President Trump has cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials and told protestors that ‘help is on its way,’ suggesting direct intervention on his latest Truth Social post.
In a significant escalation of ‘maximum pressure’ rhetoric, Trump has shifted from diplomatic sanctions to an overt call for grassroots regime change by urging Iranian citizens to ‘take over’ their institutions.
‘Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,’ he wrote this morning.
Trump is holding a meeting today with Secretary of State Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine and other top leaders to weigh options for Iran.
Trump has cautioned that military action could come before any diplomatic sit-down if conditions on the ground deteriorate further.
‘A meeting is being set up,’ Trump had told reporters, warning, ‘We may have to act before a meeting.’
Verified video evidence from Sunday shows citizens gathered at the Kahrizak Forensic Centre in Tehran. The footage depicts people standing over long rows of dark body bags.
Since the nationwide demonstrations began on December 28, the US-based human rights organization HRANA reports it has confirmed about 600 fatalities, but according to other reports that number is more likely in the thousands.
Iranian demonstrators gather in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value, in Tehran, Iran
Bodies lie in body bags on the ground as people stand amid the scene outside Kahrizak Forensic Medical Centre in Tehran, Iran, in this screen capture from a video obtained from social media, January 11
Protestors burn images of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally held in Solidarity with Iran’s Uprising, organised by The national Council of Resistance of Iran, on Whitehall in central London
President Trump told a group of reporters on Air Force One that Iranian diplomats had reached out to the administration to negotiate.
‘The communication channel between our Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the US special envoy (Steve Witkoff) is open and messages are exchanged whenever necessary,’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday.
Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of Parliament, put out a statement Sunday saying that any US military action will result in a retaliatory response from Iran.
‘If the United States takes military action, both the occupied territories and US military and shipping lanes will be our legitimate targets,’ Ghalibaf said. ‘Both US and Israeli military bases could be targets,’ he added.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday night, Trump threatened to intervene, saying: ‘The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options.’
Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: ‘If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.’
This wave of protests was ignited by an economic implosion that saw the Iranian Rial plunge to a historic low of 1.45 million per US dollar, essentially making their currency near worthless and driving inflation higher than 70%.
This all comes six months after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities during operation ‘Midnight Hammer’ in June 2025.
The Trump administration claimed that this dismantled a significant amount of the regimes nuclear capabilities at their sites Fordow and Natanz.
In an effort to reshape the narrative surrounding the recent violence, the Iranian government has declared three days of state-mandated mourning.
According to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, the tribute is dedicated to those purportedly slain by ‘urban terrorist criminals’—a designation likely used by the state to describe security personnel killed during the ongoing clashes with protesters.
US President Donald Trump announced a 25-percent tariff on any country doing business with Iran, ramping up pressure as a rights group estimated a crackdown on protests has killed at least 648 people.
Iranian authorities insisted they have regained control after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution ousted the shah.
But rights groups accuse the government of using live fire against protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now lasted more than four days.
International phone calls however have resumed in Iran after being blocked for days, an AFP correspondent in Tehran said on Tuesday, but only outgoing calls could be made.
Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said in a social media post on Monday that the new levies would ‘immediately’ hit the Islamic republic’s trading partners who also do business with the United States.
‘This order is final and conclusive,’ he wrote, without specifying who it will affect.
Iran’s main trading partners are China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, according to economic database Trading Economics.
In power since 1989 and now 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.
‘When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,’ said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a trip to India. ‘I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.’
Analysts however have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership has, including the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which are charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.
‘These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands,’ Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.
She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to ‘the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus’.
