Khamenei says rioters 'must be put in their place' as Iran protest deaths reach 15

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public comments Saturday on a week of economic protests shaking the Islamic Republic, declaring that “rioters must be put in their place” — a statement that human rights groups said could signal a green light for aggressive security action. At least 15 people have been killed and more than 580 arrested, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, as demonstrations spread to more than 170 locations across 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces.

The unrest, the largest in Iran since the 2022 protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, erupted over the collapse of the Iranian rial and broad economic grievances. Khamenei’s remarks come as U.S. President Donald Trump warned Friday that the United States “will come to their rescue” if Iran violently kills peaceful protesters — a statement that drew immediate threats from Iranian officials to target American troops in the region.

Khamenei separates ‘protesters’ from ‘rioters’

State television aired Khamenei’s remarks to an audience in Tehran. The 86-year-old supreme leader sought to distinguish Iranians upset over the rial’s collapse from what he called rioters.

“We talk to protesters, the officials must talk to them,” Khamenei said. “But there is no benefit to talking to rioters. Rioters must be put in their place.”

Khamenei also blamed foreign powers for the unrest, alleging without evidence that Israel and the United States were pushing the demonstrations. “A bunch of people incited or hired by the enemy are getting behind the tradesmen and shopkeepers and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic,” he said. He also attributed Iran’s collapsing rial to “the enemy,” without providing evidence.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had sought talks to address protesters’ demands; hard-line officials within the country were believed to have been pushing for a more aggressive response, according to the Associated Press.

Overnight deaths escalate violence

Two deaths overnight into Saturday marked a new level of violence. In Qom, home to Iran’s major Shiite seminaries about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran, a grenade explosion killed one man, the state-owned IRAN newspaper reported. Security officials alleged the man was carrying the grenade to attack people in the city. Online videos purportedly showed fires burning in Qom’s streets.

The second death occurred in Harsin, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) southwest of Tehran, where the newspaper said a member of the Basij — the all-volunteer paramilitary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard — died in a gun and knife attack in Kermanshah province.

The Kurdish human rights group Hengaw and the Oslo-based organization Iran Human Rights each reported four people killed in separate violence in Malekshahi County in Ilam province, about 515 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of Tehran. Both groups alleged that Iranian security forces opened fire on demonstrators there. The state-run IRNA news agency reported on violence in the county without providing specifics.

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Revolutionary Guard, alleged without evidence that some demonstrators carried firearms and grenades.

Protests reach 170 locations as scale nears 2022 levels

Demonstrations have reached more than 170 locations across 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early Sunday. The group, which relies on an activist network inside Iran and has been accurate in past unrest, put the overall death toll at at least 15 with more than 580 arrested.

The protests have yet to match the scale or intensity of the 2022 Amini demonstrations, which lasted months, killed more than 500 people, and resulted in more than 22,000 detentions. Protests over a gasoline price hike in 2019 reportedly saw over 300 people killed.

“Iran has no organized domestic opposition; protesters are likely acting spontaneously,” the Eurasia Group said in an analysis published Friday. “While protests could continue or grow larger (particularly as Iran’s economic outlook remains dire), the regime retains a large security apparatus and would likely suppress such dissent without losing control of the country.”

The Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force — whose motorcycle-riding members violently suppressed the 2009 Green Movement and the 2022 demonstrations — answers only to Khamenei.

U.S.-Iran tensions sharpen

Trump’s warning Friday against killing protesters drew an immediate response from Iranian officials, who threatened to target American troops stationed in the Middle East. Trump’s remarks took on additional significance after he claimed Saturday that the U.S. military had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime Iranian ally. It was not immediately clear whether that claim was accurate.

The protests follow Iran’s June war with Israel, during which the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites. Since that conflict, Tehran has announced it is no longer enriching uranium at any location in the country, a signal Iran said was intended to show Western governments that it remained open to nuclear negotiations to ease sanctions. No such talks had taken place as of Saturday, with Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu having warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.