Iran escalates threats against protesters as demonstrations continue

Protests sweeping across Iran neared the two-week mark on Saturday, with the country’s government acknowledging the ongoing demonstrations despite an intensifying crackdown and as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. But the death toll in the protests has grown to at least 65 people, and more than 2,300 others have been detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Iranian state TV is reporting on security force casualties while portraying control over the nation.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signalled a coming clampdown, despite U.S. warnings. Tehran escalated its threats on Saturday, with Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, warning that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.

The statement, carried by Iranian state television, said even those who “helped rioters” would face the charge.

“Prosecutors must carefully and without delay, by issuing indictments, prepare the grounds for the trial and decisive confrontation with those who, by betraying the nation and creating insecurity, seek foreign domination over the country,” the statement read. “Proceedings must be conducted without leniency, compassion or indulgence.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on social media platform X in support of the Iranian people.

“The United States supports the brave people of Iran,” Rubio wrote. The State Department separately warned: “Do not play games with President [Donald] Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.”

Saturday marks the start of the workweek in Iran, but many schools and universities reportedly held online classes, Iranian state TV reported. Internal Iranian government websites are believed to be functioning.

State TV repeatedly played a driving, martial orchestral arrangement from the Epic of Khorramshahr by Iranian composer Majid Entezami, while showing pro-government demonstrations.

The song, aired repeatedly during the 12-day war launched by Israel, honours Iran’s 1982 liberation of the city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war. It has also been used in videos of women cutting away their hair to protest the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.

“Field reports indicate that peace prevailed in most cities of the country at night,” a state TV anchor reported. “After a number of armed terrorists attacked public places and set fire to people’s private property last night, there was no news of any gathering or chaos in Tehran and most provinces last night."

That was directly contradicted by an online video verified by The Associated Press that showed demonstrations in northern Tehran’s Saadat Abad area, with what appeared to be thousands on the street.

“Death to Khamenei!” a man chanted.

The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guards and one of the few media outlets able to publish to the outside world, released surveillance camera footage of what it said came from demonstrations in Isfahan.