Iran’s Leadership Signals Fury After Protests as Calls for Executions and Threats Against Trump Emerge

BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA

Iran appeared to slip back into a tense and uneasy calm on Friday following weeks of widespread protests that were met with a deadly crackdown, even as signs of deep anger within the country’s leadership surfaced in the form of calls for executions and direct threats against U.S. President Donald Trump.

A senior hard-line cleric used a nationally broadcast sermon to demand the death penalty for detained demonstrators and to warn both the United States and Israel of retaliation, underscoring the confrontational mood gripping authorities in the Islamic Republic after the most severe unrest in decades.

At the same time, Trump struck a noticeably conciliatory tone in Washington, publicly thanking Iran’s leadership for not carrying out mass executions of detained protesters. His comments suggested a possible step back from the prospect of U.S. military action, which he has previously said could be triggered by executions or the killing of peaceful demonstrators.

“Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” Trump told reporters, adding that he respected the decision. He did not specify whom he had spoken to within Iran or how the information had been confirmed.

The protests, which erupted on Dec. 28 over Iran’s deteriorating economy, quickly evolved into a broader challenge to the country’s ruling clerical system. Security forces responded with sweeping repression that appears to have crushed public demonstrations, at least for now. In Tehran, there have been no visible protests for days, shops have reopened and traffic has returned to normal patterns, although a nationwide internet shutdown remained in effect, cutting Iranians off from much of the outside world.

Authorities have not reported new unrest elsewhere in the country, but human rights monitors say the toll from the crackdown continues to climb. A U.S.-based group that tracks unrest in Iran through a network of activists put the death toll at more than 3,000 people, a figure that would make the violence the deadliest episode of internal unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran’s government has not released any official casualty figures, and the numbers could not be independently verified.

The contrast between Trump’s remarks and the rhetoric emanating from Tehran was stark. During Friday prayers, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a prominent cleric known for his uncompromising views and a member of both the Assembly of Experts and the Guardian Council, delivered a fiery sermon carried by state radio. He portrayed protesters as agents of foreign powers, labeling them servants of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers.”

As worshippers chanted calls for execution, Khatami warned that the United States and Israel should brace for what he described as “hard revenge from the system,” declaring that Americans and “Zionists” should not expect peace.

His speech came amid quiet diplomatic efforts to prevent further escalation. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Friday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian as well as with Netanyahu, according to the Kremlin. Moscow, which has maintained close ties with Tehran, had previously been cautious in its public response to the unrest, even as it watches several allies face mounting pressure while Russia remains heavily engaged in its war in Ukraine.

Despite Trump’s earlier promise that “help is on its way” for Iranian protesters, both street demonstrations and the immediate threat of U.S. intervention appeared to fade in recent days. Diplomats from several Middle Eastern countries, including Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have raised concerns with Washington that a U.S. military strike could destabilize the region and send shockwaves through the global economy.

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who lives in the United States and whose father was toppled during the 1979 revolution, urged Washington to follow through on its pledges of support. Speaking in Washington, he said he still believed Trump would act and insisted that Iranians had no choice but to continue resisting the current system, regardless of outside intervention.

Pahlavi, who has long sought to position himself as a potential transitional leader should the Islamic Republic collapse, later called on Iranians to resume protests over the weekend. While he retains strong backing among monarchists abroad, his influence inside Iran remains limited.

In his sermon, Khatami also released the first broad accounting of damage allegedly caused during the unrest. He claimed that hundreds of mosques, prayer halls and other religious sites were damaged, along with the homes of dozens of Friday prayer leaders, key figures in Iran’s political-religious structure. He also cited damage to hospitals, ambulances, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, figures that appeared intended to highlight what authorities describe as the destructive nature of the protests.

Even as demonstrations inside Iran were smothered, anger continued to spill beyond its borders. Thousands of Iranians living abroad, joined by supporters, rallied in cities across Europe, denouncing Tehran’s crackdown and demanding accountability.

The internet blackout has driven some Iranians to leave the country temporarily in order to communicate with relatives or conduct business. At a border crossing in Turkey’s eastern province of Van, travelers said they crossed specifically to bypass the shutdown. One Iranian man, giving only his first name, Mehdi, said he planned to return home once internet access was restored.

The unrest has also affected foreign nationals. A Turkish businessman who had been in Tehran when the protests began said he was forced to hide in his hotel before it closed for security reasons. He later stayed with a local business contact until he could leave the country, recalling the sound of heavy gunfire that he said resembled military-grade weapons.

Adding to concerns about regional spillover, a Kurdish separatist group based in Iraq said it had launched attacks against Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for the crackdown. The group claimed its fighters had supported protesters financially and militarily, signaling that Iran’s internal crisis could yet ignite wider instability along its borders.

For now, the streets of Iran remain quiet, but the harsh rhetoric from senior clerics and the unresolved grievances that fueled the protests suggest that the calm may prove fragile.