Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused President Donald Trump of “arrogantly” judging the world in a series of social media posts, as protests continue across Iran.
“The U.S. president who judges arrogantly about the whole world should know that tyrants and arrogant rulers of the world, such as Pharaoh, Nimrod, Mohammad Reza (Pahlavi) and other such rulers saw their downfall when they were at the peak of their hubris,” Khamenei wrote on Jan. 9.
“He too will fall,” the ayatollah wrote.
Khamenei’s remarks came a week after Trump stated that the United States would intervene if Iranian authorities used lethal force against demonstrators.
“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump wrote. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”
In a second social media post the same day, Khamenei accused Trump of attempting to interfere in Iran’s internal affairs.
“The U.S. President has said that if the Iranian government does such-and-such, I’ll take the side of the rioters,” he wrote.
“The rioters have put their hopes in him,” Khamenei added. “If he’s so capable, he should manage his own country.”
Demonstrations have spread in multiple Iranian cities, fueled by public anger over the economy, corruption and restrictions on religious and political freedoms. Videos emerging from Iran show security forces responding with arrests and force.
Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah of Iran, called for Trump’s “immediate” attention, stating that protesters were “facing down live bullets” amid “a total communications blackout.”
“You have proven and I know you are a man of peace and a man of your word,” Pahlavi wrote, urging the president to “be prepared to intervene to help the people of Iran.”
