Iran Sunni cleric warns of deepening poverty, backs protests

The United States is closely monitoring protests in Iran for signs they could threaten the stability of the ruling system, US officials told Axios.

Early this week, US intelligence assessed that the protests lacked enough momentum to challenge the regime, but that view is now being reassessed, according to the report.

“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” a senior US official was quoted as saying.

The protests have grown and spread over the past 12 nights, with Thursday’s rallies described as the largest so far. They have been driven mainly by economic pressure, which has worsened amid renewed US sanctions and damage from the 12-day war in June, Axios said.

European Parliament member Hannah Neumann said on Friday that Iran was using internet shutdowns to conceal violence against protesters and weaken resistance.

“The Internet shutdown in Iran is not a technical issue. The regime uses it to hide brutality and break the resistance of protesters,” Neumann wrote on X.

“More violence, more arrests, more people disappearing,” she added. “Families [are] left not knowing if loved ones are alive, injured or imprisoned.”

Neumann said the blackouts were a deliberate strategy to “cut people off from help and protection,” “make the regime’s deadly violence invisible,” “silence those under attack” and “prevent the world from seeing the size of the protests.”

“Internet blackouts are a weapon by the #IranianRegime,” she wrote. “Silence is not neutrality. It enables repression. Europe must speak up now!”

An Iranian prosecutor and several security personnel were killed during unrest in the city of Esfarayen in North Khorasan province, the head of the province’s judiciary said on Friday.

“Last night, during the unrest in Esfarayen, Ali Akbar Hosseinzadeh, the public and revolutionary prosecutor, was present in the city to carry out field supervision alongside police and security forces,” the official said.

He said what he described as rioters “set fire to the trailer where the prosecutor and security personnel were stationed and did not allow emergency teams to reach them.”

“Orders have been issued to identify those responsible for this incident,” he added.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretariat said on Friday that security forces and the judiciary would show no leniency toward what it called saboteurs, accusing foreign enemies of steering recent protests.

In a statement, it said recent events had begun as protests over market instability but were later driven by what it described as plans by Israel, with support from the United States, to create insecurity.

“The presence of security and law enforcement forces is to prevent insecurity in the country,” the statement said, adding that these forces were acting alongside the people to counter what it called foreign-backed plots.

It said: “Security forces and the judiciary will show no leniency toward saboteurs.”

“Trump should know that world tyrants such as Pharaoh, Nimrod, Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza were brought down at the peak of their arrogance. He too will be brought down,” Khamenei said in remarks aired on state television.

He said the Islamic Republic would not retreat in the face of unrest. “Everyone should know that the Islamic Republic came to power with the blood of hundreds of thousands of honorable people, and it will not back down in the face of saboteurs,” he said.

Referring to protests in the country, Khamenei accused demonstrators of acting to please the US president. “They want to make him happy. If he knew how to run a country, he would run his own,” he said, adding that there were many problems inside the United States.

Referring to the June attacks, Khamenei said: “In the 12-day war, more than a thousand of our compatriots were martyred.” He added that the US president had said, “I gave the order and I commanded the attack,” and said this amounted to an admission that “his hands are stained with the blood of Iranians.”

Khamenei urged supporters to remain united. “Dear young people, keep your readiness and your unity. A united nation will overcome any enemy,” he said.