President Donald Trump on Friday threatened military action against the Iranian government if it violently puts down ongoing protests.
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“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Protests against poor economic conditions have broken out in dozens of cities across Iran in recent days. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has struck a conciliatory tone in public, but evidence has emerged of security forces using live fire against protesters.
In June, Trump ordered strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran, briefly joining Israel’s war against the country. This week Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Trump in Florida and the two discussed possibly attacking Iran again in the new year, Axios reported.
