US President Donald Trump on Monday criticized the Islamic Republic’s violent crackdown on protests but stopped short of calling for regime change, hours after demonstrators demanded a new ruling system in nationwide protests.
Speaking on Monday in Florida alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said Iranian authorities routinely open fire on demonstrators.
“They kill people,” Trump said at Mar-a-Lago. “Every time they have a riot, or somebody forms a group, little or big, they start shooting people.”
Massive nationwide protests erupted across Iran over the weekend, with merchants vowing to continue their shutdowns into a third day on Tuesday.
What began as anger over the soaring price of the US dollar and the collapse of the rial has widened into a broader wave of unrest, spreading beyond market corridors into streets, squares and university campuses across several provinces.
While the slogans were mainly focused on economic issues on the first day, the second day's chants underscored a transition from economic frustration to more explicit political dissent.
Chants in several cities targeted Iran's political authority, with crowds shouting slogans such as 'death to the dictator" and "Seyyed Ali (Khamenei) will be toppled this year".
When asked about regime change in Iran on Monday, the US president drew a line.
“I’m not going to talk about overthrow of a regime,” Trump said, adding that Iran’s leadership already faces severe internal pressure.
“They’ve got a lot of problems. They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust. And I know that people aren’t so happy.”
He told reporters Monday that Iranians are increasingly discontented with their rulers. “There’s tremendous discontent. They form 100,000, 200,000 people. All of a sudden, people start getting shot, and that group disbands pretty quickly,” he said.
Long history of brutal crackdowns
Violence against protesters is not new in the Islamic Republic.
Amnesty International has documented past crackdowns in which security forces fired live ammunition at largely peaceful crowds.
During the 2022 Woman Life Freedom movement, sparked by the in-custody death of Mahsa Jina Amini, security forces fired on and killed protesters in cities across Iran, with many victims reportedly targeted in the eyes, according to human rights groups and the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran.
The November 2019 demonstrations, known as “Bloody November,” are also widely considered one of the deadliest crackdowns in recent decades, with security forces shooting directly at protesters and killing hundreds.
