Trump threatens US intervention if Iran violently smashes cost-of-living protests

US ⁠President Donald Trump has warned the US will intervene if Iran shoots and kills ​peaceful protesters after cost-of-living protests turned deadly.

“If Iran shots (sic) and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social social media platform on Friday. “We are ​locked and loaded and ready ​to go.”

Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, publicly alleged without providing evidence that Israel and the US were stoking the demonstrations.

Larijani warned that any US intervention will lead to chaos in the region and the “destruction of the US interests”.

Trump’s threat follows the deaths of several people as Iran witnessed the biggest protests in three years over economic hardship.

Protesters and security forces clashed in western Iran on Thursday, with seven people reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out on Sunday.

Authorities arrested 30 people in Tehran for “disturbing public order”.

The protests began Sunday in the capital, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation. They have since spread to other parts of the country with students joining in.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has sought to calm tensions, acknowledging protesters' “legitimate demands”, and called on the government Thursday to take action to improve the economic situation.

“From an Islamic perspective... if we do not resolve the issue of people’s livelihoods, we will end up in hell,” Pezeshkian said at an event broadcast on state television.

Iranian authorities, however, have also promised to take a “firm” stance, and have warned against exploiting the situation to sow chaos.

Iran’s national currency, the rial, has lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar over the past year, while double-digit hyperinflation has been undermining Iranians’ purchasing power for years.

The inflation rate in December was 52% year-on-year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, an official body.