Iran, Trump: ready to intervene if Tehran kills protesters. Media: 'At least 10 dead in three days'
Clashes continue in Iran and there have been casualties
President Donald Trump has declared that the US is 'ready to intervene' if Iran kills protesters, after six people died yesterday 1 January during protests against the cost of living in the country. Today, 2 January, at least ten people have died in the repression of protests that have broken out in Iran since last Wednesday, Iranian media reported.
"If Iran shoots and kills peaceful protesters, as is its custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue," Trump said in a post on Truth. "We are ready to intervene and ready to go."
"Trump should know that any American meddling in an internal matter would be tantamount to destabilising the entire region and damaging American interests," Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, wrote on X after the US president declared that the US could come to the "aid" of protesters should Tehran resort to violence. "Let him watch out for his soldiers," added Larijani, who heads the highest security authority in Iran.
In Iran, three people were killed and 17 others were injured in an attack on a police headquarters in the city of Ezna in the western Iranian province of Lorestan, according to Iranian media reports.Earlier, the Fars news agency had reported that clashes had broken out between police and protesters in the city of Lordegan in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. The protests degenerated into violence, causing at least two deaths and injuring several officers.In Ezna, assailants threw stones at police and set fire to several police vehicles, Fars reported on Thursday.In late December, the Iranian media had also reported protests in Tehran, linked to the weakening of the local currency, the rial. Protesters denounced the strong volatility of the exchange rate and its impact on wholesale and retail prices.
Bannon, Green and other Maga exponents against Trump's threat to Iran
Steve Bannon, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Maga figures from the America First front have criticised Donald Trump for his threat to intervene to help Iranian protesters against the Tehran regime's repression. Bannon accused the tycoon of following the script of his former rival Hillary Clinton in 2011, when then-secretary of state and then-President Barack Obama's adviser Samantha Power supported intervention in Libya to help protesters during the uprising at the time. "Aren't people joking that Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton must have somehow been invited to the New Year's Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, because isn't the president coming out saying 'Hey, we're ready and loaded' directly taken from the script of Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton?" he said on his War Room programme. The former White House strategist said America already has its own problems to deal with and should not meddle in the affairs of other nations. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a strong ally who later became a critic of Trump and is retiring from Congress this month, said instead that 'threatening war and sending troops to Iran is everything we voted against in '24'.
