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President Trump is threatening action if Iran kills protesters in Tehran and other Iranian cities. Trump says the U.S. is, quote, "locked and loaded" and ready to rescue demonstrators who've taken to the streets over Iran's crumbling economy. Iran says there would be chaos if the U.S. intervenes in its affairs. NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam reports.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: President Trump's comments come amid reports that several Iranian protesters were killed early Friday. The reaction from Iran was swift. The head of its Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said that Trump should know his comments could destabilize the entire region and destroy America's interests.
ALI LARIJANI: What President Trump said about being ready and loaded and locked, this has military implications, and that's what Iranian officials are reading into this, that this is an invitation to military action.
NORTHAM: Omid Memarian is a senior Iran analyst at DAWN, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, D.C. He says the protests are rooted in the collapsing economy, political exclusion and human rights abuses. Memarian says Trump's comments could shift the focus away from the protesters on the streets of Iran towards the capitals of Tehran and Washington and a geopolitical confrontation.
OMID MEMARIAN: President Trump has been very unpredictable. He has shown that he can surpass red lines that governments before him, you know, hesitated to cross. And that makes him a very dangerous person for the Iranian government.
NORTHAM: But Trump's comments have caused confusion for some. Hooman Majd is an Iranian American author and journalist.
HOOMAN MAJD: I'm not sure what this tweet even really meant by Trump, you know? Does it mean he's going to send soldiers, American soldiers, in to protect the protesters, to come and protect them?
NORTHAM: Majd said that would be an act of war, which he says Congress wouldn't be particularly happy with.
MAJD: Even the MAGA base I'm not sure would be particularly happy about sending American troops into what would then become a war zone. So that is something that doesn't make sense.
NORTHAM: And yet, Trump has been making increasingly bellicose comments towards Iran, including last week when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago. Trump indicated concerns that Iran was continuing its ballistic missiles program.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down. We'll knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully, that's not happening.
NORTHAM: Author Majd, who is in touch with many friends and relatives in Iran, says people there are worried about another conflict, like the 12-day war in June. And if missiles start falling on Iran, the protesters themselves could be killed.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
NORTHAM: The protests in Iran are growing, but they're still much smaller than in 2022, when hundreds of people were killed and over 20,000 detained. Sarah (ph), a 37-year-old architect from Tehran, took part in those protests. She asks that we don't use her last name out of fear of reprisal from the regime. Sarah says so far, she's leery to be involved in these latest protests.
SARAH: (Through interpreter) Saw this in 2022, as clear as it can be. I can say this certainly - that their violence was not with the purpose of dispersing the crowd. They clearly had an intention to kill and injure.
NORTHAM: Sarah says Trump's comments about locking and loading and rescuing demonstrators are ridiculous and not helpful.
SARAH: (Through interpreter) The reality is that we are neither safe from our own government nor from a foreign intervention.
NORTHAM: Sarah worries, if they intervene again this time, things might get even worse. Jackie Northam, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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