Days after protests erupted across Iran, Donald Trump interjected with a warning to the Islamic republic’s leaders. If the regime killed those taking to the streets, he said, the US was “locked and loaded” and ready to come to the protesters’ “rescue”. The president repeated the threat after his extraordinary military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The images of Iran’s main Latin American ally being seized and shackled in a night-time assault should have proved to the Islamic republic’s leaders that Trump’s threats cannot be taken lightly. They underscore the Iranian regime’s precarious state as it faces intensifying external and domestic pressures. Iran should heed Trump’s warnings, not use force to crush the protests and work to address the legitimate concerns of its people.
The republic has been gripped by angst and uncertainty since Israel launched its devastating 12-day war against Iran in June, and the US joined the attack to bomb nuclear facilities. And Israel is probably not finished. At that time, Iranians, shocked by a foreign assault, rallied around the flag, not out of support for the regime but because of a sense of nationalism and patriotism.