Iran Vows 'Decisive' Protest Punishment01/09 06:17

   Iran's supreme leader signaled Friday that security forces would crack down 
on protesters, directly challenging U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to 
support those peacefully demonstrating.

   DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran's supreme leader signaled Friday 
that security forces would crack down on protesters, directly challenging U.S. 
President Donald Trump's pledge to support those peacefully demonstrating.

   Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump as having hands 
"stained with the blood of Iranians" as supporters shouted "Death to America!" 
in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later repeatedly 
referred to demonstrators as "terrorists," setting the stage for a violent 
crackdown like those that have followed other nationwide protests in recent 
years.

   Protesters are "ruining their own streets ... in order to please the 
president of the United States," Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in 
Tehran. "Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay 
attention to the state of his own country instead."

   Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that 
punishment for protesters "will be decisive, maximum and without any legal 
leniency."

   There was no immediate response from Washington, though Trump has repeated 
his pledge to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that's taken on 
greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela's 
Nicols Maduro.

   Internet cut off

   Despite Iran's theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and 
international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists 
purported to show protesters chanting against Iran's government around bonfires 
as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into 
Friday morning. Iranian state media alleged "terrorist agents" of the U.S. and 
Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were "casualties," 
without elaborating.

   The full scope of the demonstrations couldn't be immediately determined due 
to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in 
protests that began over Iran's ailing economy and that has morphed into the 
most significant challenge to the government in several years. The protests 
have intensified steadily since beginning Dec. 28.

   The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public 
could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled 
Iran just before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for 
the protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. 
Friday.

   Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that 
could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling 
the protests that began over Iran's ailing economy.

   So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 42 people 
while more than 2,270 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human 
Rights Activists News Agency.

   "What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi's 
calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday," 
said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East 
Policy. "Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered 
and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic 
Republic."

   "This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from 
seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security 
forces to kill protesters."

   Thursday night protests preceded internet shutdown

   When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted 
in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included "Death to the dictator!" and 
"Death to the Islamic Republic!" Others praised the shah, shouting: "This is 
the last battle! Pahlavi will return!" Thousands could be seen on the streets 
before all communication to Iran cut out.

   "Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran 
has cut all lines of communication," Pahlavi said. "It has shut down the 
internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals."

   He went on to call for European leaders to join U.S. President Donald Trump 
in promising to "hold the regime to account."

   "I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources 
available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice 
and their will can be heard and seen," he added. "Do not let the voices of my 
courageous compatriots be silenced."

   Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to 
his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past -- 
particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators 
have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn't clear 
whether that's support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time 
before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

   The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran's state-run and 
semiofficial news agencies offline as well. The state TV acknowledgment at 8 
a.m. Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations.

   State TV claimed the protests saw violence that caused casualties but did 
not elaborate. It also said the protests saw "people's private cars, 
motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on 
fire." State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in 
Hamedan, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Tehran.

   Trump renews threat over protester deaths

   Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions 
tightened and Iran struggled after the 12-day war, its rial currency collapsed 
in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with 
demonstrators chanting against Iran's theocracy.

   It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on 
the demonstrators. Trump warned last week that if Tehran "violently kills 
peaceful protesters," America "will come to their rescue."

   In an interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt aired Thursday, Trump 
reiterated his pledge.

   Iran has "been told very strongly, even more strongly than I'm speaking to 
you right now, that if they do that, they're going to have to pay hell," Trump 
said.

   Trump demurred when asked if he'd meet with Pahlavi.

   "I'm not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that as 
president," Trump said. "I think that we should let everybody go out there, and 
we see who emerges."

   Speaking in an interview with Sean Hannity aired Thursday night on Fox News, 
Trump went as far as to suggest 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali 
Khamenei may be looking to leave Iran.

   "He's looking to go someplace," Trump said. "It's getting very bad."