Iran’s parliament speaker has warned that American military forces and bases throughout the region will be treated as legitimate targets if Washington takes aggressive action. The Friday warning followed President Trump’s threat to intervene should Iranian authorities use deadly force against protesters demanding economic reforms.
Seven people have died since demonstrations began Sunday, marking the deadliest domestic unrest Iran has experienced in months. The protests initially erupted in Tehran, where shopkeepers gathered to voice criticism of government policies that have failed to prevent economic collapse and soaring inflation.
Senior Iranian officials have made explicit that any US interference would have catastrophic regional consequences. An adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that American meddling in Iran’s internal crisis would spread chaos beyond the country’s borders, potentially destabilizing the broader Middle East and threatening international interests in the energy-rich region.
The economic crisis motivating the protests is severe and multifaceted. Official statistics show inflation hit 42.5 percent in December, while the national currency has plummeted to approximately 1.4 million rials per dollar. Citizens face rapidly rising prices for food, medicine, and other essentials while wages fail to keep pace, creating widespread economic distress that has exhausted public patience.
President Pezeshkian’s civilian government has sought to project empathy for demonstrators’ frustrations. In remarks broadcast on state television, Pezeshkian invoked Islamic principles to argue that addressing livelihood concerns is a religious obligation. Despite this sympathetic rhetoric, he has acknowledged having few tools to combat the currency crisis. The prosecutor general has attempted to distinguish between legitimate economic protests and security threats, validating the former while promising decisive responses to the latter, though maintaining this distinction grows more difficult as unrest continues.