Washington DC: US President Donald Trump issued a warning to Iran against executing protesters. Encouraging the protesters, the US President said that the “help is on its way”. He also said that the US would take “very strong action” if Tehran started hanging protesters to death.
“The message is they’ve (Iranian government) got to show humanity,” Trump said. “They’ve got a big problem. And I hope they’re not going to be killing people,” he added.
The comments came after Trump earlier in the day announced he was cutting off the prospect of talks with Iranian officials amid a protest crackdown, telling Iranian citizens “help is on its way.”
Trump’s statement came on the day when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regime is planning to execute a 26-year-old protester, Erfan Soltani, on Wednesday (January 14). It is reportedly the first hanging of the anti-Khamenei protesters.
Meanwhile, Iran also hit back at the US President. Senior Iranian official Ali Larijani called Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “killers” of the Iranian people.
Soltani, a resident of Fardis in the Karaj suburb of Tehran, was arrested on January 8. Reports have also surfaced that Soltani was denied basic human rights in the prison where he is currently being kept. The Khamenei regime is using force against the protesters to curb the agitation, which started in the last week of December 2025 against the worsening economic conditions of Iran.
According to Human Rights Activists News Agency, since the protests began on Dec 28, 16,700 people have been arrested and more than 2,000 have been killed.
On Tuesday, reports surfaced that some activity was noticed at a US airbase in Qatar. Notably, B-2 bombers and fighter jets are deployed at the airbase. The US president has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force against anti-government protesters.
Trump on Sunday told reporters he believed Iran is “starting to cross” that line.
Over 600 protests have taken place across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported on Tuesday. The activist group said 1,850 of the dead were protesters and 135 were government-affiliated.
