Trump says if Iran ‘kills peaceful protesters,’ the US ‘will come to their rescue’

President Donald Trump said early Friday morning that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”

Trump added that “we are locked and loaded and ready to go” in the post on his Truth Social network, which went live just before 3 a.m. Eastern time.

‘Trump should know that intervention by the US in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the US interests.’

Trump’s warning came hours after reports that at least six people have been killed after nearly a week of protests in Iran over grim economic conditions there, CBS News reported.

More from CBS News:

Iran has been plagued for years by staggering hyperinflation, fueled by Western sanctions imposed over the hardline clerical government’s nuclear program and backing for militant groups across the region.

Videos and photos from Tehran and other cities posted on social media have shown protesters marching through streets from early this week, often chanting anti-government, pro-monarchy slogans and sometimes clashing violently with security forces.

In an apparent bid to quell the unrest, Iranian authorities have acknowledged the economic concerns and said peaceful protests are legitimate, but suggested that foreign powers — usually a reference to Israel and the U.S. — are behind subversive elements fueling violence on the streets.

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Ali Larijani — a former speaker of Iran’s parliament and now the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council — said Friday on social media in reaction to Trump’s remarks that “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,” CBS News reported.

Larijani added that “the people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism” and that “they should take care of their own soldiers,” according to the news network.

The “soldiers” remark appeared to be in reference to U.S. military forces in the Middle East in range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, CBS News added.

Ali Shamkhani — an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — warned that “any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut,” the news network reported.

“The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” Shamkhani added in a social media post, CBS News said.

Prior to Trump’s Friday morning post on Truth Social, the U.S. and Israeli governments issued statements supporting the Iranian protests, the news network said.

“The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the Ayatollahs for too long,” Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a Monday X post. “We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war.”

More from CBS News:

Tension between the U.S. and Iran escalated this week on the heels of a visit to the U.S. by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has campaigned his country’s close allies in Washington for decades to take a tougher stance on Iran.

After meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Sunday, Mr. Trump said he had heard that Iran could be attempting to rebuild its nuclear program following the unprecedented U.S. strikes on its enrichment facilities in June. Mr. Trump warned that if Iran did try to rebuild, “we’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”

Iranian President Mahsoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday said Tehran would respond “to any cruel aggression” with unspecified “harsh and discouraging” measures, the news network added.

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