Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a series of defiant statements as tensions between Tehran and Washington intensify over the former’s crackdown on nationwide protests.
On December 28, amid inflation and a currency collapse, protests erupted in Tehran before spreading across the country. A violent crackdown ensued, resulting in hundreds of deaths, according to journalists and advocacy groups. As the protests gained momentum and international attention, Iranian authorities imposed an internet and telecommunications blackout, cutting citizens off from the outside world. Khamenei and other Iranian leaders have accused the US of fomenting civil unrest.
In a statement posted to his official website on Sunday, the Supreme Leader praised pro-government rallies as a rebuke to the US. “These massive gatherings, overflowing with firm determination, nullified the plot of foreign enemies that was supposed to be carried out by internal hirelings,” Khamenei wrote. “This was a warning to American politicians to stop their deceitfulness and not rely on traitorous hirelings. The Iranian nation is strong and powerful; it is aware and knows its enemy; and it is present on the scene at all times.”
The rhetoric from the Iranian leadership has grown sharper as US President Donald Trump has publicly weighed military intervention in response to the crackdown.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf has warned of attacks on US bases and military targets if Washington intervenes. “In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory [meaning Israel] and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets… We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat,” he said in comments carried by The Hill.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday said his country was ready for war, but also open to negotiations. “We are not looking for war, but we are prepared for war… We are also ready for negotiations, but negotiations that are fair, with equal rights and mutual respect,” Araghchi said, as quoted by The New York Times.
The escalating rhetoric comes amid heightened concerns about US military intervention abroad. On January 3, US forces launched airstrikes on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro in an operation the Trump administration characterized as law enforcement action against narcoterrorism. The intervention—the most significant US military action in Latin America since the 1989 invasion of Panama—drew widespread international condemnation, with UN experts calling it “a grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law.” Critics, including Democratic senators and human rights organizations, warned that the operation set a dangerous precedent.
Against this backdrop, Iranian leaders appear to be calibrating their response to Trump’s threats, signaling both military readiness and openness to diplomacy.
