breaks its silence over the demonstrations that swept the country overnight, alleging “terrorist agents” of the US and Israel set fires and sparked violence.
The brief report buried in state TV’s 8 a.m. (6:30 a.m. Israel time) broadcast represents the first official word about the demonstrations.
It claims the protests saw violence that caused casualties, but does not elaborate.
It also says the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.”
Iran’s government has shut down the internet and international phone calls, making it difficult to contact those inside the Islamic Republic.
However, a call by Iran’s exiled crown prince apparently sparked a mass demonstration starting at 8 p.m. local time Thursday.
Internet, phone lines cut across Iran as thousands rally in Tehran; death toll at 45
[IsraelTimes] Communications networks go dark right after start of Tehran protests urged on by exiled crown prince; protesters chant ‘death to the dictator’ and ‘death to the Islamic Republic’
Thousands of people in Iran’s capital shouted from their homes and rallied in the street Thursday night after a call by the country’s exiled crown prince for a mass demonstration, witnesses said, a new escalation in the protests that have spread nationwide across the Islamic Republic. Internet access and telephone lines in Iran cut out immediately after the protests began.
The protest represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Demonstrations have included cries in support of the Shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.
Thursday saw a continuation of the demonstrations that popped up in cities and rural towns across Iran on Wednesday. More markets and bazaars shut down in support of the protesters. So far, Iranian security forces have killed at least 45 protesters, including eight minors, according to the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.
The NGO said Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the demonstrations began, with 13 protesters confirmed to have been killed.
“The evidence shows that the scope of the crackdown is becoming more violent and more extensive every day,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, adding that hundreds more have been wounded and over 2,000 arrested.
The growth of the protests increases the pressure on Iran’s civilian government and its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. CloudFlare, an internet firm, and the advocacy group NetBlocks reported the internet outage, both attributing it to Iranian government interference. Attempts to dial landlines and mobile phones from Dubai to Iran were connected. Such outages have in the past been followed by intense government crackdowns.
Meanwhile, the protests themselves have remained broadly leaderless. It remains unclear how Pahlavi’s call will affect the demonstrations moving forward.
“The lack of a viable alternative has undermined past protests in Iran,” wrote Nate Swanson of the Washington-based Atlantic Council, who studies Iran.
“There may be a thousand Iranian dissident activists who, given a chance, could emerge as respected statesmen, as labor leader Lech Walesa did in Poland at the end of the Cold War. But so far, the Iranian security apparatus has arrested, persecuted and exiled all of the country’s potential transformational leaders.”
THURSDAY’S DEMONSTRATION RALLIES AT HOME AND IN THE STREET
Pahlavi had called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. local time on Thursday and Friday. When the clock struck, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets.
“Great nation of Iran, the eyes of the world are upon you. Take to the streets and, as a united front, shout your demands,” Pahlavi said in a statement. “I warn the Islamic Republic, its leader and the [Revolutionary Guard] that the world and [President Donald Trump] are closely watching you. Suppression of the people will not go unanswered.”
Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian officials appeared to be taking the planned protests seriously. The hard-line Kayhan newspaper published a video online claiming security forces would use drones to identify those taking part.
Iranian officials have offered no acknowledgment of the scale of the overall protests, which raged across many locations Thursday, even before the 8 p.m. demonstration. However, there have been reporting regarding security officials being hurt or killed.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported a police colonel suffered fatal stab wounds in a town outside of Tehran, while the semiofficial Fars news agency said gunmen killed two security force members and wounded 30 others in a shooting in the city of Lordegan in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.
A deputy governor in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi province told Iranian state television that an attack at a police station killed five people Wednesday night in Chenaran, some 700 kilometers (430 miles) northeast of Tehran.
IRAN WEIGHS TRUMP THREAT
It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on the demonstrators. Trump warned last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” America “will come to their rescue.”
Trump’s comments drew a new rebuke from Iran’s Foreign Ministry.
“Recalling the long history of criminal interventions by successive US administrations in Iran’s internal affairs, the Foreign Ministry considers claims of concern for the great Iranian nation to be hypocritical, aimed at deceiving public opinion and covering up the numerous crimes committed against Iranians,” it said.
But those comments haven’t stopped the US State Department on the social platform X from highlighting online footage purporting to show demonstrators putting up stickers naming roads after Trump or throwing away government-subsidized rice.
“When prices are set so high that neither consumers can afford to buy nor farmers can afford to sell, everyone loses,” the State Department said in one message. “It makes no difference if this rice is thrown away.”
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi remains imprisoned by authorities after her arrest in December.
“Since December 28, 2025, the people of Iran have taken to the streets, just as they did in 2009, 2019,” her son Ali Rahmani said. “Each time, the same demands came up: an end to the Islamic Republic, an end to this patriarchal, dictatorial and religious regime, the end of the clerics, the end of the mullahs’ regime.”