Iran has been rocked in the last weeks by protests demanding that the revolutionary Islamic regime adopt democratic and human rights reforms.
President Donald Trump has commented on the protests on Twitter.
“Looks like they will not take it any longer,” Trump said. “The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”
On Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blasted for his tweets on the topic and called Trump a foreign policy newcomer. Rouhani said that Iranians have a right to demonstration, but the protests shouldn’t cause others to “feel concerned about their safety.” Rouhani said that Trump has “forgotten that he had called the Iranian people ‘terrorists’ a few months ago.”
Trump said on Twitter, “Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”
Trump said Friday, “Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including the right to express themselves. The world is watching!”
Iranian television is reporting ten deaths inside the Islamic Republic.
Trump said on Sunday, “Iran, the Number One State of Sponsored Terror with numerous violations of Human Rights occurring on an hourly basis, has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!”
Thousands of people have participated in the protests which are the largest since disputed 2009 presidential election.
The deputy governor of the western Lorestan province Habibollah Khojastehpour said in a statement,“On Saturday evening, there was an illegal protest in Dorud and a number of people took to the streets responding to calls from hostile groups, leading to clashes.”
Two people were killed in the Dorud street protests.
Despite the deaths, Khojastehpour claimed that “no shots were fired by the police and security forces” and blamed, “foreign agents” and “enemies of the revolutions.”
College students and other protesters have been protesting the government and the weak economy in Tehran. Hardliners have held their own protest on Saturday in support of the regime.
The media is reporting that six were killed in Twiserkan, in Hamedan province, and three others died in Shahin Shahr, in Esfahan province. One person was killed in Izeh. State agencies are reporting that 400 people have been arrested across Iran in the protests.
A Revolutionary Guard Telegram channel blamed the deaths on, “people armed with hunting and military weapons” who “entered the protests and started shooting randomly toward the crowd and the governor’s building.” According to Sky News, six people were also wounded.
Interior minister Abdolrahman Rahmani Fazli warned Iranians about participating in the protests.
“Those who damage public property, disrupt order and break the law must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price.”
State TV said that Instagram use has been “temporarily limited.”
President Trump during the campaign condemned the nuclear agreement with Iran. As President, however, Trump has left the agreement in place to this point. President Trump said on Friday that he has made a decision on whether to break out of the agreement and re-impose sanctions on Iran or no,; but has declined to announce what he has decided.
Iran was the United States’ closest ally in the Islamic World until the Ayotollah Koumenei led a revolution that toppled the authoritarian, but pro-west Shah in the 1970s while Jimmy Carter was President.
(Original reporting by the Associated Press, Fox News, Al Jazeera News, and Sky News contributed to this report.)
