U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to come to the aid of protesters in Iran if security forces fire on them, days into unrest that has left several dead and posed the biggest internal threat to Iranian authorities in years.
"We are locked and loaded and ready to go," Trump said in a social media post.
Top Iranian official Ali Larijani responded to Trump's comments warning that U.S. interference in domestic Iranian issues would equal the destabilisation of the whole region. Iran backs groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
The comments came as a local official in western Iran where several deaths were reported was cited by state media as warning that any unrest or illegal gatherings would be met "decisively and without leniency", raising the likelihood of escalation.
This week's protests over soaring inflation have spread across Iran, with deadly confrontations between demonstrators and security forces focused in the western provinces of Lorestan and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari.
State-affiliated media and rights groups have reported at least six deaths since Wednesday, including one man who authorities said was a member of the Basij paramilitary affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.
This week's protests are the biggest in three years, since nationwide demonstrations triggered by the death of a young woman in custody in late 2022 paralysed Iran for weeks, with rights groups reporting hundreds killed.
During the latest unrest, the elected President Masoud Pezeshkian has struck a conciliatory tone, pledging dialogue with protest leaders over the cost-of-living crisis, even as rights groups said security forces had fired on demonstrators.
Speaking on Thursday, before Trump threatened U.S. action, Pezeshkian acknowledged that failings by the authorities were behind the crisis.
"We are to blame... Do not look for America or anyone else to blame. We must serve properly so that people are satisfied with us.... It is us who have to find a solution to these problems," he said.
Pezeshkian's government is attempting a programme of economic liberalisation, but one of its measures, deregulating some currency exchange, has contributed to a sharp decline in the value of Iran's rial on the unofficial market.
The sliding currency has compounded inflation, which has hovered above 36% since March even by official estimates, in an economy battered by Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.
Authorities have detained several individuals in the Lorestan counties of Azna and Delfan, according to media reports, as demonstrations have also been reported in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.
Fars and Hengaw also reported fatalities in Lordegan in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. Authorities confirmed one death in Kuhdasht, Lorestan, while Hengaw reported another in the central province of Isfahan.
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