Protests in Iran reached a second week on Saturday, with video on social media showing huge crowds accompanied by massive flames and plumes of smoke — without any apparent response from the military or police.
Iran remained isolated from the rest of the world, as the nation’s theocracy shut down the internet and cut off phone lines as demonstrators raged against economic hardship and high inflation.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signaled a coming clampdown in the face of U.S. warnings. He also said President Donald Trump’s hands are “stained with the blood of Iranians.”
But Trump vowed he would intervene if more demonstrators were killed.
The death toll during the protests, which started in late December, ballooned to at least 65.
Upwards of 2,300 others were detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Trump said Iran’s “in big trouble,” adding that the U.S. is watching the situation “very carefully” and closely.
“It looks to me to that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Trump said during an unrelated news conference on Friday.
“I made this statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We will be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts,” he said.
I just hope the protestors are going to be safe because it’s a very dangerous place right now,” he added. “And again, I tell the Iranian leaders you better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting, too.”
Trump went on to say it is “something pretty incredible” that’s happening in Iran.
“It’s an amazing thing to watch. They’ve done a bad job. They’ve treated their people very badly and now they’re being paid back, so let’s see what happens,” he said.
In a social media post, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “the United States supports the brave people of Iran.”
The Department of State issued a separate post, which included a stark warning.
“Do not play games with President Trump,” the post noted. “When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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