Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the 11th (local time) suggested a hard-line response to more than two weeks of protests over economic hardship, pointing to the United States and Israel as being behind the unrest.
According to AP and Reuters that day, President Pezeshkian said in a national address on state-run IRIB that the United States and Israel were "fomenting chaos and disorder," urging people to "distance yourselves from rioters and terrorists."
Pezeshkian suggested the possibility of ratcheting up the protest crackdown, saying, "Our more important duty is not to let a handful of rioters destroy society as a whole." He added, "People have concerns," and, "We also have a duty to sit down with them and allay their worries."
Pezeshkian, who took office in Jul. last year, has been regarded as a centrist-reformist leader. As the so-called "hijab suspicious-death" incident in 2022 triggered anti-government protests nationwide and discontent with the Islamic theocratic system accumulated, attention is now focused on where the protests will head after the new head of government ultimately made a clear turn to a hard line.
That day, Iran's parliament (Majlis) Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf also said in a plenary speech that "the Iranian people have resolved to confront armed terrorists decisively," state-run Press TV reported.
Speaker Ghalibaf warned that "those who ostentatiously call themselves 'foreign mercenaries,' betray their homeland to please the U.S. president, and transform into Daesh (Islamic State, IS) operatives to wage a terror war will be punished with the most powerful measures."
He claimed Iran is fighting against the U.S. and Israeli regimes, and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump, who mentioned the possibility of intervening in the situation, as "delusional." He also threatened that "any action attacking Iran will make all U.S. bases, military facilities, and vessels in the region legitimate targets."
Earlier, Iran Human Rights (IHR), a Norway-based human rights group, counted at least 192 deaths since protests began on the 28th over the sharp fall in currency value and high inflation that worsened livelihoods. It also suggested the actual death toll could exceed 2,000.
Since last week, Iranian authorities have been cutting off internet and communications and focusing on suppressing the protests, including deploying the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) ground forces, a core organization safeguarding the theocratic system, to some areas. With communication with the outside blocked, some citizens had been using Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by SpaceX, but recently even that service has reportedly not been accessible smoothly.