After Donald Trump "Locked-Loaded" threat, Iran says US bases are legitimate targets.

Dubai : Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged warnings Friday as widespread protests erupted across the Islamic Republic, raising tensions between the two countries following America’s bombing of Iranian nuclear sites in June.

So far, at least seven people have been murdered in violence related to the rallies, which were triggered in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency but have also seen crowds chanting anti-government slogans.

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The six-day-old rallies are the largest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police detention sparked widespread unrest. However, the rallies have yet to spread across the country and have not been as severe as those after Amini’s death, who was held for refusing to wear her hijab, or headscarf, as ordered by authorities.

Donald Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform

Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, threatening Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the US “will come to their rescue.”

“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump added, without further explanation.

Shortly afterwards, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker and secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on the social media platform X that Israel and the United States were inciting the protests. He provided no proof to back up the assertion, which Iranian officials have stated repeatedly over years of nationwide rallies.

“Trump should know that US intervention in the domestic problem leads to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of US interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government has blocked. “The citizens of the United States should be aware that Trump launched the adventure. “They should look after their own soldiers.”

Larijani’s words most likely reflected America’s extensive military presence in the region. Iran attacked Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base in June, following US strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic Republic. No one was hurt, but a missile did strike a radome there.

According to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, no significant adjustments have been made to US troop numbers or preparations in the Middle East as a result of Trump’s Iran policy.

“The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he stated in relation to X.

Mohammad Bagher Qaliba, Iran’s hard-line parliament speaker, similarly vowed that all American bases and forces would be “legitimate targets.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Esmail Baghaei, also responded, citing a number of Tehran’s long-standing grievances against the United States, including a CIA-backed coup in 1953, the downing of a passenger flight in 1988, and participation in the June war.

The Iranian answer came as the protests shook what had previously been a familiar theme from theocratic officials: that the population broadly supported its regime following the war.

Trump’s internet statement was a direct expression of support for the demonstrations, which prior American presidents had avoided due to concerns that activists would be accused of conspiring with the West. During Iran’s 2009 Green Movement demonstrations, President Barack Obama refrained from overtly supporting the protests, which he admitted in 2022 “was a mistake.”

However, such White House backing is not without peril.

“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 with the International Crisis Group.

“But using that as a justification to crack down more violently risks inviting the very US involvement Trump has hinted at,” added the legislator.

Demonstrators flocked to the streets in Zahedan, Iran’s restive Sistan and Baluchestan region near the Pakistan border, on Friday. The graves of several activists slain during the protests also occurred, provoking marches.

An online video appeared to show mourners chasing away security force officers who attended the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari. He was killed on Wednesday in Kouhdasht, located in Iran’s Lorestan region, more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran.

Khodayari’s father also denied that his son served in the all-volunteer Basij unit of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as authorities alleged. According to the semiofficial Fars news agency, the government’s assertions that he served have been called into question.

Iran’s civilian government, led by reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, has tried to demonstrate a willingness to deal with demonstrators. However, Pezeshkian has admitted that there is nothing he can do because the Iranian rial has drastically fallen, with one dollar currently worth approximately 1.4 million rials. This provoked the earliest protests.

The rallies, which are centered on economic reasons, have also included chants against Iran’s theocracy. Tehran has had little success in stabilizing its economy in the months following the June battle.

Iran recently announced that it would no longer enrich uranium at any plant in the nation, attempting to indicate to the West that it is still open to possible negotiations over its nuclear program in order to remove sanctions. However, those negotiations have yet to take place, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against restarting its nuclear program.