Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said today that anti-government protesters are "rioters" who "must be put in their place."
Weeks of protests have rocked the Islamic Republic, and with that statement, Khamenei likely authorized security forces to aggressively suppress the demonstrations.
The 86-year-old ayatollah's first comments come after violence during demonstrations sparked by Iran's poor economic situation killed at least 10 people.
The protests show no signs of calming down.
US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Friday that if Tehran "violently kills peaceful protesters", the United States will "come to their aid".
While it is unclear how or whether Trump will order military intervention, his comments have sparked an angry reaction from Tehran, with officials from the theocracy there threatening to attack US troops in the Middle East.
This takes on added significance after Trump said today that the US military had captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.
The protests in Iran are the largest since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody sparked demonstrations across the country.
However, the current protests are not yet as widespread and intense as those over the death of Amina, who was detained because she did not cover all her hair with a "hijab" - a headscarf, as required by Islamic authorities.
State television broadcast Khamenei's statements to a crowd in Tehran, where he sought to separate the concerns of Iranians protesting and upset over the collapse of the national currency, the rial, from "rioters."
"We are talking to the protesters, the officials must talk to them," Khamenei said. "But there is no use in talking to the rioters. The rioters must be put in their place," he said.
He also repeated, without any evidence, the claim repeatedly made by Iranian officials that foreign powers - Israel and the United States - are fomenting the protests. He also blamed the "enemy" for the collapse of the Iranian rial.
"A group of people incited or hired by the enemy are standing behind merchants and shop owners and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic," he said, emphasizing: "That is the most important thing."
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards also include the volunteer Basij force, whose motorcycle-riding members violently suppressed protests such as the Green Movement in 2009 and the 2022 demonstrations. The Guards answer only to Khamenei.
It is believed that hardline officials in the country have been pushing for a more aggressive response to the demonstrations, while President Massoud Pezeshkian has sought talks to address the protesters' demands.
But bloody crackdowns by security forces often follow such protests. More than 300 people were reportedly killed in protests over rising gasoline prices in 2019. More than 500 people were killed and 22.000 were detained in months-long crackdowns on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022.
"Iran has no organized domestic opposition; protesters are likely acting spontaneously," the Eurasia Group said in an analysis on Friday. "While protests could continue or increase, especially as Iran's economic outlook appears to remain bleak, the regime retains a large security apparatus and would likely suppress them without losing control of the country."
Two deaths overnight and Saturday brought a new level of violence. A hand grenade exploded in the city of Qom, home to Iran's main Shiite seminaries, killing one man, the state-run IRAN newspaper reported. It cited security officials as saying the man was carrying a grenade to attack the crowd.
Online videos from Qom reportedly show fires burning in the street during the night.
The second death occurred in the city of Harsin, 370 kilometers southwest of Tehran, where a member of the Basij, the volunteer branch of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, was killed in a gun and knife attack, the newspaper reported.
Demonstrations are taking place in more than 100 locations in 22 of Iran's 31 provinces, the US-based group Human Rights Activists reported.
In the protests, which were based on economic issues, demonstrators also chanted against Iran's theocracy. Tehran has had little luck supporting its economy since the June war with Israel, in which the US also bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.
Iran recently announced it was no longer enriching uranium, trying to signal to the West that it is still open to potential talks on its nuclear program in order to ease sanctions. But those talks have yet to take place, and Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran not to rebuild its bombed nuclear facilities.
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