Trump threatens to intervene in Iran if regime continues to kill protesters

Amna Nawaz:

President Trump today threatened to intervene in Iran if the regime kills peaceful protesters, which it has already done. Over the past six days, demonstrations that started in Tehran have spread throughout the country. The Iranian government has cracked down, as it has in the past.

Protests in Iran are now in their sixth day. What began as a response to skyrocketing inflation has now transformed into a national call for systemic reform, expanding from Tehran's Grand Bazaar to nearly 17 provinces across the country. At least 44 people have been arrested so far, Including Kurdish activist Mahsa Zarei.

And at least eight people have been killed, including a 15-year-old child. In the streets, protesters chant "Death to the dictator." And students have now joined the demonstrations. As in recent uprisings, young Iranians are on the forefront.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says he has -- quote -- "tasked the minister of interior to hear the legitimate demands of protesters through dialogue."

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Trump traded statements.

Trump posting this morning -- quote -- "If Iran violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go."

Araghchi responded, calling Trump's statement "reckless and dangerous."

For more on the protests, we turn now to two people who follow developments in Iran closely. Roya Boroumand is the co-founder and executive director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center. That's a nonprofit promoting human rights and democracy in Iran. And Holly Dagres is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. That's a think tank in Washington, D.C.

Welcome to you both.

And, Holly, I will begin with you because we have seen large-scale demonstrations in Iran before. How do these protests today compare to those we have seen in the past in terms of the scale? And, also, what sparked them?

Holly Dagres:

Well, these protests are significant. They're the largest since the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising.

And while they were triggered by a different event, in the economic one related to the collapse of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar on December 28, the grievances of the Iranian people taking to the streets are very much the same, which is systemic mismanagement, corruption, and repression.

And, for them, they see that all their woes and problems are with the Islamic Republic itself. And that's why you're seeing all these anti-regime trance coming from the people, because they believe that the Islamic Republic needs to go. And they felt this way for a very long time now.

Amna Nawaz:

Roya, what about you? As you watch these unfold, what stands out to you about how the protests are evolving, especially the fact that they're coming online now just a few years, as Holly noted, after those 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests after the death of Mahsa Amini?

Roya Boroumand:

It is surprising.

The intensity of the repression of the 2022 protests and following the 2022 protests was such that one would expect people to need a few years before forgetting and recovering before coming out in the streets. So it is early, if you will, based on the experience we have from previous years.

But, at the same time, the situation, the economic situation is so bad. The inflation is so bad, and so many people are living under the poverty line that these outbursts are not surprising in that sense. And the fact that they happen more in areas where the people are much more vulnerable economically and socially is also significant, I think.

Amna Nawaz:

Holly, Roya mentioned there the brutality of the crackdown to those 2022 protests.

Are you worried and do you expect that we will see the same from the Iranian regime this time? And, also, are there demands from the protesters that this regime can actually meet?

Holly Dagres:

Well, we have seen the brutality of the Islamic Republic for 46 years. We talked about the 2022 uprising.

And the U.N. fact-fighting mission at the time found that the Islamic Republic had committed crimes against humanity against the protesters during Woman, Life, Freedom. So they do have that ability to crack down on in same manner.

And one of the tools of repression that the Islamic Republic uses is mass executions. We have seen that, in 2025, they had the highest rate of executions in over a decade with 200 -- 2,045. And so this is a tool that they use to silence dissent and exactly what they will be doing.

And in terms of addressing the needs of the protesters, we have seen President Masoud Pezeshkian tweet on X, which is blocked by the Islamic Republic, and Iranians have to use circumvention tools to get online, that they would meet the needs of the protesters.

But the truth is, their needs cannot be met by the clerical establishment because they have not had opportunity for years to make changes and they have not. And Iranians believe that reform has been dead for a long time.

Amna Nawaz:

Roya, what about the reaction that we have seen from the U.S., specifically from President Donald Trump threatening U.S. intervention if peaceful protesters are killed? Is that kind of response something that protesters want to see? And you think there's a real possibility there for U.S. action?

Roya Boroumand:

Statements by a U.S. president matter a lot.

And they matter, in the sense that you also have to understand that the battle that the Iranians are fighting is a battle that is physical in the street, in which they have their lives to offer and some stones probably. But the state has resources and has arms and has foreign support.

And, in that sense, when leaders of democracies pay attention to what's happening, it strengthens the morale of the population. So it has to be clear what the statement of the president means. Does this mean that they're going to bombard somewhere? Does this mean that the endgame would be to overthrow the Islamic Republic?

I think these are very sensitive times. Iran has passed laws to punish with deaths very peaceful activities that are related to protests, are related to information about protests as acting in coordination with a foreign state and a hostile state, basically can lead any action to the gallows.

So, in that context, these kind of statements have to be not vague and very clear about what consequences the leaders of a country will face if they continue to shoot people. But attention to victims is good. That is something that the state doesn't want, because the state wants to say to the people fighting in the streets that you are alone, no one cares.

Amna Nawaz:

Holly, I will give you the last word here.

How do you look at the threats made by President Trump? And do protesters want to see some kind of U.S. intervention?

Holly Dagres:

It's really hard to interpret what the Trump administration actually wants to do with any action, if at all any.

And I think that if they were not to act on their words and there was a mass crackdown, this could very much be similar to the Obama administration's red line for Syria. So, I mean, it's a really mixed bagged about how the president wants to respond.

But we've also seen precedent where he has responded by assassinating being Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, January 3 being its six-year anniversary, attacking the country's nuclear facilities. So he's a real maverick when it comes to this sort of thing.

Amna Nawaz:

Holly Dagres and Roya Boroumand, we thank you so much for joining us.

(Crosstalk)

Roya Boroumand:

Thank you. Thank you for having us.