US congressman backs Iranian uprising

UK Conservative MP and former security minister Tom Tugendhat said senior figures in Iran’s government may already be reaching out to foreign intelligence services and trading secrets in search of protection if the government falls.

“How many senior regime officials are reaching out to foreign intelligence officials and trading secrets for security when the regime collapses?” Tugendhat posted on X on Friday.

“The leadership will be suspicious that many are looking for safe landing but paranoia won't help many of the leaders are doing it too,” he added.

Nationwide protests and bazaar strikes in Iran entered their sixth consecutive day on Friday, with at least eight protesters killed and dozens arrested, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported.

The unrest, which began Monday with market closures in Tehran, has spread across 113 locations in 46 cities and 22 provinces.

HRANA reported ongoing protests in cities including Mashhad, Zahedan, Qazvin, Hamadan, and Tehran, marked by heightened security, violence by forces, and further detentions.

US Congressman Thomas Massie criticized President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran, saying any such move would require congressional authorization.

“We have problems at home and shouldn’t be wasting military resources on another country’s internal affairs,” the Republican House member from Kentucky posted on X on Friday.

“Military strikes on Iran require congressional authorization. This threat isn’t about freedom of speech in Iran; it’s about the dollar, oil, and Israel,” he added.

The US State Department shared a video of ongoing protests in Iranian cities, saying they are driven by frustration over a lack of freedom, dignity and basic necessities.

“The protesters' demands are entirely clear: Iranians are exhausted from living without freedom and dignity, and without their basic needs being met, while officials lead lavish lives and send Iran's money abroad to fund assassinations,” the State Department’s Persian-language X account posted on Friday. “The brave resistance of Iranians in the face of hardships deserves admiration.”

Activist Masih Alinejad criticized Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian for saying he would stand against any US “aggression” on Iran, after Donald Trump warned Washington would act if the Islamic Republic killed protesters.

“Khamenei and his army pull the trigger and you reformists whitewash. You have no problem with shedding people's blood; your only problem is that a foreign country stops the crime,” she posted on X on Friday.

“Now you understand why people hate you? Because you have officially announced that no one has the right to stop the killing of the Iranian people! This means that you yourself are murderers and aggressors, Mr. Pezeshkian!” Alinejad added.