January 11, 2026 | 03:12 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, praised the protesters and the people of Iran who followed them. NDTV reported that he urged the people of Iran to hold more targeted protests on Saturday and Sunday of this week.
The protests have spread to most parts of Iran over the past two weeks, starting in response to soaring inflation. Quickly, the demonstrations turned political. The protesters called for the ruling clerics to step down.
Iran has been hit by mass protests condemning the Islamic republic. Reza Pahlavi, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran, urged protesters on Saturday to "prepare" to seize city centers. "Our goal is no longer merely to come to the streets. The goal is to prepare for seizing the centres of cities and holding them," said Reza Pahlavi, who now resides in the United States.
The Iranian military on Saturday said it would protect strategic infrastructure and public property and urged Iranians to thwart its plans to protest. The clerical regime's efforts to quell the largest protests in the country in several years have intensified.
U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration had issued a clear warning to Tehran not to kill the protesters. Trump warned Iran of consequences if it killed protesters. "And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts," he said.
Trump said on Thursday that he had no intention of meeting Pahlavi. Trump is still waiting to see how the crisis develops before supporting an opposition leader.
In a challenging speech on Friday, Khamenei condemned the rioters. He vowed that the Islamic republic "will not retreat."
The two-week-long protests have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities that have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei denounced the U.S. government and the protesters. According to Khamenei, the protesters were damaging their own streets to please the President of the United States.
At least 62 people have died in protests related to Iran's struggling economy. These protests have become the most significant challenge to the government in recent years.
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi warned on Friday that security forces may be preparing for a massacre as the internet is shut down.
State media said a government building was set ablaze in Karaj, west of Tehran. The media blamed the rioters. State television broadcast footage of the burial of security forces members who they said died in protests in the cities of Shiraz, Qom, and Hamedan.
The elite Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which operates separately from the army, also warned that safeguarding the achievements of the 1979 revolution and the security of the country are "red lines," as reported by state television cited by Al Jazeera.
Read: Hospital Attack Highlights 'Brutality' of Iran Clampdown
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