Trump and top Iranian officials exchange threats over protests roiling
Iran
[January 03, 2026]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and top
Iranian officials exchanged dueling threats Friday as widening protests
swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions
between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in
June.
At least eight people have been killed so far in violence surrounding
the demonstrations, which were sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s
rial currency but have increasingly seen crowds chanting anti-government
slogans.
The protests, now in their sixth day, have become the biggest in Iran
since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody
triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the protests have yet to
be as widespread and intense as those surrounding the death of Amini,
who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking
of authorities.
Trump post sparks quick Iranian response
Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if
it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come
to their rescue.”
“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without
elaborating.
Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged that Israel and the
U.S. were stoking the demonstrations. He offered no evidence to support
the allegation, which Iranian officials have repeatedly made during
years of protests sweeping the country.
“Trump should know that intervention by the U.S. in the domestic problem
corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the
U.S. interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government
blocks. “The people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the
adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”
Larijani’s remarks likely referenced America’s wide military footprint
in the region. Iran in June attacked Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after
the U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel's 12-day war on
the Islamic Republic. No one was injured, though a missile did hit a
structure there.
As of Friday, no major changes had been made to U.S. troop levels in the
Middle East or their preparations following Trump’s social media posts,
said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
sensitive military plans.
In a letter late Friday to United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres and the U.N. Security Council, Iran's envoy asked the world
body to condemn the rhetoric and reaffirm the country's "inherent right
to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security,
and to protect its people against any foreign interference.”
“The United States of America bears full responsibility for any
consequences arising from these unlawful threats and any ensuing
escalation," said Amir Saeid Iravani, Iranian ambassador to the U.N.
Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who
previously was the council’s secretary for years, separately warned that
“any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran
will be cut.”
US signals support for protesters
Trump's online message marked a direct sign of support for the
demonstrators, something other American presidents have avoided out of
concern that activists would be accused of working with the West. During
Iran's 2009 Green Movement demonstrations, President Barack Obama held
back from publicly backing the protests — something he said in 2022 “was
a mistake.”
But such White House support still carries a risk.
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This combo shows President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec.
29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. and Iranian Secretary of Supreme
National Security Council Ali Larijani in Beirut, Lebanon,
Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Bilal Hussein)
“Though the grievances that fuel these and past protests are due to
the Iranian government’s own policies, they are likely to use
President Trump’s statement as proof that the unrest is driven by
external actors,” said Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the
International Crisis Group.
“But using that as a justification to crack down more violently
risks inviting the very U.S. involvement Trump has hinted at,” he
added.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei recently cited a
list of Tehran’s longtime grievances regarding U.S. intervention,
including a CIA-backed coup in 1953, the downing of a passenger jet
in 1988 and the strikes in June.
Protests continue Friday
Protests continued Friday in various cities in the country, even as
life largely continued unaffected in the capital, Tehran.
Demonstrations have reached over 100 locations in 22 of Iran's 31
provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency
reported. It said the death toll in the demonstrations rose to eight
with the death of a demonstrator in Marvdasht in Iran's Fars
province.
Demonstrators took to the streets in Zahedan in Iran's restive
Sistan and Baluchestan province on the border with Pakistan. The
burials of several demonstrators killed in the protests also took
place Friday, sparking marches.
Videos purported to show mourners chasing off security force members
who attended the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari. He was
killed Wednesday in Kouhdasht, over 400 kilometers (250 miles)
southwest of Tehran in Iran's Lorestan province.
Footage also showed Khodayari's father denying his son served in the
all-volunteer Basij force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard, as authorities claimed. The semiofficial Fars news agency
later reported that there were now questions about the government's
claims that he served.
Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud
Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with
protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much
he can do as Iran’s rial has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now
costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.
The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard
demonstrators chant against Iran’s theocracy as well. Tehran has had
little luck in propping up its economy in the months since the June
war.
Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in
the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to
potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions.
However, those talks have yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against
reconstituting its atomic program.
___
Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin in Washington and
Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.
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