Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday addressed the mounting unrest in the Islamic Republic, saying, “Protesting is legitimate, but protesting is different from rioting.
“We talk with protesters. The officials must talk with the protesters. But, there’s no point in talking with a rioter. Rioters must be put in their place,” the Iranian dictator wrote on X.
Protesting is legitimate, but protesting is different from rioting. We talk with protesters. The officials must talk with the protesters. But, there’s no point in talking with a rioter. Rioters must be put in their place.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) January 3, 2026
His tweet was an apparent response to a threat issued the previous day by U.S. President Donald Trump.
If “Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters,” Washington will “come to their rescue,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that the U.S. is “locked and loaded and ready to go.”
Demonstrations triggered by Iran’s plunging currency and soaring inflation, the largest in three years, have widened nationwide and turned deadly as security forces clash with protesters.
Senior Iranian officials are warning of a fierce response if Trump follows through on his threat to intervene should Tehran use lethal force against demonstrators.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz tweeted on Saturday, “The Iranian regime’s whining to the U.N. ignores decades of sponsoring terrorism and crushing their own people.”
America and Trump “stand firmly with Iranians yearning for freedom!” he added.
The Iranian regime’s whining to the UN ignores decades of sponsoring terrorism & crushing their own people.
— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) January 3, 2026
America & @Potus stand firmly with Iranians yearning for freedom! 🇺🇸 https://t.co/bVCRBGnqyy
Waltz referred to a letter that Tehran submitted to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, protesting Trump’s threat as a “violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.”
The letter urged the Security Council to condemn Washington’s statements, claiming that the Islamic Republic will “exercise its rights decisively and proportionately.”
At least 10 people have been killed in the protests, according to the Associated Press.
Khamenei delivered remarks to an audience in Tehran on Saturday, aired on state television, in which he drew a distinction between protesters concerned about the fall of the rial currency and “rioters,” AP reported.
He echoed conspiracy theories that foreign powers were behind the nationwide demonstrations.
“A bunch of people incited or hired by the enemy are getting behind the tradesmen and shopkeepers and chanting slogans against Islam, Iran and the Islamic Republic. This is what matters most,” AP cited Khamenei as saying.
In 2022, large-scale protests were triggered in Iran by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly waring her headscarf incorrectly.
