Many residents of the country are therefore placing their hopes on support from abroad. The current mass protests also featured the slogan “Long Live the King” – a reference to the exiled Reza Pahlavi, son of the Shah who was overthrown in 1979. He had called for protests in Iran on Thursday and Friday, which numerous people joined.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, reiterated his warning to the Iranian government that the US would intervene if people were killed, as in the past: “I just hope that the demonstrators in Iran are safe, because it is very dangerous there at the moment. And I say to the Iranian leaders again: you better not start shooting, because then we will start shooting too.” Trump added: “We’re going to get involved, we’re going to hit them very hard where it hurts.” However, this does not mean the deployment of US ground troops. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X: “The United States supports the brave people of Iran.”
Pahlavi subsequently called for Trump’s help. He knew, he wrote on X, that Trump was a man of peace and stood by his word. “Please be ready to intervene and help the Iranian people.”
Germany, France and Great Britain called on the Iranian government to renounce violence. “We are deeply concerned about reports of violence by Iranian security forces and strongly condemn the killing of demonstrators,” said a joint statement from Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The Iranian authorities are responsible for protecting their own people and must allow freedom of expression and peaceful assembly without fear of reprisals. In response, Iran accused the three countries of saying their concerns were “hypocritical.” “We condemn malicious interference in Iran’s internal affairs aimed at provoking violence,” it said.
