"Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR
INSTITUTIONS!!!... HELP IS ON ITS WAY," Trump said in a post on Truth
Social, adding he had canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until
the "senseless killing" of protesters stopped.
The
unrest, sparked by dire economic conditions, has posed the biggest internal
challenge to Iran's rulers for at least three years and has come at a
time of intensifying international pressure after Israeli and US strikes last
year.
An Iranian official said earlier on Tuesday that about 2,000
people had been killed in the protests, the first-time authorities have
acknowledged the high death toll from more than two weeks of nationwide unrest.
The
official, speaking to Reuters, said that people he called terrorists were
behind the deaths of both protesters and security personnel. The official, who
declined to be named, did not give a breakdown of who had been killed.
On
Monday evening, Trump announced 25% import tariffs on products from
any country doing business with Iran - a major oil exporter. Trump has also
said more military action is among options he is weighing to punish
Iran over the crackdown.
Tehran has not yet responded publicly to Trump's
announcement of the tariffs, but it was swiftly criticized by China. Iran,
already under heavy US sanctions, exports much of its oil to China, with
Turkey, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and India among its other top
trading partners.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Al Jazeera on
Monday that he had continued to communicate with US special envoy Steve Witkoff
during the protests and that Tehran was studying ideas proposed by Washington.
Iranian
authorities have accused the US and Israel of fomenting the unrest.
Russia condemned what it described as "subversive
external interference" in Iran's internal politics, saying that US.threats
of new military strikes against the country were "categorically
unacceptable."
"Those who plan to use externally inspired unrest as a
pretext for repeating the aggression against Iran committed in June 2025 must
be aware of the disastrous consequences of such actions for the situation in
the Middle East and global international security," the Russian Foreign
Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Despite
the protests, which come at a particularly vulnerable moment for authorities
given the scale of economic problems, and years of external pressure, there are
as yet no signs of fracture in the security elite that could bring an
end to the clerical system in power since a 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Britain, France, Germany and Italy all summoned Iranian
ambassadors in protest over the crackdown.
"The brutal actions of the Iranian regime against its
own people are shocking," the German Foreign Ministry said on social media
platform X.
Item 1 of 4
Iranian demonstrators gather in a street during a protest over the collapse of
the currency's value, in Tehran, Iran, January 8, 2026. Stringer/WANA (West
Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Underscoring
international uncertainty over what comes next in Iran, which has been one of
the dominant powers across the Middle East for decades, German Chancellor Friedrich
Merz said he believed the government would fall.
"I assume that we are now witnessing the final days and
weeks of this regime," he said, adding that if it had to maintain power
through violence, "it is effectively at its end".
Araqchi dismissed Merz's criticisms, accusing Berlin of
double standards and saying he had "obliterated any shred of
credibility".
The protests began on December 28, 2025 over the fall
in value of the currency and have grown into wider demonstrations and
calls for the fall of the clerical establishment.
Hengaw,
an Iranian Kurdish rights group, has reported that a 26-year-old man, Erfan
Soltani, arrested in connection with protests in the city of Karaj, will be
executed on Wednesday. Authorities had told the family that the death sentence
was final, Hengaw reported, citing a source close to the family.
"The rushed and non-transparent handling of this case
has heightened concerns over the use of the death penalty as a tool to suppress
public protests," Hengaw said on Monday.
Parliament member Mohammadreza Sabaghian, who represents an
area in Yazd, in central Iran, said the government needed to resolve people's
dissatisfaction, otherwise "the same events will occur with greater
intensity".
