Protesters set fire to various government buildings and state television stations in violent protests that spread to more than 100 cities in 31 provinces on Thursday. Protesters chanted slogans including "Death to dictatorship" and "Death to Khamenei." Thousands of people protested against the government in major cities across the country overnight on Thursday.
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks said Iranian authorities completely shut down internet connections late Thursday night. The group said early Friday that the country had been offline for 12 hours in an attempt to quell widespread protests.
The protests are seen as one of the biggest challenges in the four-and-a-half-decade history of the Islamic Republic of Iran; protesters have openly demanded an end to theocratic rule.
But in his first comments on the growing protests since January 3, Khamenei has made his stance clear. In a speech broadcast on state television, he called the protesters "destroyers" and "saboteurs."
Khamenei said US President Donald Trump's hands were "stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians". He said the US supported Israel's June war and itself took part in the attacks. He predicted that the arrogant US leader would be "overthrown" like the imperialist dynasty that ruled Iran before the 1979 revolution.
In a speech to supporters, Iran's supreme leader said that last night some saboteurs came to Tehran and destroyed a building. They did this to please the US president. At that time, many in the audience chanted "Death to America."
He said, "Everyone knows that the Islamic Republic came to power at the cost of the blood of hundreds of thousands of honorable people; they will not retreat in the face of saboteurs."
Meanwhile, late Thursday night, Trump said there was an incredible enthusiasm to overthrow the Iranian regime. He warned Iran's ruling elite, saying, "If the Iranian authorities kill protesters, we will hit them very hard. We are ready."
A video of the protest shows a large crowd gathering on a section of Ayatollah Kashani Boulevard in Tehran late Thursday night, with car horns honking in support of the protesters.
Protesters could be heard chanting "Death to dictatorship," a reference to the 86-year-old Khamenei, who has ruled the Islamic Republic since 1989.
In other videos, thousands of people protested in various cities, including Tabriz in the north of the country, the holy city of Mashhad in the east, and Kermanshah, the regional capital in the Kurdish-dominated west.
Some videos showed the entrance to the regional office of state television in the central city of Isfahan being set on fire, but the authenticity of the videos could not immediately be verified, the French news agency AFP reported.
Another video showed the governor's building on fire after protesters gathered in the city of Shazandeh, the capital of Markazi province in central Iran.
Protesters said Thursday's late-night protests were the largest in Iran since the nationwide protests of 2022-2023. The protests were sparked three years ago by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was detained for violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code.
International human rights groups have alleged that authorities have opened fire on protesters during the ongoing protests, killing at least 45 people. However, the latest video from Tehran does not show security forces cracking down on protesters.
Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of the Shah of Iran, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, called for large protests on Thursday. He also called for a renewed show of force in the streets on Friday.
In a new video message early Friday, Pahlavi said Thursday's rally showed how a large crowd can force a repressive force to retreat. He called for larger protests on Friday, saying the gatherings must be made even bigger so that the regime's repressive power is further weakened.
Source: AFP.
