Anti-government chants filled the streets of Iran’s capital on Saturday night, as protesters pressed the biggest movement against the Islamic republic in more than three years despite a deadly crackdown under cover of an internet blackout.
Iran has blamed the United States for the demonstrations, which ignited in Tehran two weeks ago over economic hardship and have since fanned nationwide with calls for ousting the clerical authorities.
Rights groups have reported dozens of deaths and expressed alarm on Saturday that authorities were intensifying the crackdown.
Little information is filtering out after an internet shutdown, with monitor NetBlocks showing virtually no connectivity since Thursday.
US President Donald Trump said his country was “ready to help” the movement, after warning Iran was in “big trouble” over its efforts to suppress the protests.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday.
According to the New York Times, Trump was recently briefed on options for possible military strikes.
US officials, speaking to the Times anonymously, said Trump has not yet made a final decision about another intervention, after Washington joined Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June.
Crowds gathered again on Saturday in the north of the Iranian capital, setting off fireworks and banging pots as they shouted slogans in support of the ousted monarchy, according to video verified by AFP.
Other videos, that AFP could not immediately verify, showed demonstrations in other parts of the capital where protesters shouted anti-government slogans.
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s deposed shah, urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests over the weekend.
“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,” Pahlavi said in a video on social media.
The demonstrations have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
After initially calling for “restraint” and acknowledging economic grievances, they have since hardened their stance.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a defiant speech on Friday, lashed out at “vandals” doing Trump’s bidding.
- ‘Not safe’ –
Amnesty International said it was analysing “distressing reports that security forces have intensified their unlawful use of lethal force against protesters” since Thursday.
Norway-based Iran Human Rights group has said at least 51 people have been killed in the crackdown so far, warning the actual toll could be higher.
It posted images it said were of bodies of people shot dead in the protests on the floor of Alghadir hospital in eastern Tehran.
“These images provide further evidence of the excessive and lethal use of force against protesters,” IHR said.
On Friday in Tehran’s Saadatabad district, protesters chanted anti-government slogans including “death to Khamenei” as cars honked in support, a video verified by AFP showed.
Other images disseminated on social media and by Persian-language television channels outside Iran showed similarly large protests elsewhere in the capital, as well as in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.
In the western city of Hamedan, a man was shown waving a shah-era Iranian flag featuring the lion and the sun.
The same flag briefly flew over the country’s embassy in London after protesters reached the building’s balcony, witnesses told AFP.
On Thursday and Friday, an AFP journalist in Tehran saw streets deserted and plunged into darkness.
“The area is not safe,” said a cafe manager as he prepared to close the shop around 4:00 pm.
- ‘Price to pay’ –
Authorities say several members of the security forces have been killed, and state television aired images on Saturday of funerals for several members of the security forces killed in the protests, including a large gathering in the southern city of Shiraz.
It also aired images of buildings, including a mosque, on fire.
Iran’s army said in a statement that it would “vigorously protect and safeguard national interests” against an “enemy seeking to disrupt order and peace”.
Global leaders have urged restraint from Iranian authorities, with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen saying Europe backed Iranians’ mass protests and condemned the “violent repression” against the demonstrators.
On Saturday, the start of the working week in Iran, one man in Tehran said he was unable to check his work email.
“This is the price to pay before the victory of the people,” he said.
