Iran’s Khamenei likens protests to ‘coup’, warns of regional war

TEHRAN - Iran’s Supreme Leader on Feb 1 likened recent anti-government protests to a “coup”, warning that any US attack on the Islamic republic following Washington’s military deployments in the Middle East would trigger a regional war.

The Iranian authorities’ deadly response to the protests sparked threats of intervention from US President Donald Trump, who dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the region.

“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, telling Iranians they “should not be scared” of Mr Trump’s rhetoric.

The demonstrations in Iran began as an expression of discontent at the high cost of living, but grew into a mass anti-government movement that the country’s leaders have described as “riots” fomented by the United States and Israel.

“They (rioters) attacked the police, government centres, IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) centres, banks and mosques, and burned the Quran... It was like a coup,” Mr Khamenei said, adding that “the coup was suppressed”.

Tehran has acknowledged more than 3,000 deaths during the protests, but insists that most were members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, attributing the violence to “terrorist acts”.

Rights groups and foreign governments have accused Iran and its IRGC of killing thousands of protesters.

The response prompted the European Union to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation, with Iranian lawmakers retaliating on Feb 1 by slapping the same designation on European armies.

Lawmakers wore the green uniform of the IRGC in a display of solidarity at the legislative session, where they chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel” and “Shame on you, Europe”, state television footage showed.

Slamming the bloc’s “irresponsible action”, speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that under “Article 7 of the Law on Countermeasures Against the Declaration of the IRGC as a Terrorist Organisation, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups”.

It remained unclear what immediate impact the decision would have.

The law was first passed in 2019, when the US classified the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

The session on Feb 1 was held on the 47th anniversary of the return from exile of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic republic in 1979.

The IRGC is the ideological arm of Iran’s military, tasked with safeguarding the Islamic revolution from external and internal threats.

The EU agreed on Jan 29 to list the guards as a “terrorist organisation” over the response to the protests. This matched similar moves by the US, Canada and Australia.

Mr Ghalibaf said the decision had “accelerated Europe’s path to becoming irrelevant in the future world order”, adding it had only increased domestic support for the guards.

Threats and dialogue

Iran and the US have been trading warnings and threats of potential military action, even as their leaders appear to leave the door open for negotiations.

Ms Firouzeh, a 43-year-old homemaker who declined to give her full name, said the recent tensions had left her “very worried and scared”.

“Lately, all I do is watch the news until I fall asleep. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to check the updates.”

IRGC official Ahmad Vahidi was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying “enemies” sought to create a “war atmosphere”. “This is part of their psychological operations. Therefore we should not fall into this trap,” Mr Vahidi said.

The ultra-conservative Kayhan daily ran the headline “West Asia, Iran’s home and America’s graveyard”, while Mehr said several thousand graves in Tehran were ready to receive the remains of American soldiers if the US attacked.

But Mr Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Jan 31: “Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing.”

Mr Trump also confirmed that dialogue was taking place, but without withdrawing his earlier threats, adding “we’ll see what happens”.

The President previously said he believed Iran would make a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face military action. Tehran, meanwhile, has said it is ready for nuclear talks if its missile and defence capabilities are not on the agenda.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Jan 31 that “a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region”, during a call with his Egyptian counterpart, according to his office.

The Qatari premier, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al, who also serves as foreign minister, held talks in Iran on Jan 31 to try to “de-escalate tensions”, the kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said. AFP